polarbear Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 So once I move into my new house, I will be getting my 29 gallon tank back from my brother. I have treated some of the corals for flat worms before but never the whole tank. I figured this would be the best time to do this. I know to dip all corals before putting them in my tank but i didnt do this before. I was going to do this during the move before adding the corals back into the tank. What should I do regarding the rock? Should I dip them also? If not, what is good to add to the tank that won't hurt the fish and corals? Thanks for your time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
offroadodge Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 nothing 2 do with rock, buy a fish or 2. DIPDIPDIP...but realy IDK 4sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 You can dip your rocks and coral in Coral Rx Pro. I have done this several times and havn't had any problems at all, I usually use 1.5 strength to make sure all of the bugs let go. I put 5 gallons of water in a 10 gallon tank and treat with Coral RX and then dip the rocks and coral for at least 5 min and 10 min at the most. Make sure that you place a power head inside the tank and at the end of the dip cycle I use a turkey baster to blast out all of the potential hiding places. Once you take the coral/rock out of the dip inspect the bottom of the tank for any pests, if you see them you may want to wait 24 hrs and then dip again to see if more come off. If you have planaria you can use flatworm exit to get rid of them and do an in tank treatment with fish and corals. Red bugs can also be treated in the tank and are nearly impossible to remove by just dipping the coral. I wouldn't be surprised that at least 50% of all reef tanks with sps have red bugs (unless they treat for them). They are so small and don't do that much damage usually and are really hard to spot. I just got through with an interceptor treatment on my tank and it went perfectly, I used 1/2 the recommeneded dosage and didn't lose a single invertabrate and all of the redbugs have dissapeared for now. I would really recommend that you treat the new tank with interceptor, you can use a normal dosage if you don't have shrimp and crabs in there yet. If I were you I would dip the rocks and corals with Coral RX Pro and place them in the new tank. Wait a couple of weeks and treat the tank with interceptor, wait a couple of weeks and do the flat worm exit (which I have never done before). This should make your new tank bug free and as long as you dip each coral with 1.5 strength coral pro rx for 5-10 min and then dip for 6 hrs with interceptor when it arrrives...and then once a week for a month with Coral RX again to check for any pests that may hatch from eggs that survived the dip...you have a pretty good chance of eliminating incoming pests. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polarbear Posted January 23, 2011 Author Share Posted January 23, 2011 Regarding your first paragraph, after I dip everything will it be ok to put the rocks straight back into the tank along with fish and corals? I've never used the dip before and wan to make sure it's not going to be soaked up by the rocks then release to much back into the tank Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joshdmartin Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 i have a big reef tank with a lil of everything and i just last week used flat worm exit. i didnt kill anything as far as my inverts fish or coral goes but i spent about 2 hours syphoning with a piece of air tubing to get as many flat worms out of system as possible thats the trick!! i will repeat again this week I should of dipped from the beginning!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 I have flatworms too. They are annoying. I'm going to dip all my stuff when I redo my rocks this week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polarbear Posted January 23, 2011 Author Share Posted January 23, 2011 Are you going to dip your rocks as well? I know I keep asking this but I want to make sure that when I get ready to dip I don't make a mistake and kill the rock or something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 Yes you can put the rocks right back in to the tank. The only reason why flatworm exit is a little risky is becuase when the worms die they release a toxin that can wipe out a tank if there is enough of it. That is why its important to remove as many flatworms from the tank as possible before you ever treat the tank, if if its a heavy infestation I would think twice about using it. At least have a large water change ready to use afterwards to help get rid of the toxins. I actually do a water change the day before a treatment and I save that water and keep it at the correct tank temperature. I then treat the tank and when recommended I do the water change using conditioned water from the tank instead. My theory is that if the treatment is stressfull to the tank you don't want to add anymore stress by putting in unconditioned fresh saltwater, especially lots of it. You can even do (2) 1/4 tank water changes a few days before treatment so that on the day of treatment you can do a 50% water change without stressing the tank. I think for a heavy infestation of flatworms I would dip as much as I could, then siphon them out, and then do the flatworm exit with a large water change shortly after treatment. I had a heavy infestation of planaria (flatworms) several months ago and I debated using the flatworm exit and ended up talking myself out of it. Shortly after the planaria dissapeared, its hard for me to find 1 anymore. I think that this had to do with removing the food they were eating. I had changed up the flow in the tank and had dialed in my skimmer flow in properly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polarbear Posted January 23, 2011 Author Share Posted January 23, 2011 I will have to take pictures of the ones that I have if I can still find any. I think they are the same one that you had. So all you did was change/add more flow and use your skimmer? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 From what I gathered from talking with other reefers is that new tanks go through a planaria bloom (if they are ever introduced) but usually drop down to less annoying levels. My bloom was from about 3 months old to about 6 months old. I noticed them lined up along the base of my rocks where they meet the sand. I'm assuming there was dietritus there and that is what they were feeding on. I added scooter blennys and I actually saw them eat the flatworms but there were thousands of them, they were no match for the worms. I'm 90% sure it was getting the flow going in the tank and dialing in my skimmer using a flow meter that reduced the levels. My skimmer was only getting about 1/2 of the flow that it should have had. A couple weeks later the planaria seemed to disappear over a few days, probably starving to death without the build up of food around the rocks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polarbear Posted January 23, 2011 Author Share Posted January 23, 2011 Good to know. I'll add more flow once I get my tank back. Thanks for your help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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