Sentinel Treatment for Red Bugs (Need advice)

[tannersmith2000]

Guys and gals

I have red bugs. I went by my vet today and got 1 pill. Can you all please tell me how much I should put in my tank?

I have a 30 gallon reef tank with probably close to 25 gallons total water volume.

Here's a pic of the pill.

Thank you all very much for the help. I have never treated for red bugs before.

 

[ajcanale]

I dosed 3/4 of large size (51-100lbs) tablet in a 90g +30g sump (100-100g total water volume with displacement.) This was around recommended dosage I believe. Given that your total water volume is about 1/4 of the tank i dosed, and that you have a dosage that is <=1/4 of the tablet I used, I would say use the whole thing.

Hope that makes sense.

 

[Jettareefer]

Believe it or not I used on of the same pill you have on probably 65 gallons total water volume. I crushed up and let it sit in ro water for a hour dumped it in overnight for 12 hours. Woke up did a 50% water change and added 2 cups of carbon I haven't seen bugs since. It works really well all I lost was hermits but I battles cayno 2 for months after the intitial treatment. Good luck!

 

[tannersmith2000]

Thank you all for the replies. So if I crush up the whole pill, let it dissolve in RODI water, add it to tank all at once and let it circulate for 12 hours, that should take care of it?

Should I be ready to perform a large WC and add carbon?

I just wanna be 100% sure what to do.

Thanks

 

[Jettareefer]

Yes just make sure you comfortable with the dosage your doing, after 12 hrs water change and carbon are must make sure you have that on lock and ready to go. I would leave the carbon in for a week I use Fritz GAC it's really nice stuff! Also the pill won't disolve easily you'll have to crush it in the ro water multiple times. Let me know if you have more question I can post back tomorrow morning.

I want to add the bugs won't immediately fall off it takes about 4-8 hrs and sometimes you'll see some Sps produce smile coats with all the dead ones. I've noticed this both with interceptor and senitnel.

 

[snake1]

I have a 90 gallon sps tank display and about 120 total gallon system i think im starting to see possible red bugs( i.e. a bunch of red orange specs all over my sps) some just blow back and forth in the current and some i have seen move .....if i was to dose the sentinal do i need to remove any fish and or inverts? and would i need to dose a few doses do to the possible eggs not being destroyed or killed buy the first dose? and whats a good way to prove that i have red bugs? thanks in advance

 

[sahin]

I have a 90 gallon sps tank display and about 120 total gallon system i think im starting to see possible red bugs( i.e. a bunch of red orange specs all over my sps) some just blow back and forth in the current and some i have seen move .....if i was to dose the sentinal do i need to remove any fish and or inverts? and would i need to dose a few doses do to the possible eggs not being destroyed or killed buy the first dose? and whats a good way to prove that i have red bugs? thanks in advance

Get some macro shots; you will see them easily. They like stuff like GARF Bonsai/Purple Nana's/"Deep water" Acros etc etc.

If you're seeing Red/Orange specs running around on your acros then pretty much its them.

As far as I know fish dont need to be removed; but stuff like Hermits/cleaner shrimps etc need to be removed. A LOT of pods will die...as well as little starfish etc.

I used Interceptor Spectrum, the large dog pill containing 23mg milbemycin oxime and 228mg praziquantel.

The large pill containing 23mg milbemycin treats around 300Gallons...so I cut it up and weighed for my tank which is roughly 50G with sump etc...I did slightly overdose as I wanted to treat only twice.

I treated twice and they are gone for good. I've read that Redbugs are livebearers so dont lay eggs etc. I treated a week apart. They were gone/dead after the first treamtment. But I treated twice just to be sure.

I did get a crazy algae bloom right afterwards...I think it was due to the extra fillers put into the tablet to make it palatable to dogs...beef flavour or something...so do expect an algae bloom and run a bit of carbon and gfo. Cleared up after 3 weeks easily.

 

[snake1]

Also is it possible that red bugs could hitch a ride on my snails or crabs and when I re introduce them back in the tank they will repopulate

 

[sahin]

Also is it possible that red bugs could hitch a ride on my snails or crabs and when I re introduce them back in the tank they will repopulate

I was afraid of this, so unlike everyone else who takes them out, I left my hermits in...for a good 6 hours or so...I forgot but I did make a post about it a while back. I then left them in a small tank to recover and they did. My shrimp (Blood/Fireshrimp) I left in the tank all the way through. He survived both treatments and is still fine today.

 

[snake1]

Well I did confirm that I have red bugs and a lot of them I only brought two small frags smaller then a pinky finger nail of Miami orchid and tri color to a fellow reefers house Tuesday he has a really nice microscope you hook up to a computer and it has a built in led light ,well I have them you can see them very clear and thousands of posi babies running around on a small frag plug ....when I looked at the frag plug you could only see maybe two or three but when blown up 800x you could see twenty yo thirty large adults and like I said thousands of small red colored dots running around I am assuming those are babies.....so I did my first 23 mg sentinel treatment last night on my 90 gallon reef tank 120 gallon total water volume system....I broke the the pill up into thirds I removed the snails and crabs the best I could and one serpent star, now I couldn't remove my pair of coral banded shrimp ,a few crabs and snails stayed in and two brittle stars .....well I shut off the skimmer the gfo and then added the third of the pill which should cover 126 gallons of water per treatment they claim one pill covers 380 gallons of water ......so the results are in after 11 hours the shrimp are still alive the random crabs and snails are still alive not sure if that is a good thing....the other crabs and snails are gonna chill in a 5 gallon bucket with a heater and a pump for circulation for approx 3 weeks that is the recommendation from my LFS.... please let me know your thoughts im lost why my inverts are still alive although some say they lost all the inverts and some say they lost none ....thanks

 

[sahin]

Well I did confirm that I have red bugs and a lot of them I only brought two small frags smaller then a pinky finger nail of Miami orchid and tri color to a fellow reefers house Tuesday he has a really nice microscope you hook up to a computer and it has a built in led light ,well I have them you can see them very clear and thousands of posi babies running around on a small frag plug ....when I looked at the frag plug you could only see maybe two or three but when blown up 800x you could see twenty yo thirty large adults and like I said thousands of small red colored dots running around I am assuming those are babies.....so I did my first 23 mg sentinel treatment last night on my 90 gallon reef tank 120 gallon total water volume system....I broke the the pill up into thirds I removed the snails and crabs the best I could and one serpent star, now I couldn't remove my pair of coral banded shrimp ,a few crabs and snails stayed in and two brittle stars .....well I shut off the skimmer the gfo and then added the third of the pill which should cover 126 gallons of water per treatment they claim one pill covers 380 gallons of water ......so the results are in after 11 hours the shrimp are still alive the random crabs and snails are still alive not sure if that is a good thing....the other crabs and snails are gonna chill in a 5 gallon bucket with a heater and a pump for circulation for approx 3 weeks that is the recommendation from my LFS.... please let me know your thoughts im lost why my inverts are still alive although some say they lost all the inverts and some say they lost none ....thanks

Shrimp and even the hermits that went through the initial part of the treatment all lived. Dont worry, I am not certain, but from my university days I know that the size/weight of a subject determines how toxic a certain substance is...ie what concentration might kill a small mouse, wont kill a larger animal or a person.

I dont have any redbugs I am sure of that.

 

[kevin_e]

I used 1/10th a large dog pill in my old 30 gallon setup, which was probably 25 gallons of water.