Need some help with Flatworms from fellow reefers

[Drunkn_Reefr]

Need a little advice from a more experienced reefer. I have a Red Sea reefer 250. I have a very hard time admitting that this tank has been running since November of last year and I’m just getting coral in the tank.

After several issues with starting up the tank I threw in a couple of large pieces of mature rock from another tank in. That did the trick with getting the tank on track, or so I thought.

After adding a couple “easy” sps and a couple lps frags I’ve noticed that I have very small white flat worms. I googled how to handle them and it looks like most threads are stating that they are “harmless” for lack of a better term. Harmless might be a bad choice of words but they are not acro eating flatworms.

Want to see what some of you more experienced reefers think. Has anyone dealt with them ? I really don’t want to dose the tank with flatworm exit if I don’t have to. It’s been such a long road getting this tank on its feet. I did purchase a possum wrasse and it looks it’s spending a lot of time picking at the back glass but I’d need like twenty of them to handle the flat worm population. I’m also looking for a yellow wrasse but haven’t found one yet. I can add a picture but they are very small white flatworms. Your advice would be welcomed.

 

[MadReefer]

I was going to say a wrasse will take care of them over time. However, sounds like have an extreme amount so maybe you need to use flatworm exit unfortunately.

 

[Drunkn_Reefr]

Yeah, Unfortunately, thinking the same thing. I'm just wondering if the small white ones actually do any damage.

 

[ecam]

Becareful with flatworm exit with that level of infestation they do release toxins and a mass die off could lead to bad situation

 

[MadReefer]

Other option is manual removal with a turkey baster or similar while the wrasse does its job.

 

[ole farny]

i've done the manual removal and added a wrasse to get rid of them before and it works. manually really helps knock down the numbers and the a wrasse like melanurus or six-line will help finish the job. just used a piece of hard acrylic tubing at the tip of an airline hose and started a siphon into a filter sock or fine media bag to catch the worms, then the siphoned off water can just go back in the tank.

 

[mwil79]

White are ghost flatworms and tend to come and go. The bad ones are Red Planaria which can become a massive problem. I would just cut back on feedings a bit and not only a wrasse but a few springer damsels will do the trick.

 

[Drunkn_Reefr]

Thank you all for the advise. I am going to hold off on the flatworm exit for now and try a combination of fish and manual removal and see how it goes. I'll give an update in a month or so.