Thinking about starting a reef tank again

[Chris-Nicol]

Originally Posted by bribo12

Spirobid worms, harmless

Good to know. Thanks

[Sniperhank]

Yep. Usually see tons of them in early stages of a tanks life.

[Chris-Nicol]

Originally Posted by Sniperhank

Yep. Usually see tons of them in early stages of a tanks life.

That's cool. As long as it's not another set back.

Feels like I'm going through a cycling process. Forgot what it's like to have fish in the tank. Went to my lfs to buy carbon as o am not convinced with the stuff I bought online. I will use it just not while using the FWE. I was tempted to buy a wrasse as I think I read somewhere they may eat some flatworms but I would rather get this issue resolved before adding fish again.

I made a home made filter that attaches onto my syphon so I can just dump the water back into my sump so that I don't use a ton of new water.

Using the syphon for the rest of this week and I am going to use the FWE next week when I'm off.

Hopefully everything goes to plan

[Sniperhank]

A 6 line would probably put a big hurt in the population...but then you'd have a 6 line to care for.

[Chris-Nicol]

I have another question. I am continuing with 2 water changes per week and I have noticed a difference with the hair algae.

However I seem to have bubbles all over the place. It was hard to get a pic but here is one of my rocks.

I also have little tube looking things everywhere which I thought was the pieces of shell from the hermits shredding but it's not as there are a ton of them at hard to get a pic. Any ideas?

[Chris-Nicol]

here is the rock. I will try to take a pic of the tube looking things

[Chris-Nicol]

its not clear

[Chris-Nicol]

After playing about with the lights I got a slightly better picture

[Chris-Nicol]

On another note I got round to using the FWE today. It's been 4 hours since I added it and it didn't take long before the flatworms started going mad. I did syphon out as much as I could see but I noticed a lot more after I added the FWE as the started squirming around panicking.

I added the carbon when they started dying and everything seems to be doing fine. I think I am going to treat the tank again tomorrow and do a water change tomorrow night.

[Chris-Nicol]

A pretty sad update.

I have treated my tank 3 times for flatworms but unfortunately I still have them. Even though the FWE is killing some of them after a day or two they just seem to come back harder.

On top of the flatworms I also have dinos which is taking over my tank. I have tried a blackout period for 72hrs but it never got rid of the dinos. It never made it worse but I couldn't see a huge difference.

Anyway I am going to speak to my LFS and see if I can get credit for my coral and CUC. I am going to start over. I will empty the tank and clean everything before starting again.

Question is what is the best way to clean my rock/sand? If it's easier buying new sand isn't a problem.

Another question is how long do you think I should leave it to ensure the flat worms don't come back? I am assuming they can't live or hatch out of water?

It's pretty frustrating! I wouldn't be bothered so much if I had been neglecting the tank but that's not the case. I have been doing water changes and testing water religiously. Hopefully it was just a string of bad luck and I will have more success when I start again

[Sniperhank]

Could try simply bleaching the rock. As for sand, it takes a lot of effort to clean and many runs to get it done right.

[Marty.h]

I have dealt with both flat worms and dinoflangelates (dino)

For the flat worms suck out as many as you can and have a big waterchange ready and carbon. I dosed quite a bit over the reccomended amount of FWE that slaughtered them.


For the dino.

put the tank into a 72 hour black out cover the tank with a cover only leaving a small amount open at the top for gas exchange. After the 72 hours uncover and start using a product called Dino x use to be called Algae X made by fauna Marin follow the instructions to the letter and you will see your dino's go.

Both I've beaten doing the above and mates of mine have been in the same situation as yourself and done it as I done it and there tanks are now fine.

I also now have a yellow wrasse , cleaner wrasse and mystery wrasse in my tank and I've never seen another platworm since I treated.

Hope you get it sorted but restarting a tank should be the last resort

[Chris-Nicol]

Originally Posted by Marty.h

I have dealt with both flat worms and dinoflangelates (dino)

For the flat worms suck out as many as you can and have a big waterchange ready and carbon. I dosed quite a bit over the reccomended amount of FWE that slaughtered them.


For the dino.

put the tank into a 72 hour black out cover the tank with a cover only leaving a small amount open at the top for gas exchange. After the 72 hours uncover and start using a product called Dino x use to be called Algae X made by fauna Marin follow the instructions to the letter and you will see your dino's go.

Both I've beaten doing the above and mates of mine have been in the same situation as yourself and done it as I done it and there tanks are now fine.

I also now have a yellow wrasse , cleaner wrasse and mystery wrasse in my tank and I've never seen another platworm since I treated.

Hope you get it sorted but restarting a tank should be the last resort

Ok so I have finally been able to get my hands on this Dino X.

I am going to do a water change tomorrow then black out the tank for the 72 hr period. Only thing is I have no idea how much rock I have in my tank. It says on the bottle to calculate my water volume correctly. My system is 95gal. Is it possible to over dose this stuff?

From what I understand I have to dose this stuff every other day? The bottle isn’t too clear.

Is it just a case of keep dosing until there are no dinos left?

Once this is done I plan on buying another bottle of FWE to try that again. I am just going to finish the bottle I have and do a few treatments with the new bottle. I will be overdosing as well as my last attempt to get rid of the flatworms didn’t work.

Any input would be helpful

[Sniperhank]

I’ve never used the stuff, but I’d simply assume you have 1 lbs per gallon in the tank as it is what we always recommend.
I’d suggest googling the directions to ensure there aren’t any user errors.

[Chris-Nicol]

Originally Posted by Sniperhank

I’ve never used the stuff, but I’d simply assume you have 1 lbs per gallon in the tank as it is what we always recommend.
I’d suggest googling the directions to ensure there aren’t any user errors.

Thanks again sniperhank. So if i did have 1lb/gal how much water would be in my 95gal system?

[Marty.h]

I've used it as above it will more then likely kill any shrimp in the tank though.

Instructions here dose every 2 days

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&so...FI8w0c6msDAzNj

I tried to post a screenshot but forum won't allow it

If not Google

Algae X instructions


Algae X is now called Dino X

[Sniperhank]

Originally Posted by Chris-Nicol

Thanks again sniperhank. So if i did have 1lb/gal how much water would be in my 95gal system?

Math is far from my strong suit, let alone how to calculate for displacement. I'd assume there is a calculator out there in internet land somewhere.

[Chris-Nicol]

Originally Posted by Sniperhank

Math is far from my strong suit, let alone how to calculate for displacement. I'd assume there is a calculator out there in internet land somewhere.

Oh right ok. I thought there might have been a rule of thumb calc for rock-water displacement.

Well it says on the instructions for bad outbreaks you can dose more so I will just assume I have lost 15gal of water and dose for 80gal. I don’t have any Fish or shrimp so hopefully my coral make it

[Chris-Nicol]

Originally Posted by Marty.h

I've used it as above it will more then likely kill any shrimp in the tank though.

Instructions here dose every 2 days

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&so...FI8w0c6msDAzNj

I tried to post a screenshot but forum won't allow it

If not Google

Algae X instructions


Algae X is now called Dino X

Thanks again Marty. Hopefully I get all this sorted and get some fish in the tank soon

[Chris-Nicol]

so that’s the tank covered up. There is an air hole almost the full length of the back of the tank for gas exchange. Hopefully this will be enough.

I suppose I will save some money by not lighting the tank. Every cloud haha!

Living room looks strange without the lights from the tank