I think i'm going to be sick...flat worm exit might have just nuked my entire 300G tank.

[Donovan Joannes]

Sorry for your lost. I read somewhere that flatworm releases toxin when threatened or they sense danger (chemical). It could be the reason for the death. I would appreciate any confirmation on this as a friend is having red planaria flatworm infestation in his tank and he is thinking of using fw exit as well.

 

[2Wheelsonly]

Do you think it could have had anything to do with them being recently being returned from having dipped in Bayer and then the Flatworm exit?

No, like I said it was a total death spiral. The monti's looked great and I had them in for two weeks at least before the FWE.

I wish I knew how to test the toxicity of this water; I honestly have no idea how to know if my beneficial bacteria has been wiped out.

 

[2Wheelsonly]

Sorry for your lost. I read somewhere that flatworm releases toxin when threatened or they sense danger (chemical). It could be the reason for the death. I would appreciate any confirmation on this as a friend is having red planaria flatworm infestation in his tank and he is thinking of using fw exit as well.

This is 100% correct information; he needs to be very careful because he most likely will kill livestock in the process. If I could go back in time I would have made a FWE dip and then taken my time to pull every single piece of rock and dip them one at a time while trying to vacuum as much as I could in the sand bed.

 

[Rick.45cal]

No, like I said it was a total death spiral. The monti's looked great and I had them in for two weeks at least before the FWE.

I wish I knew how to test the toxicity of this water; I honestly have no idea how to know if my beneficial bacteria has been wiped out.

You could try feeding the tank some ammonium chloride and see if it lingers in the system for any length of time, that should be a pretty good judge of whether your bacteria are still functioning.

 

[Donovan Joannes]

This is 100% correct information; he needs to be very careful because he most likely will kill livestock in the process. If I could go back in time I would have made a FWE dip and then taken my time to pull every single piece of rock and dip them one at a time while trying to vacuum as much as I could in the sand bed.

Thanks for the info. Will advise him to vacuum as much possible before treating with fw exit.

 

[revhtree]

Man I am so sorry......

 

[Sallie Luther]

My fish are looking all pale, literally lost all color. My corals are all pale brown, not a single bit of color. Every single one of them shriveled up; 70+ SPS corals all look to be dead or so discolored they will take years to color up again.

I am shocked, loss for words at how bad this nuked my tank.

I'm sure my fish will eventually die, I thought I did a good job picking up all the worms and water changing/carbon. Guess not.

Literally sick to my stomach. I think i'm done; tank going down and wall closed up by next weekend done.

 

[Ryengoth]

I've lost so much livestock making mistakes it's painful to think about it. It's done man, and honestly it'll cost you more to bail and sell than to buy some salt and restart without any substrate and all new mechanical filters. You have a chance, now, to redo your setup. I have a bunch of stomas roaming around if you want some for algae control during a restart. I'd offer some of my live rock but it has aiptasia, asterinas, colonistas and life galore on it that some people find offensive.

 

[2Wheelsonly]

I'm debating if I want to suck all the sand out or not. I think I may keep it; not a fan of bare bottom but I do understand it's much easier to deal with!

 

[Ryengoth]

I would remove it, rinse it well several times and let it sun bake for several days before you put it back in.

 

[leptang]

My tank in the past got flatworms, at one point there was one per half inch of the tank. I went to my LFS to buy flatworm exit and a employee of the LFS said vary wise words to me. "Don't use flatworm exit, buy a wrasse and live with it." The six line wrasse did get the flat worm to a vary low population over a half year. I'm glad I did, after seeing this post.

Sorry for your loss

 

[Ryengoth]

I found it easier to restart my 120g with nothing on the bottom except glass. Easier to clean out the food and waste detritus while keeping some cycling critters. Speaking of that you can have this azure demonfish in my sump LOL. Once I got the tank cycled and rock growing I added sand back where I wanted it with a piece of PVC pipe and gave it time to liven up before I added another layer.

