Finally! In Tank AEFW Treatment Success
- Thread starter Laser Lammons
- Start date
Saltwaternooby
SPS junkie
Well just playing catch up reading, sorry to hear about the recent losses. Would you attribute that too the die off of bacteria or the black bugs?
Laser Lammons
New member
The die off of the bacteria caused tank parameters to shift but that is under control. The black bugs were eating the acros for sure. We have now removed all sps from the tank by chopping up colonies and the frags are doing well after a dip in bayer. We will continue to dip for the next several weeks and keep the tank bare of sps but not sure if that will get rid of the black bugs or not. Hoping the wrasses can get them under control as well so time will tell.
Laser Lammons
New member
Some of the species of black bugs have been shown to infect other species of SPS, not just Acros. I don't know of any species of black bugs that cross the SPS-to-LPS genre.
How's the microscope looking? It's Tuesday evening!I really want to see what these are.
Well the microscope is in...it works... but it did not come with any instructions so after just playing with it for a few minutes I took a couple of crappy shots. Problem is I need the specimen to be flat to lay on the glass and see correcly at the higher magnifications. Unfortunately it did not come with the glass slide so I have now ordered that as well.:headwally:
Laser Lammons
New member
A happy update for once around here. As mentioned we went ahead and removed about 90% of the sps that remained in the main display, fragged effected colonies, and dipped everything in bayer at 2ml/3cups tank water for 30 minutes each. After dips we soaked in tank water outside of tank for another 30 minutes and returned all to sump section where frags are temporarily stored. We left about 9 or so colonies in the tank that were largely untouched through this whole process. We added back to the tank 7 worker wrasses to help naturally with the black bugs.
After about a week now ( and 2 more dips for all sps in frag section) all seem to have totally recovered in the frag tank section and the colonies left in the diplay look better than they have in several months!! Now that I have a microscope I cannot seem to find any more black bugs.
Did they isolate themselves to the sps we removed? Doubtful.. I guess the removal of sps and dipping killed the majority and the leftovers have either been eaten by the wrasses, back to natural levels where they are not a problem, or hiding and not going into killer mode until the army level is back up? We will continue to monitor and report our findings.
After about a week now ( and 2 more dips for all sps in frag section) all seem to have totally recovered in the frag tank section and the colonies left in the diplay look better than they have in several months!! Now that I have a microscope I cannot seem to find any more black bugs.
Did they isolate themselves to the sps we removed? Doubtful.. I guess the removal of sps and dipping killed the majority and the leftovers have either been eaten by the wrasses, back to natural levels where they are not a problem, or hiding and not going into killer mode until the army level is back up? We will continue to monitor and report our findings.
Mrs. Music
New member
Laser Lammons, this has been a fascinating read. Well written, and informative. Thank you for taking the time to share this experience. I know the work you guys are putting into the tank is exhausting, and time consuming. To put the extra time and effort into writing this to share the experience with RC is just extraordinary. So sorry for the tank losses. It is heart rending.
Mrs. Music
New member
I would like to know if you guys tried a product like Seachems Stability during the phase that was positive for ammonia. I ask because prior to using this product with hospital treatment tanks, and with QT, I always had issues.
MechEng99
aka Reef'd Up
oshanickreef
New member
I just read all of this and I'm very intrigued/scared. I am a HUGE believer in using fish to control these issues. I had the regular flatworms for a while and I got a red lined wrasse and the numbers are probably 99% gone. I also used to have redbugs but I'm sure my pipefishes and wrasses have covered it. Now my frag tank/fuge area needs one. I just want to find a tiny one that can adapt to its small home lol.
Thanks for posting this! Any updates as of now?
Thanks for posting this! Any updates as of now?
Acro crabs.
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