Best method to eliminate all bugs from display?

[xenon]

I have a friend that has a reef tank and never quarantined her corals.

With that said, she has bugs (red bugs, flatworms, etc..) and wants to take out all her corals, place them in QT to eliminate them all.

She does have a sponge pre-seeded with bacteria that was in her sump that she can use in her HOB filter for QT.

How long should the display be without corals before she can put them back? How long do these bugs last without a host?

 

[Ostentum]

Just taking them out of the display and putting them into a qt system isn't going to get rid of the bugs on the corals. Both of those bugs have about a 21 day life cycle. There are full tank treatment options for both. Levisole chloride for the flatworms and spectrum or interceptor for the red bugs. You can also dip them regularly once in the qt to get rid of he bugs. But if they keep laying eggs it's an endless cycle

 

[xenon]

Just taking them out of the display and putting them into a qt system isn't going to get rid of the bugs on the corals. Both of those bugs have about a 21 day life cycle. There are full tank treatment options for both. Levisole chloride for the flatworms and spectrum or interceptor for the red bugs. You can also dip them regularly once in the qt to get rid of he bugs. But if they keep laying eggs it's an endless cycle

That's exactly it. Eggs are the main concern at this point.

She will need to dip the corals in QT and do full display tank treatments every cycle of hatched eggs.

How often do they hatch?

 

[xenon]

Also, would a sponge in a HOB filter be good enough to prevent ammonia while all the corals are in QT?

 

[footballdude2k3]

The HOB would be fine for coral, not sure how often the eggs hatch, but the people that I know that have had this happen, keep the QT going for 6 weeks, and do a dip once per week

 

[chrismhaase]

Does anyone use a soft tooth brush to try and knock off the eggs? Just a thought in the midst of tips. Maybe even get a magnifying head set like a dentist uses to help locate problems easier. This one for an example is only $6. http://www.amazon.com/213A0-Dual-Le...qid=1402849561&sr=8-3&keywords=head+magnifier

 

[Av8bluewater]

Does anyone use a soft tooth brush to try and knock off the eggs? Just a thought in the midst of tips. Maybe even get a magnifying head set like a dentist uses to help locate problems easier. This one for an example is only $6. http://www.amazon.com/213A0-Dual-Le...qid=1402849561&sr=8-3&keywords=head+magnifier

It depends on where they are. I have a handheld magnifier and can still only guess that I'm looking at eggs. The one I see in close up photos are taken with a macro lens that is still far more zoomed in that I can see with a magnifier.
Then it depends on where there eggs are on the coral. I just had to frag up a red dragon because the dead spots where they were probably laying eggs were just too hard to get to.
I like the headset idea though.