I have AEFW’s – a true curse of this hobby. Here are my option plans, followed by as much detail as I can bear to describe at this time.
Option 1: Just deal with it in incremental waves, which will surly lead to 100% loss of my acro’s over time. After the inevitable, I can go an extended period without acros, to later rebuild and move forward. In this effort, I bought flatworm Stop (ZEO-VIT) and would (theory) make the corals stronger so they can better withstand the every 5 day out of tank dips for 6-7 weeks. I would cut back all my acros’s to manageable small colonies, losing many years worth of growth in the process. So maybe, just maybe I can dip, inspect, and break the cycle to have some survive. I’m doubtful, the more I read, the more I’m disheartened I become. I think this option would take roughly 1-2 hours a day, for probably 2 months.
Option 2: Set up a complete standalone setup. More than likely have it up and running for at least a week or two before moving all my acro’s. Yea, this initially sounds like cool, get a new tank, but believe me – I’ve never been so turned off by spending money and time towards the hobby. What I hate about this plan is to think how stable, and spot on, a reef needs to be in order to have acro’s survive, let alone fight dips and a parasite to survive while in a new environment, with different flow and lighting. My concern besides the $, is what I would need in order to keep everything stable, and not sure how many hours a day I’d have to add to option 1, to pull this off.
Option 3: was option 1, and it already failed. I dosed garlic (Allicin 6000), in hopes of doing an in tank treatment, with 100% water changes every 5 days. http://wamas.org/forums/topic/33942-lanmans-acropora-eating-flatworm-aefw-thread/ (post 9) 1/2 Tablet/liter of water is what I did – and all the SPS didn’t survive two days in the QT tank. I lost several corals that were already showing major signs of base up STN.
What are AEFW’s, see here. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1730682&highlight=aefw
If you ever bought coral from me, and I haven’t sold any for a few months, be forewarned – I honestly don’t know how long I’ve had this, just don’t know, and I’m sorry if I somehow contributed to this PITA situation for anyone.
Do I dip. Yes, 98% of the time - I can think of only 4 examples where I didn’t dip, and only once it was with acro’s. In the cases I didn’t dip, they were from tanks I know well, and in one case (acro) with someone I respect with a lot of hobby knowledge – about a year ago, still this is 100% on me, no doubt. Do I QT? depends. If getting a lot of coral (DBTC meetings) or only if during visually inspecting the coral does something not look right, I see any eggs, or I find anything dead from the dip (besides pods or other known good things). My QT is a 10 gallon, and like I said in option 2 I worry about the conditions. After this is all said and done, I will have a more extensive QT setup.
What I’ll do for dipping now will most likely be what Smiley describes with Bayer. http://www.marinecolorado.org/forums/showthread.php?15944-Advanced-Dip-for-Reef-Pests&highlight=aefw - I’ve read most who did beat this, and there aren’t many, did so most successfully with Bayer.
//Dave
Option 1: Just deal with it in incremental waves, which will surly lead to 100% loss of my acro’s over time. After the inevitable, I can go an extended period without acros, to later rebuild and move forward. In this effort, I bought flatworm Stop (ZEO-VIT) and would (theory) make the corals stronger so they can better withstand the every 5 day out of tank dips for 6-7 weeks. I would cut back all my acros’s to manageable small colonies, losing many years worth of growth in the process. So maybe, just maybe I can dip, inspect, and break the cycle to have some survive. I’m doubtful, the more I read, the more I’m disheartened I become. I think this option would take roughly 1-2 hours a day, for probably 2 months.
Option 2: Set up a complete standalone setup. More than likely have it up and running for at least a week or two before moving all my acro’s. Yea, this initially sounds like cool, get a new tank, but believe me – I’ve never been so turned off by spending money and time towards the hobby. What I hate about this plan is to think how stable, and spot on, a reef needs to be in order to have acro’s survive, let alone fight dips and a parasite to survive while in a new environment, with different flow and lighting. My concern besides the $, is what I would need in order to keep everything stable, and not sure how many hours a day I’d have to add to option 1, to pull this off.
Option 3: was option 1, and it already failed. I dosed garlic (Allicin 6000), in hopes of doing an in tank treatment, with 100% water changes every 5 days. http://wamas.org/forums/topic/33942-lanmans-acropora-eating-flatworm-aefw-thread/ (post 9) 1/2 Tablet/liter of water is what I did – and all the SPS didn’t survive two days in the QT tank. I lost several corals that were already showing major signs of base up STN.
What are AEFW’s, see here. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1730682&highlight=aefw
If you ever bought coral from me, and I haven’t sold any for a few months, be forewarned – I honestly don’t know how long I’ve had this, just don’t know, and I’m sorry if I somehow contributed to this PITA situation for anyone.
Do I dip. Yes, 98% of the time - I can think of only 4 examples where I didn’t dip, and only once it was with acro’s. In the cases I didn’t dip, they were from tanks I know well, and in one case (acro) with someone I respect with a lot of hobby knowledge – about a year ago, still this is 100% on me, no doubt. Do I QT? depends. If getting a lot of coral (DBTC meetings) or only if during visually inspecting the coral does something not look right, I see any eggs, or I find anything dead from the dip (besides pods or other known good things). My QT is a 10 gallon, and like I said in option 2 I worry about the conditions. After this is all said and done, I will have a more extensive QT setup.
What I’ll do for dipping now will most likely be what Smiley describes with Bayer. http://www.marinecolorado.org/forums/showthread.php?15944-Advanced-Dip-for-Reef-Pests&highlight=aefw - I’ve read most who did beat this, and there aren’t many, did so most successfully with Bayer.
//Dave