another interceptor/redbug ? thread

[aquaph8]

After reading everything I can find on the subject I have decided to do treatment in a QT rather than in my DT. From what I have read, after 5-6 days of my corals being in a QT during treatment and observation, my display should be free of red bugs. I will be doing my treatment in a seperate tank to reduce loss of pods and because it would be almost impossible to remove all shrimp and such. My questions are:

What lighting would be sufficient for this 5-6 day period?

Im also kind of sketchy on what corals should go through the interceptor treatment. I know all acro's will be treated but what about monti's and hydnopora?

Also any tips or info about experiences during a treatment outside the DT would be of great help. Like I said I have read a lot of info on the subject but not a lot of info on treating outside the display.
Thanks

 

[pwoller]

If you don't treat the display won't the corals just get infected when you put them back in.

 

[aquaph8]

From my research, red bugs dont live long with out acros. So if you take them out the red bugs will die off.

 

[Dejavu]

You really only need to treat your acro's.

 

[aquaph8]

Thanks Dejavu,
Thats what I thought but I didn't want to go through the whole ordeal and leave something in there that I shouldn't have. Any tips on lighting during the process? Is 5 days long enough to insure the DT is clear in your opinion?

 

[buy_baff]

I think I would leave them out for 2 weeks just to be sure. If your tank is anything like mine it would be next to imposable to get all traces of acropora out. Such as small broken tips that get nocked off to the bottum, stuff encrusted on the rocks etc... I would just treat the tank and take the shrrimp loss if it were me.

 

[aquaph8]

I have an over abundance of brittle stars that im scared of killing off too. That would be quite a bit of die off especially while not running a skimmer. I wouldn't mind QTing for a while longer though.

 

[offroadodge]

wow...its just such a big risk of treatn them in QT and lets just say there is 1-5 left in the tank then 7-9mnths goes by and boom there back again. When i did my DT i took about a month and removed all the CUC and snails. Couldnt catch my fire shrimp or harlequin so i just left them in. PODS were no big deal cause there cheap. Redbugs will hide everywhere. Then i treated the system with 1/2 pill 3 times over 3wks. everytime changing the carbon and packing as much in there as i could. The shrimp made it threw fine and everything was well again. There are some thoughts that RBs can be transfered back to tank from CUC so guess what They got the AX as well. Purchased new crew. I didnt have any algae bloom problems from pod die off at all. Its been almost 9mnths and no algae prob at all. Maybe this will help from what i did. I just didnt wanna hv to do it twice. treat oonce and take care of the problem once. Now when i get anything new It gets put in QT for 2wk with a 15 gallon tank and 1/2 pill of interceptor with flatworm X and iodine. If it dies there it dies there and not in my DT.

 

[aquaph8]

wow...its just such a big risk of treatn them in QT and lets just say there is 1-5 left in the tank then 7-9mnths goes by and boom there back again. When i did my DT i took about a month and removed all the CUC and snails. Couldnt catch my fire shrimp or harlequin so i just left them in. PODS were no big deal cause there cheap. Redbugs will hide everywhere. Then i treated the system with 1/2 pill 3 times over 3wks. everytime changing the carbon and packing as much in there as i could. The shrimp made it threw fine and everything was well again. There are some thoughts that RBs can be transfered back to tank from CUC so guess what They got the AX as well. Purchased new crew. I didnt have any algae bloom problems from pod die off at all. Its been almost 9mnths and no algae prob at all. Maybe this will help from what i did. I just didnt wanna hv to do it twice. treat oonce and take care of the problem once. Now when i get anything new It gets put in QT for 2wk with a 15 gallon tank and 1/2 pill of interceptor with flatworm X and iodine. If it dies there it dies there and not in my DT.

Thank you for your experience. Im gonna get all the info I can and think about it for a while.

 

[offroadodge]

thats cool, there wont be much of a chng in levels as long as every treatment u replace the carbon and pack as much as u can back in. I ran my skimmer inbetween treatments, but i took it out everytime and cleaned the whole thing. The day i did the treatments i started at like 6pm one night and when i woke up i did water chng and added carbon. I waited one day and then turned skimmer back on, yes it will go crazy but i just turned it dwn a bit. The next weekend i did the same thing all over for a total of 3 times. After the 1st treatment i didnt see anymore RBs but still stuck with 3 treatns.

 

[aquaph8]

Did you notice a big response from your acros after the red bugs were gone.

 

[offroadodge]

hell ya, u wont believe the polyp extension and return of the vibrant colors. My avatar pic is my bubblegum milli and its a REAL pic under all the light not retouched or color shifting to try and get it to look that away

 

[saltygeek]

It didnt kill my brittle stars, so I wouldnt worry about that. I just took my hermits and crabs out. By the time the three treatments are done, any red bugs carried over to a QT would die with out acros. If you go your routeI would leave the acros out for at least 10 days. I figure if the life span of a red bug is like 5 days, I would wait at least 10. If a red bug pops out some babies on day 5 than they could maybe live for 5 more days. Not sure if this is likely or not but thats what I figure just to be safe.

 

[offroadodge]

ya, who realy knows where they can live, thats Y when i did my whole system EVERYTHING got cleaned after the last treatment with a 2hr dip in vinigar water. I guess i was being paranoid but i hv seen with my own 2 eyes a beautiful tank hv RBs and the guy used INTRc just like it was supposed to but 4get to clean out the skimmer and in 6mnths the RBs had come back, F--G crazy how they can be so hardy.

 

[aquaph8]

It didnt kill my brittle stars, so I wouldnt worry about that. I just took my hermits and crabs out. By the time the three treatments are done, any red bugs carried over to a QT would die with out acros. If you go your routeI would leave the acros out for at least 10 days. I figure if the life span of a red bug is like 5 days, I would wait at least 10. If a red bug pops out some babies on day 5 than they could maybe live for 5 more days. Not sure if this is likely or not but thats what I figure just to be safe.

Thats good to know. Thanks for sharing man.

 

[aquaph8]

One more ? What did you guys use to measure out the dosage? Did you find a scale or did you kinda guess on the dosage?

 

[aquaph8]

Found some interceptor today. Still trying to decide if I want to treat the whole tank or not. Also if anyone can answer the question in the previous post that would help a lot. Please share your tips experiences and anything that might be useful.
Thanks

 

[saltygeek]

I cut the pill into portions and crushed them. I overdosed just to be sure.

 

[offroadodge]

i to took the pill with a nice new razor blade and cut in half, it cuts nice usually. the if u want the dose smaller cut in half again. When i did my 120 i used half a pil per treatment with no ill effects. It just kills faster, the corals had no sign of stress.

 

[aquaph8]

i to took the pill with a nice new razor blade and cut in half, it cuts nice usually. the if u want the dose smaller cut in half again. When i did my 120 i used half a pil per treatment with no ill effects. It just kills faster, the corals had no sign of stress.

Thanks man. Im just waiting for the weekend now. I decided to treat the whole tank just to be safe. Im kinda nervous but pretty confident that all will go well. Im waiting on some DI resin from BRS, so I can have plenty of salt water ready. I guess I will let you all know how it goes. In the mean time if anyone has any tips or info its really appreciated.
Thanks