Flatworms and other issues

[medicern]

Hello RSers,
My tank is now about a year old. I've had some ups and downs, but have been generally happy with my aquarium thus far. I've been doing WC regularly and the water chemistry seems to be quite constant. My biggest issue has always been keeping my substrate clean. It's always covered with slime or cyano or the like. It seems that as soon as I scoop out the dirty substrate within a day or two it's back in all of its ugly blanket like glory. Add to that, Friday night I was having dinner with my buddy who was telling me about his current fight with flatworms. After dinner I went to his house to see the tank, and when he showed me what a flatworm was, my heart sank. What I naively thought was some type of nuisance algea growing on my LR was indeed flatworms. A quick study of my tank that night shows that apparently I have a flatworm farm going. This is where I need help.
I'm in college and in two weeks I will be off for a month. I would like to try and get my tank back on track. How does this sound for a plan?

Siphon out some tank water and place my three fish, clown, royal gramma and YWG and my skunk shrimp in a 10 gallon tank for a few hours while I:
1. remove all LR and dunk them in a Rubbermaid tote of SW treated with FW exit. I think this will allow me to avoid having all of the toxins in my DT. Then a second SW dip to serve as a rinse.
2. Remove all the substrate and choose to either go bare bottom, or since I have a bucket of previously removed substrate, I could bake it off (though I don't know how) and start with fresh clean substrate.
3. Then I'll put my fish back in the DT.

Once things had settled down, I would do another FWE treatment to finish them off.

My aquarium and sump is do for a major cleaning so I'd like to spend a few hours doing this maintenance and knock it all out at once.
So, to the vast body of knowledge that is Reef Sanctuary, I ask, does this seems reasonable?

 

[redneckgearhead]

While it might work, I'm not sure you need to go to all that trouble. FWE exit works, you might need to treat more than once though. I have fought FW and won. First thing is get as many out as you can. I used 1/4" plastic air line with the end cut at a 45 degree angle and siphoned them out during water changes. As well as putting a piece of pantyhose on the end of the tubing and putting that end in my sump to siphon them out when I didn't want to do a water change. Once you are certain you have as many FW out of your system as you can get out. Treat with the FWE, and put as many powerheads in your tank as you have on hand. If you do not have extras I would recommend getting some. You want the FWE to get in every crack and crevice you can get it into. Once you start seeing the FW dieing use that air line tubing to siphon out the dieing ones, into a bucket. Add a fresh bag of carbon AFTER the treatment has worked for 15-20 minutes. Wait a couple weeks and do again. I did this and lost no inhabitants in my tank and am FW free.
Other methods include adding a wrasse, I have read that some have success with them against various pests, including FW.

As far as the cyano goes, I'm not sure your solution would work. Is your sand really fine? How much flow do you have in the tank now? How old is your lighting and what type is it? I think flow and lighting are going to be the key components for it. But as a disclaimer I have never battled it. Good luck.

 

[medicern]

Thanks for the reply, Scott.
I do have an extra power head that I could put in the tank to increase the flow substantially. Maybe I'll just try to the siphoning thing first and see how many I can get out. I just worry about the toxicity of killing them all and the potential detriment to my tank. I suppose if I use the siphoning method for a while first and get as many out as I can see I can limit the toxins.
As for the substrate, which is crushed coral (aragonite). I started the tank with it fairly deep, but have been taking some out with each WC so it's pretty shallow in the front of the tank.. However, it seems as though the substrate is relatively clean besides what is right across the front to the tank (naturally the most visible). Perhaps if I bake off the stuff I have taken out and make it deeper, I can eliminate some of the trouble by fostering anaerobic bacterial growth? Does that seem plausible? Could/should I add a DSB to the sump? In the chamber with my macro I could easily add that.
My lights are 4 bulb T5 10000K and Actinic, the bulbs are about 6 months old.

 

[DesertOrchid]

Increased flow is the best way to fight cyano ( I had a big problem with that too for a awhile and added 2 more smaller power heads to keep a flow going across the sand without stirring it up so much). Being aware of how much you are feeding your fish will help to keep the phosphates and nitrates in check too. What are your water params?? Good Luck with the extermination of the flatworms.

 

[PSU4ME]

Do a 3 day blackout on your tank and call me in the morning.....haha but seriously, the blackout works for cyano and it won't harm your corals.