Help Identifying what this is (1 Viewer)

[WhySoDavid]

Hi everyone, I've had my tank up and running for about 6 months now and started to see this covering my rocks. Seems to be a nuisance algae, any help identifying what it is would be awesome. You can see it moving with the water flow and it looks like a film over the rocks. Their are also bits of it on my sand that look like the film that covers peanuts (first thing that came to mind haha). Any help would be great, Thanks!

~David

 

[tektite]

If you copy and paste the img code from photobucket, it'll show the image in your post, just fyi.

From the pic on the sand, those are flatworms. Hard to tell from the pic quality, but if its the same things on the rock as on the sand you have a massive flatworm population in your tank.

 

[toefu]

it's flatworms (planaria) in a low flow tank. they can get to epic proportions when in low flow high nutrient tanks. looks like you have a softy tank as well. Be really careful if you flatworm exit your tank, your population is insanely high. flatworms are crazily dangerous, but if they die in mass quantity, they can be quite toxic.

 

[reefer]

I'm not sure how hard if would be to break down your tank and remove everything but if might be your best bet. I feel the same way about the flat worm exit... I do not use chemicals in my tanks mostly because IMO I feel they do more harm that good. my fiancé had a huge flatworm problem in her biocube and what we did was pull everything out and did a freshwater dip. it seemed to stun the flatworms and cause them to fall off of the rock and coral. it's up to you if you want to try it. it's the least evasive method and there are really no harmful drawbacks to it.

 

[Traclly Le Tran]

wow that is a lot of flatworms. hope you can clear that up.

 

[kyle1284]

 

[Jaybird]

You have got to poke that with your finger!

 

[WhySoDavid]

Ouch this turned out to be a lot worse then I thought. Thanks for the help guys, guess I'll be spending the next 2 weeks siphoning out as much as I can before the flatworm exit goes in.

 

[T_A_H_A]

Cool Story bro..........

 

[WhySoDavid]

Hi again! I have been siphoning out these flatworms bi-weekly but continue to have some in my tank. I am planning on actually upgrading my tank today and was wondering if just putting all my corals and live rock in a bucket with some coral rx in between transferring everything over to the new tank. Would this be a good idea? Any tips would be appreciated!

 

[steveb]

or get a Halichoeres melanurus wrasse.

photo credit live aquaria

 

[webster1234]

I haven't had any luck with Coral rx killing them but it does make them mad enough to jump off of your corals and thrash around. I have had better luck using 1.5x the recommended amount of the Coral rx pro and continually blasting each piece of coral with a turkey baster for about 10 minutes. Therefore, you will need to dip each piece one at a time to allow proper attention. Otherwise, they will stay hidden in the cracks and you won't get rid of them.

 

[ReefMaster32787]

I am with SteveB, the melanaris wrasse is a destroyer of flatworms in my experience. Although they could make a horror movie out of your current situation I think that one would greatly improve your odds. Good luck

 

[WhySoDavid]

I've been scared to add any other wrasses in fear of them picking on my tanaka pygmy wrasse. I tried adding a 6 line before, but it bullied my pygmy so I took it out. I also have some flatworm exit but I've never used it. Maybe make a flatworm exit bin and soak everything (rocks and corals) in it then transfer it to the new tank?

 

[steveb]

six lines are turds. period... How big is your tank? I didn't have any other wrasses but my melanruse was never aggressive towards any other fish.

 

[WhySoDavid]

Currently I have a 30g AIO, will be upgrading to a 48g with a 20g sump soon. I guess I will keep my eye out for a melanaris wrasse and continue to just siphon them out every water change.

 

[Stang66GT]

A freshwater dip between tank transfers is very effective against flatworms hidden in the rock. They just completely melt away in RO