Flatworm Exit Killed My Tank

[Tom2334]

Well I used Flatworm Exit for the first time on my 300gal reef. I was very nervous about using it so I decided to go light on the dosage.

6:00 AM added 1/2 the dosage for my size tank. Shut off Ozonizer and U.V. light

6:30 AM Noticed Flatworms getting erritated in the tank

8:00 AM Started a 30% water change.

8:30 AM Added Carbon and Turned on Ozonizer and Steralizer. Noticed All Corals and Fish looked very stressed out.

9:00 AM Finished with Tank and went to work

3:30PM Tank had film and Slim floating all over the place. All fish laying around and looking really stressed. All Urchins and Snails Dead in Tank.

4:00 PM Started moving corals to hospital tank. Tried to remove fish but no luck to much live rock..Changed another 75gallons from tank.

6:00 PM Fish looking alittle better but tank still looks cloudy.

Next Day:::

6:00 AM All fish in tank except Clowns and Manderin Goby are Dead. All Soft Corals and 2 Anenomies are dead. Bubble Coral and Hammer Coral Dead. About 6 Frags Dead. Ever mushroom in the tank gone. List of Fish Dead

10" Vlaming Tang had for 3years
3 Yellow Tangs
1 Xlrg Purple Tang
1 Red Sea Sailfin Tang
LawnMover Blenny
Blue Spotted jawfish
Marine Betta


Not Sure what the hell happened. Did I do something wrong? If not I would never recommend this Product to anyone. Either way I will never use this product again

Tom

[onefin]

Wow, i'm so sorry for your loss, i never had to use the product.

[ReeferMac]

The flatworms contain a toxin (which is why not many things eat them). When they die, this toxin gets released. What likely killed off your tank, was the die off of all the flatworms, and the release of toxins from them.
This has happened to many people before you, don't feel bad. You need to siphon as many of the flatworms out while you are treating the tank, to try and eliminate as much as possible.
I've never used the product myself, but have heard your story more than once. Sorry man.

- Mac

[deansreef]

that is terrible. sorry about your loss

[Tom2334]

Thats the thing I know that they release the toxin and that is why I siphoned 100gallons or so less then 2hrs after using the product. I cleaned off all the live rock and the sand and had the tank clear off all flatworms after that.. Not sure how much more I needed to do. The instructions say a 20% water change may be neccessary after dosage of this. In one day I changed almost 50% of the tank and still everything died.. That is why I am so ****ed about it..

Thanks for the support everyone..

Tom

[MiddletonMark]

I feel for your loss.

Mac explained it well, and I thought the instructions on the product suggested keeping the tank under observation for 6 hours after treatment and being ready to water change as needed.

That said, I still feel for your loss. It's a terrible thing to have happen.

[pembroke]

Tom, I feel your pain. I lost five fish and several corals after treating my 120 gallon with flatworm exit. At the time I thought I did a good job of getting every last visible flatworm out of the tank before beginning treatment (including blowing them out of rocks). I had the instructions memorized, carbon, enough prep water to replace the entire tank (and then some), buckets everywhere, food, drink ... I was ready for anything.

I was in hour 7 of my tankside vigil when my four year old yellow tang nose-dived into the sand bed. All of a sudden the rest of my fish started doing the toxic waltz. While working furiously through another water change, four other fish followed the tang's lead and were dead within minutes. Snails fell off the glass, polyps started closing, and pods started floating into the water column. With the exception of one clown, two hermits, and a few corals, everything was dead within 15 minutes.

In retrospect, I would have taken all of the live rock out of the tank and treated the tank and rock separately. I am guessing that there were more worms hiding somewhere and their die off caught up with me at the end of the day. Or maybe it was a reef karma backlash for that little song and dance I was doing while I watched the flatworms writhe in agony.

To be clear, I am not blasting flatworm exit. It did its job and seems to have helped more far people than it has hurt. If I add another coral or rock to this tank again, I will be dousing it with the stuff before it goes within 20' of my house!

Here's to a quick recovery to your reef!

[Tom2334]

Yeah I am not 100% sure on the instructions but I do remember them stating that you would not have to do more then a 20% water change. I was ready for more and did plenty more then the 20% recommended on the instruction but it looks like maybe I had not done it fast enough. There was a 2hr gap in between adding the chemical and the first 30% change then there was another 7hr gap until I did another 20% change which as I look at it now it was probably to late by then.

Tom

Thanks for all the support guys..

One more question. How long until it is safe to start up again? Does anyone have any ideas of what to put in first? Does anyone have anything nice they want to get rid of??

[reverai]

I would waited for a day off before I did something this major. The tank likely needed some major water changes a few hours after you left. I hope some of your corals come as they often do when something happens.

Good Luck...
Steve

[sealife]

you're supposed to run carbon immediately after seeing the worms start to die. When I used it they started to die within minutes, so I'd say I turned on the canister filter packed with carbon only, about 10 -15 minutes after dosing. I didn't have a bad experience and I think as long as you READ the directions BEFORE using it, you shouldn't have a problem. Sorry, take a womans advice and try reading directions first

[sealife]

sorry for that, that was my smart-*** wife...sorry for your loss

[ReeferMac]

Ouch man. I can see why you drive a truck.