 

[Klaw2474]

I also have flatworms, last week I accidentally dosed too much alk (increased from 7.5-10 in one day). The alk spike killed off around 30% of the flatworm population, which had a major affect on the tank. I was chasing alk, when the problem was the toxin released by the flatworms (I never realized they died from the alk spike).

Once I realized what had happened I loaded the tank with as much carbon as I could get. I used up everything I had on hand, and at 9pm I cleared out the local petco. I probably had around 6lb of carbon in my 125g. I also did a 40% water change that night, a 20% water change the next morning/evening. In addition to the water changes the next day, I replaced the carbon.

I ended up losing 3 fish, and most of my corals lost the majority of their color. All the acros were basically bleached, and all but three have made a comeback.

If you haven't done so already, you NEED to load your tank with carbon to remove the toxin and do water changes. It may not be too late. After 1 week many of my corals are already starting to get their color back, it may take a few months but they're still living.

The product did what it's supposed to do, now you NEED to export the toxin.

 

[TCBruce]

Feel your pain bro !

 

[GEP0934]

So Sorry, i hate this!! I had a bad flat worm issue and i got rid of them by siphoning them out and adding a Six lane wrasse and yellow wrasse.

 

[Monkeytank]

Wow, sorry to hear about your loss. I was glad to see you choosing to stick with it as the thread progressed. I had a 220 Gallon crack right down the front and spew water out towards my computer one time. I'm glad I didn't get out then.

 

[Robert Scott]

I also had flatworms in a 500gal mixed reef. Obtained several boxes of Flatworm X in anticipation of treating, was siphoning every week. Decided to add a couple of wrasses and run carbon on a regular basis in case I had a natural die off. Never pulled the trigger on using the treatment, too chicken. The flatworm population is still present but dramatically reduced, barely noticeable and coral don't seem to be impacted. I no longer siphon flatworms...living with it so far and happy.

 

[matthewdvm]

So sorry to hear about this. I crashed my first tank (a 6 gallon nano) with the aftermath of flatworm exit. I had done several doses and thought I could increase the dose, but went too far and must have killed the remaining flatworms, causing a toxic bloom! Lost a huge (relatively speaking) monticap and a couple of forest fire digitata, as well as a number of other things. It was my first tank, and I was gutted.

 

[haleyf1024]

I work at my lfs and it's devastating how many people lose entire tanks. Everything from diseases like Uronema, to flatworms, to power outages, to cleaning the room around the tank with chemicals, to automatic feeders gone wrong while people are on vacation, to someone driving a car through someone's house (and in turn, their tank. Has happened more than once!) We've helped a lot of people get back into it, but many just quite after losing years of work and thousands in livestock. It's a brutal hobby, but rewarding. I hope you get back into it! How are the survivor wrasse and frogspawn? Maybe they will help you mourn and give you a reason to stay...

 

[briancarterkc]

Oh man. I'm feeling for you. I had a similar moment of panic about two months ago...came home to find my heater had cracked, leaching smoke, burned plastic, and who knows what else into the water for hours. I thought the tank was totally cooked. Every coral was bleached, my fish were hiding, sideways, and laboring to breathe.

Two months on the other side, I'll tell you things aren't great, but much less bad than I thought.

First things first. You're going to do massive water changes for the next 72 hours. When you think you've done enough, do a couple more. You're also going to run massive amounts of carbon. Change it every day. Last, you're going to run your skimmer really wet and clean out the cup. Last, last, you're going to wonder when the smell of dead low tide will go away. The answer is probably less than a week.

Don't throw out your sand, discolored coral, etc...not yet anyway. That diversify of life isn't just what eats what, it's what survives what and I bet a lot survived.

I had shriveled LPS, totally bleached SPS, etc. Some didn't make it. If all the tissue had receded, I pulled it. But, for example, I had a monti that I thought was total toast...it was the size of a coffee saucer. After a week I could see that 3/4 of it was done, but the rest colored right back up.

If this is any encouragement, this sad tissueless galaxea has actually completely bounced back, is more colorful, and has grown by about 20% in two months.