Flat worms..... what's the deal?

[Jason]

what's the deal with them? All of the sudden their are about 1,000,000 of them in my tank. nothing seems to be upset about it and everything still looks great, but aren't they supposed to be a pest? If they are pest how do you get rid of them?

[tripper]

My understanding is that the clear flatworms are not a problem but the red ones can attack corals. If you have a lot of them in your tank you can get Flatworm Exit and kill them all. Just be careful using that product because the flatworms release a toxin when they die so you need to be ready to run some GAC and do a water change after getting all the flatworms out. HTH

tripper

[Jason]

cool, thanks!

[SquishyFish]

The Flat worm Exit works very well. Or, you could get a Melanaris Wrass...they eat the little buggars.

[seaham358]

I would use a syphon and suck out as many as them as you can before you use the FWE, that many dying can foul a tank if not careful. How big is that tank? Suck them off the LR, sand glass. And as there dying after you use the FWE I would suck them up, leaving a lower number behind to foul the tank.
Make water and be ready for a water change if things go bad.

[Jason]

It's a 20 gallon.

[revhtree]

Exactly like everyone said use Flatworm exit. Suck all you can out first, then dose and get them out quick. It took me 3 doses....the whole bottle to clear them out of my tank. All is well.

Here is a good article about this: http://www.melevsreef.com/flatworms.html