My humble SPS journey - Shallow 80g

[joshky]

Went to a local frag swap today and picked up a Hawkins Echinata frag, Red Dragon frag, Oregon Tort frag, and Jason Fox Red Hot Setosa frag. After I got home I tore them off their frag plugs, and then dipped them in 10ml to 1 cup of bayer solution for 10 minutes. After the dip and rinse I inspected them and found out the Red Dragon had red bugs... great! I quickly turned my observational 20g QT into a temporary SPS QT, after a quick water change and building a ghetto frag rack out of egg crate it was ready. I'm hoping for the best but scared for the smooth skins as they went through a lot of stress today. I guess my plan of attack is to continue dipping in bayer until I no longer see red bugs, or should I try to get my hands on interceptor?


I apologize for the crappy picture quality, here are the acros in QT right now. Setosa was from a different vendor and it looked okay so it's in my tank.


What was sold to me as Hawkins Echinata

Red Dragon

Oregon Tort

 

[Wrangy]

Just the female unfortunately, I love the males, maybe she will change for me hehe.

Here's a teaser photo for you, I should have more tomorrow.

haha maybe, stick a picture of a pin-up girl on the side of the tank and hopefully she'll go male to impress :lolspin:

That tang is a stunner!

Two more photos

She is stunning even if she's not a male! Genicanthus sp. are hands down some of the best fish out there!


The scape looks really awesome mate, can't wait to see some acro filling in those rocks, you're off to a good start with those frags thoug!

 

[joshky]

haha maybe, stick a picture of a pin-up girl on the side of the tank and hopefully she'll go male to impress :lolspin:

That tang is a stunner!


She is stunning even if she's not a male! Genicanthus sp. are hands down some of the best fish out there!


The scape looks really awesome mate, can't wait to see some acro filling in those rocks, you're off to a good start with those frags thoug!

I agree, she is beautiful either way. I have been thinking she started to transition to male as you can see in the photo she has extra lines on her forehead. From photos I've seen, females usually only have one line. I haven't noticed anymore pattern change for weeks though so I'm starting to think she won't fully transition. I might grab a smaller female in the future, we shall see.

Thanks, I appreciate it. These frags have been through a lot, so I know they are pretty hardy. I'm hoping as I get things stabilized I can bring some unrealized colors out of some of them. It will be fun to watch them morph as a couple of them have been brown since acquisition so who knows what'll happen. (if it ever happens )

 

[markalot]

Hi Josh,

the first two pictures above look like Red Dragon, Hawkins would be green or blue but never red in my opinion.

I like the tort, nice and blue, I would love to have one.

 

[joshky]

Hi Josh,

the first two pictures above look like Red Dragon, Hawkins would be green or blue but never red in my opinion.

I like the tort, nice and blue, I would love to have one.

I don't know what the first one is, the tips are purple but the rest is pretty much brown. The photos really don't capture the colors correctly, I was too busy yesterday and taking photos was not high on my priority but I didn't want to update without a few. I took the sellers word that it was hawkins, but I had my reservations even at the swap. That particular acro was only $25 so either way I feel fine about the purchase (other than the red bugs). Any pointers on how to effectively QT and treat these guys for red bugs?

 

[TheReeferer]

Noticed you had PVC plumbing in one pic and vynl tubing in another. Did you have to change?

 

[joshky]

Noticed you had PVC plumbing in one pic and vynl tubing in another. Did you have to change?

Yes, sorry about that, I meant to do an update on that so I'll try to get an updated photo when I get home today for documentation purposes. My schedule 40 had a few leaks, not sure what went wrong but needless to say I just moved on and went with the tubing. I sort of regret my choice but I was tired of pushing things off and didn't want to mess with all of the measuring and gluing etc. anymore.

 

[reefmutt]

Nice frags, Josh.
Yeah, that first one looks more like a dragon than a Hawkins..
I have seen red bugs make it past a full 10ml/cup Bayer dip.. Red bugs are tricky in dips because they can hide inside the polyp of the coral..

Best bet would be a longer dip.. Just a theory but a longer dip may allow the coral to start extending its polyps, this may expose the bugs to the Bayer... And get your hands on some interceptor as a back up..

 

[joshky]

Something that I meant to revisit and never did was my plumbing. After getting it all put together and doing my leak test I had a few minor leaks, I was kind of on a schedule and didn't have the time nor the money to put into more schedule 40 pieces and accessories to try and fix it. I ended up going with the soft threaded PVC which overall I think looks okay, just not what I really wanted to do.

