Did anyone read Jeff Kurtz most recent Salt Creep article in TFH magazine? It's all about pests and the argument between using pest control creatures or just letting nature take its course.
And get this! The specific example he used in the article was his own battle planaria. He couldn't find a creatue on the net that naturally controls it, so he kept on with his routine maintenance but sucking up a bit of the worms everytime he does a water change. And you know what, he said that they went away just as quickly as they came!
In his aquarium everything jsut became coated in the worms. But all of a sudden they just stopped and died. He suspects that it was this way because they ran out of nutrients and so no more could live, grow, or reproduce.

Just a tip for everyone. I know Rob battled with planaria for a long time before his tank crashed.

Tropical Fish Hobbyist
The Salt Creep by Jeff Kurtz


Ward

Good information Ward. Thanks for passing it on.

Seems like he is trying to say it would work for anything.....hair algae, etc. Interesting.....not sure if I believe it. Maybe if you don't have anything to feed in the tank, but it seems like if you still are feeding, things would still be getting nutrients?

...But at the same time the population of the pest is increasing too.
The tank recieves the same amount of nutrients each day.

Bacteria increase in number at a very fast rate.
Same amount of nutrients each day. Look at it this way.

Day 1: 10 bacteria 100 nutrients 10 nutrients per bacteria
Day 2: 100 bacteria 100 nutrients 1 nutrient per bacteria
Day 3: 10,000 bacteria 100 nutrients .01 nutrients per bacteria

A similar pattern to this goes on every day until the nutrients can no longer sustain the population, the point at which the infestation crashes.

Ward

The Reef Aquarium Vol. 3, Delbeeck and Sprung recommend using a wrasse known as halichoeres melanurus (Tail Spot Wrasse) to eradicate red flatworms. I am a big advocate of a natural solution to problems. In the event that you can't use mother nature, I would siphon them off. I have been able to keep mine very under control via siphoning, so no need to purchase the wrasse yet.

I've had them. I siphoned only and they died off. Everything will run it's course in time.

When in doubt, use Plutonium 210. Works everytime. :o

Nuke those bad boys!

Along with the rest your house! Yeah, I reckon that'll work!