- Mac

[Tom2334]

Sealife thats fine no problem. I know how wifes can be thats why I have an EX.. I did READ all the directions and I had Carbon in the sump and followed the directions to perfection. As I recall the directions were very simple and didn't go into explanation of the possibilities of how it would affect your tank and what to do in case of this. All I know is they said to add carbon and you MAY have to do a 20% water change. I followed the directions and went above and beyond them but when it all comes down to it I should have spent more time monitoring the tank and doing more water changes sooner..

Thanks everyone. Even Sealifes wife

[timmcq]

Does anyone have a picture of a flat worm?

[kmu]

I also had a bad experience with Flatworm exit,first removed all visible flatworms from the tank... did about 60% water change and carbon, lost my percula, all my mushrooms, and all the corals got stressed, 3 weeks later the corals are slowly getting back...

The key to remove all toxins from the water is lots of carbon, the instructions say a 1lbs. of carbon per 60g. I think I used half the recomended carbon, thats what killed my livestock...

Next time I will use twice the carbon recommended...?

[TGBrown]

Sorry for your loss.

I'm wondering why on person's experience is so different from anothers. In my case, I siphoned off all visible flatworms before treating (took over two hours), then treated with the recommended dose. After about 20 minutes, I noticed flatworms dying, and I put the activated carbon in, and at the same time used another 1/2 dose. I let the tank sit for another 20 minutes, and could find no live flatworms, so I then did a 10% water change, let the carbon run for 24 hours, then removed the carbon. That was a little over one month ago, and today I'm still flatworm free and had no casualties.

[coralite]

Man this flatworm exit is starting to sound like a russian roulette. I was considering dosing an old 180 reef with a moderate infection but I think i will hold off until ya'll work out the kinks.

Tom, I also have a footlonf vlamingi, grown from 2" and I love that fish to death. When I read that your 10 incher went down man I realy felt that. You have my deepest simpathy for the loss of your vlamingi. Know that I will be very careful in my approach to treating for FW if I do and that your mistake will be applied to my tank. Sorry Tom.

[Aquabucket]

Sorry for your losses!

I guess what I can learn from this is to run wads of carbon at first sign of the worms squirming and syphon as many of the squirmers I can.

[thedude]

Coralite,
The problem isn't the flatworm exit. It's the toxins released by the worms.

I've used the product several times and the fish, corals in my tank didn't even notice it was in there. Once I left it in overnight to be sure all the little worms were dead. Didn't even bother the pods, they were zinging around all night as usual.

Having said that, I didn't have a large number of flatworms in my tank. As soon as I spotted one worm I jumped on it. So, the amount of toxin released was minimal. I think the problems occur with a large die off of the worms and then the toxins hitting the tank.

The number of worms can be hard to discover because they are so small and many can hide in the LR, etc. So, while it looks like you have siphoned off a lot, many are still in the LR and then die when the FE is put in the tank.

So, the product is doing exactly what it should, we just need to come up with a good way to minimize the toxins.
-------
Tom2344,
Sorry for your loss. I can only imagine the frustration. Just a suggestion, but once you have rid yourself of the nastly little critters, you might consider doing a flatworm exit dip on new corals.

[ProPs]

tom sorry for your loss
just a quick question before treatment were you using carbon at all before? wonder if your tank got shocked with the amount of carbon you put into th etank?

thanks

[tonypal85]

Sorry for your loss. My uncle just used flatworm exit on his 55gallon tank without any problems. He siphoned out as many as he could before dosing flatwork exit. Then about 20 minutes after dosing they all started going crazy and died immediately. He continued to siphon as many dead flatworms as possible. Did a 50% water change, and then ran carbon. Everything has been fine so far after one week.

[Speckled Grouper]

I used the FW Exit on my 180g about 2 month ago, followed the directions to the Tee, especially siphoned the dead ones out until my arm hurt....
The only visible sign was my mushrooms shriveling up for a few days, but they where back within a week.
The flatworms are back, not too noticeable, but they are back.... I have since gotten two Leopard Wrasses which keep very strange hours, so I can't tell yet whether they are eating them or not.
If it becomes necessary, I will dose with FW Exit again without hesitation.

[marm64]

I had a lot of flatworms in my tank so I took out all the corals and got the fish out and drained out most of the water and then added FWE and let it run overnight. I did also dip all the corals and rock I took out in a 5 gallon bucket with FWE. I did loose a lot of pods and stuff but noting on the other livestock. I did notice a few days later that the flatworms were back in the tank so did a double dose and did not have any problems since there were not that many.

Sorry for you bad experience.

[coralite]

Yo thedude, Thanks, I read thethread.
I am very well aware that thedieoffs are from thetoxins that theworms release when theydie.

[Snarkys]

sounds like the key is to use the product soon as you notice any problem at all . dont wait till there are a billion flatworms in the tank .