Interceptor didn't work

[Phillybean]

Dealing with red bugs, did my first treatment last night. Used a 1/3 of a pill for roughly 110-120 gallons of water. Was able to get some crabs out, but not my peppermint or all the crabs.

About 15 minutes into treatment, my bristle worms spawned. Super weird, have not seen that before with any tank, but after searching for bristle worm spawn I saw that it was fairly normally, chalked it up to coincidence.

This morning, I saw several dead hermits on the sand, but saw several red bugs on my worst affected Acro still crawling around it like normal. My peppermint also made it.

I have been dealing with poor PE for awhile, tried a few different things before I saw what I believe are red bugs, however they are on normal acro's, not deep water/smooth skin. My smooth skin ones seem fine. In hindsight I probably did not mix it enough, but if it killed the much larger hermits it should have killed the red bugs I would think. I have several SPS dying, all starting from the top down and they all have what appear to be red bugs crawling on them.

Any advice on how to proceed? Retreat after a 48 hour window? Treat stronger? Maybe it is something else killing the corals and some other type of "bug" is just moving in on the dead parts? All parameters are normal, with only ALK being a little low (7.5). I thought I had ph issues but my probe was just out of calibration. Getting a little frustrated because this is a new tank but I've never had an issue in the past where I had good growth and color but still have corals dying.

 

[DesertReefT4r]

I beat them using Ivermectin, simliar to Interceptor, and treating in a small QT tank for 3 days 3 times total over several weeks. It will take more than 1 treatment to get them all and you need to remove all egg clusters you can find. Imo removing the corals from the tank is a must to bet the eggs and treat thoroughly. This also saves the inverts in the display. After that I stated dipping all corals in Reef Dip and Ivermectin. The bristle worms spawning was most likely due to them starting to die from the treatment. Watch your ammonia levels, may spike up from the die off.

 

[Piper27]

I never noticed any bristle worms dying from an interceptor treatment. Actually most of the time cleaner shrimp make it and half or more of the peppermints make it. If you dose the interceptor right after shrimp molt they will die much easier in my experience.

Maybe some pictures would help op. They could be black bugs if they are still there. Also some redbugs will stay attached dead on the coral for a day or more until their blown off, is this what you are seeing? Also dying from the top down doesn't seem like redbugs, can you get pics?

 

[reefmutt]

How about today?
Are you still seeing bugs?
Sometimes the medication can take 24 hours to be effective..
If yes, maybe a stronger dose is required..

 

[Radioheadx14]

I think I didn't notice all of them dead until day 2 or 3. I believe I did 2 treatments a week apart and only did minor water change in between (typical 5g/week) and then added carbon a week after second treatment. I have not seen a bug in over a year so I think it was successful.

It might take longer than 24 hours to get them all. Double check your dosage and make sure to run at least one more treatment, if not 2 more.

 

[jda]

I never noticed red bugs on the dead parts of the SPS, just the live. They are really easy to kill with a normal interceptor dose. Are you sure that they are red bugs?