Well I fell stupid, about 2 months ago I decided to see how high is to high for my phosphate levels in my sps dominant reef. It got up to about .40ppm about a month ago and I noticed some STN on the base of a 12"x12" Colony of Cali Tort so I thought ok I found that .40 is obviously too high. All my other corals were fine but this one didn't like it. So I Added a small amount of GFO and brought it down to 0 over the past month but no matter what I did I couldn't get the Cali Tort to stop STN and about A week ago I noticed my Colony of Rommels Watermelon Mill Started to STN at the base!!!!! Pulled both colonies off the rocks and brought them to the glass for further inspection and I found clutches of AEFW eggs in the crevices and below both Colonies. I also managed to pull this guy of the Tort.View attachment 21605 So I Pulled every single sps coral from my tank, (which sucked btw as all were encrusted) and dipped in Bayer solution Had a plethora of flatworms fall off, scrubbed each coral with a tooth brush to remove any eggs I can see, cut out all dead spots on corals and removed from the tank. This will be my life for the next 8 weeks....... I dip every coral before it enters my tank and inspect but must have missed a few eggs or something not sure where they came from..... Just venting...Thanks!
Ugh....AEFW!
- Thread starter RuNvS
- Start date
EricTheRed
No, I'm not a communist..
I feel you pain, learned my lesson the hard way too.
I went through this last year. I did the same thing and dipped weekly for eight weeks. A month later AFEWS .
Tried it three more times, same thing. I then took all acros out of display , into quarentine tank . I made sure chip all encrusted acros from rock. Left them in quarantine for 8 weeks dipping weekly. I didn't see anything last 4 weeks dipping. They went back in display . Few weeks go by more AEFWs .
Back in quarentine again 8 more weeks . No bugs after 2 weeks. 6 weeks later, back in display. They have been back in since early May. No AEFWs since. I did lose 40 out of my 50 colonies.
Hope it works better for you.
Good luck.
Tried it three more times, same thing. I then took all acros out of display , into quarentine tank . I made sure chip all encrusted acros from rock. Left them in quarantine for 8 weeks dipping weekly. I didn't see anything last 4 weeks dipping. They went back in display . Few weeks go by more AEFWs .
Back in quarentine again 8 more weeks . No bugs after 2 weeks. 6 weeks later, back in display. They have been back in since early May. No AEFWs since. I did lose 40 out of my 50 colonies.
Hope it works better for you.
Good luck.
Not sure- I heard Radiance Wrasses might but the only sure fire way I have found is to remove and dip.
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I cut them all from the rock work and tried to scrape any remaining coral from the rock in the process.
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Ouch this sounds dreadful- I sure hope It goes better i can tell the corals hated that first removal and dip as a few have browned out from the stress.
Luckily I only have a 65 gallon display but it take me about 3 hours to remove everything dip, rinse and place back in tank. So yes it is time consuming for sure, but hopefully the losses are minimal and over time everything will recover- It sure beats throwing everything away and starting over.
Saltwater77
Member
I had aefw in my 125 gallon sps tank. I was foolish last December and January and purchased over 100 frags from 2 high end retailers and 1 local hobbyist, needless to say I acquired aefw. I had about 20 previous colonies in the tank prior to adding the new frags. Luckily nothing was mounted to live rock so I didn't have the added chore of removing colonies from rockwork. Anyways I battled them for probably a total of 12 weeks. I started by removing frags and colonies one by one and using bayer and or coral rx pro and turkey basting. I could tell after the second week of doing this my sps were getting stressed. So I said to myself stop with the chemicals all that I needed to do was turkey baste everything well every week outside of the tank. I did this process every week sometimes twice a week for a 12 week period and it did take for ever but I can honestly say that I eradicated the aefw and I didn't loose one frag or colony. If you are diligent and determined you can beat the dreaded aefw with minimal to no loss of your coral. Its the dips that kill your coral not the aefw. I also used koralin zucht flatworm stop and coral booster for the entire process. To this day I'm aefw free!!