Also my 6 months worth of Prodibio Biodigest and Bioptim came in today, I went ahead and did the first dose of both of them which was 1 vial of Biodigest and 2 vials of Bioptim. I will be doing that every 15 days for the next 6 months and possibly longer depending on how I feel around the 6 month mark.

And last but not least I visited a local veterinary clinic today and put in an order for interceptor, they had to do it through their online pharmacy as they didn't have any in stock so I'm hoping to hear back from the online pharmacy soon to complete the order and get it shipped in. I figured this would be the safest route and if I ever need it again I should have plenty.

 

[joshky]

Nice frags, Josh.
Yeah, that first one looks more like a dragon than a Hawkins..
I have seen red bugs make it past a full 10ml/cup Bayer dip.. Red bugs are tricky in dips because they can hide inside the polyp of the coral..

Best bet would be a longer dip.. Just a theory but a longer dip may allow the coral to start extending its polyps, this may expose the bugs to the Bayer... And get your hands on some interceptor as a back up..

It may be, if it is that's fine. After I get them in the DT I'll let the smaller one color up and grow a bit more and then I'll just sell it.

I'm in the process of getting some interceptor so that part is covered. :thumbsup:

 

[fishresponse]

Josh - do you have dogs? Asking because in my experience a vet won't prescribe you interceptor for the purpose of corals. If not, that's cool and glad to hear vets reaching out beyond their norm.

 

[joshky]

Josh - do you have dogs? Asking because in my experience a vet won't prescribe you interceptor for the purpose of corals. If not, that's cool and glad to hear vets reaching out beyond their norm.

They prescribed it and didn't really ask any questions, I brought in some printed pages for them to read and they didn't even seem interested. I don't currently have any dogs, no, so I didn't lie or anything. I was surprised that it went so well, just waiting at this point to actually have my hands on it..

 

[sahin]

Nice frags. Shame about the Redbugs. They are easy to kill off with Interceptor. I QT and then Interceptor bath all frags in 4x strength Interceptor before frags go into my display.

I'm not sure if that Hawkins is Hawkins...but the Oregon Tort looks great!

Good job on the Prodibio. If the system works as well as it did for me, you probably wouldnt need to dose it longer than 6 months. Keep an eye on nutrient levels; if they drop off too much then feed the tank a bit more.

 

[Big E]

I'm curious why the Bayer didn't kill the red bugs. I was always under the impression that it did. I use the same level of dip & duration on new frags.

Sahin,

What's your 4x interceptor dip time duration?

 

[markalot]

My blue stag came with redbugs. I didn't see them during the initial Bayer dip but once in the tank I spotted one next to a polyp so out it came for a second stronger dip. It browned, but the red bugs were killed. The one I saw may have been dead already but I didn't take any chances. This was a year ago and no further treatments were done, and no red bugs.

 

[jroovers]

Interceptor works great on the red bugs, and should have 0 risk or effects on your SPS. Be very very careful with Bayer dips on smooth skinned corals (Hawkins, RD), they typically don't tolerate dips well and can go up in smoke in an instant - I would avoid dipping those ones in particular in the Bayer and stick to the Interceptor, which works great.

 

[joshky]

Nice frags. Shame about the Redbugs. They are easy to kill off with Interceptor. I QT and then Interceptor bath all frags in 4x strength Interceptor before frags go into my display.

I'm not sure if that Hawkins is Hawkins...but the Oregon Tort looks great!

Good job on the Prodibio. If the system works as well as it did for me, you probably wouldnt need to dose it longer than 6 months. Keep an eye on nutrient levels; if they drop off too much then feed the tank a bit more.

Thanks! I will for sure keep an eye on the nutrient levels.

I'm curious why the Bayer didn't kill the red bugs. I was always under the impression that it did. I use the same level of dip & duration on new frags.

Sahin,

What's your 4x interceptor dip time duration?

Perhaps they were dead, but they were on the acro so I wasn't taking a chance. Further inspections have not yielded any red bug sightings, it's really hard for me not to just do another bayer dip and throw them in the DT but I know I need to be patient.

Interceptor works great on the red bugs, and should have 0 risk or effects on your SPS. Be very very careful with Bayer dips on smooth skinned corals (Hawkins, RD), they typically don't tolerate dips well and can go up in smoke in an instant - I would avoid dipping those ones in particular in the Bayer and stick to the Interceptor, which works great.

Yeah I've read plenty of horror stories when it came to dipping them, thanks for the heads up.

 

[joshky]

Small photo update for you guys!

 

[sahin]

Sahin,

What's your 4x interceptor dip time duration?

Minimum of 6 hours for sensitive types. 8-9 for stuff like millepora etc.

 

[jroovers]

Very nice! Everyone now RB free?