My First Salt Water Tank 29 Gallon!!!

[Bifferwine]

Yep, those are definitely flatworms. They are toxic... So get rid of them now before they have a chance to spread even more. If you wait to get rid of them, they could kill everything else in your tank (when they die, they release their toxins into the water).

In the future, you'll need to be careful about adding new corals. Where did you get those mushrooms from? Since the flatworms seem to be clustered on the shrooms, they likely came with the mushrooms, wherever you got them. If you got those mushrooms from a store, you may want to find a different store to shop at, since flatworms are a very dangerous pest to have in a reef tank... And stores should NOT be selling livestock infested with flatworms. In any case, doing a freshwater or coral dip on new corals will keep the flatworms out of your tank.

So for now, go buy some Flatworm Exit (because they're probably not isolated to just your shrooms any more, unfortunately), treat the whole tank, follow the directions carefully when doing so, and have a lot of water ready to do water changes as soon as you are done with the treatment. Also have a very fine net or powerhead hooked up to a tube with mesh at the end ready to suck up all the dead flatworms as soon as they are released into the water column. The trick is to pick up as many of the dead bodies as you can, so that their bodies don't poison your water.

 

[Patrick76]

Ok i will do that this weekend. Wont be off till then. Freshwater dip? Just dip them into freshwater?

 

[dcantucson]

Information on FW dip.
Good luck with them.

Nano-Reef.com Forums > Will a freshwater dip kill flatworms?

 

[dskirtech]

Ummmmm Uhhhh....yea... No Flatworms for me please... Sounds like a VERY rough critter to battle...

 

[yote]

The brown spots?

Yeah,The brown spots on those mushrooms are flatworms.

Flatworms can smother your corals and some even eat the corals.
They also release toxins when they die,when can and will cause the entire tank to crash.

 

[Patrick76]

Got rid of the flatworms yeah!!!

 

[dcantucson]

Got rid of the flatworms yeah!!!

Good job! Congratulations. :^::^:

 

[Piggy]

Got rid of the flatworms yeah!!!

That's what I thought until a few days ago. Keep an eye for more.

 

[Patrick76]

Haven't seen anymore yet.

Which do you think is better bak pak hob skimmers or octupus skimmer? Also my lfs said that i should keep my canister filter also to keep my tank water clear. Do i need a canister also or can i just run a skimmer on my tank?

 

[Ted]

I like my bak pack 2 havent tried a octupus. I get a 1/4 cup of dark green skimmate every few days. However in my opion it is a little noisy kinda sounds like a large fan all the time. Comes from the air intake. Also i got the bbx (surface skimmer bubble trap combo) I still get a few micro bubbles from it not many just a few. I also run a canister filter for carbon however I do clean it weekly if you dont can be a trate factory. I dont rember if you have a sump or not, if you do I wouldnt bother with a canister. :D

 

[Patrick76]

Dont have a sump. Do you run both all the time?

 

[Ted]

Yes 24/7 I dont have a sump either. My canister has a built in uv i run the uv in 12 hour cycle. Dont realy know why I do that but it just feels right.

 

[Patrick76]

So if i clean the canister every week i should be fine?

 

[Ted]

Thats what I do. just run a sponge and carbon. I have two sponges rotate them weekly. Change out half the carbon weekly. Seems to work for me. You will get alot of people on here will tell you never run a canister only run a sump. That may be fine for them they have the room for a sump and maybe a bigger budget then I do. It all realy depends on how much you do maint. wise. I like working on my tank it calms me to do something with my fish. Like I have said before guess im a fish geek I like doing maint. :D

 

[Patrick76]

Ok im still confused. Some people tell me i need a canister filter and a skimmer. Some tell me all i need is a hob filter. Some tell me hob filter and skimmer. Some tell me all i need is a skimmer. What is the best for my 29 gallon tank'/?

 

[Bifferwine]

Octopus skimmers are one of THE BEST HOB skimmers on the market right now. BakPaks are in the "pretty much suck" column. Octopus beats BakPak by a mile.

You do not need an HOB or canister filter if you have a skimmer. In fact, using an HOB or canister filter can worsen your water quality, as they tend to lead to high nitrate levels.

For a 29 gallon tank, you should be good to go with an Octopus skimmer and 1 to 2 lbs of live rock per gallon (live rock is your biological filtration source). You can use the canister filter for one or two days a month to run carbon, but I wouldn't use it continuously for anything.

 

[Patrick76]

Is it worth buying the BH100F over the BH100 were i can use carbon in it every now and then or really not needed?

 

[dcantucson]

Ok im still confused. Some people tell me i need a canister filter and a skimmer. Some tell me all i need is a hob filter. Some tell me hob filter and skimmer. Some tell me all i need is a skimmer. What is the best for my 29 gallon tank'/?

Join the crowd! I'm wondering why they even sell canisters if they are so bad?

 

[Bifferwine]

Is it worth buying the BH100F over the BH100 were i can use carbon in it every now and then or really not needed?

If you already have some sort of HOB or canister filter, then it's not really worth it to get the extra compartment in the skimmer, IMO. You can just run carbon using the equipment that you already have. But if you don't have something else already, go for it.

 

[Patrick76]

Also i went to a new lfs store today and they told me, that some of the coral that i wanted to get i need a new light. Right now i have a current usa 130 watt light compact kind. What kind to i need he said i needed metal halide.