so i think im ready.....maybe....

[nemofish2217]

well, i got my interceptor today (51-100 lb variety) and i think i am ready to QT and treat my sps....so i just want to make sure my game plan sounds correct, as well as get the dosage right...

okay, tomorrow i will put about 5 gallons of established tank water into a 10 gallon tank already equiped with a heater, powerhead, and egg-crate stand. I will then add my interceptor mixture, and let medicate for 12 hours, as according to eric borenamn's treatment page. then i will take out and put into 10 gallon QT tank for about 10 days...heres where the questions come.

1. do i need a light over the treatment tank for the 12 hours?

2. im am very confused on the dosage. doesnt one pill treat like 350 gallons? if so, and eric says you can way overdose with no problems(i think he says up to 10x), wouldnt be okay for me just to use like 1/8 of the pill?

3. if i dont get 100% kill rate, do i just empty treatment container and refill, along with more medication?

i am really nervous about doing this....so if anyone could give me some tips, i would really appreciate it....

 

[slojmn]

I did not follow Eric's instructions so keep that in mind. I treated the entire tank and let it sit for 6 hours and did a 10% water change immediately afterward. Then a week later did another treatment, 6 hours, 10% water change immediately afterward, then followed up the third week with the third and final doseage and 10% water change immediately afterwards. No more red bugs thus far... 2 or so months later. I don;t know about 10x's the doseage but Eric knows his stuff so I would believe it. i personally felt comfortable doing a regular doseage with out overdoing things. I only had redbugs on two corals that I could see with my mesoscope and very few at the point when I dosed so I may have caught them very early. As far as nervousness, don't sweat it. Everything survived except the hermits (my fault as I had collected them and put them in a safe container floating in the sump, unfortuantely the container flipped over and well...they kicked it ) and pods. I have heard most folks believe the three treatment over three weeks will really do the job, others have done just one treatment and had no problems but some have had them come back. This was a painless and easy fix to the problem so don't worry. Good Luck and you will be fine whatever you do, personally though I wouldn't intentionally overdose the interceptor, but it is your call.

 

[coker98]

dont treat just the corals because they live all throughout the aquarium and travel in the water column. treat the whole tank. if you dont collect your hermit crabs some will die but be careful because if you collect your hermit crabs you could possibly reintroduce adult redbugs back into the aquarium. i treated my tank(55 w/10 sump) with a quarter of a pill and did 1st treatment on the 1st week, 2nd treatment on the 2nd week and the 3rd treatment on the 4th week and i have no red bugs to this day and i treated over 3 months ago(knock on wood). make sure to run as much carbon as you can after each treatment and change a minimum of 15% and with the water changes the more the better. the treatment sounds worse than it actually is. once you do the first treatment it becomes a piece of cake to do. hope this helps and good luck.

 

[coker98]

i forgot to mention to turn your skimmer off and when i did it i just cleaned the skimmer anyways to make sure that there wasnt anything in there. goodluck

 

[nemofish2217]

i was going to treat the whole tank, but in eric's article, he says that it is almost pointless to do it that way when you can treat the corals by themselves. He says that the bugs can only live the max of 5 days without a host, so thats why i would QT the corals for about 10 days.... why don't a lot of people endorse this method?

 

[coker98]

i couldnt tell you but i have treated the whole tank and it worked for me. go ahead and try the other method and keep us posted.

 

[slojmn]

Taking all of my corals out would be prohibitive, many are encrusted to large sections of live rock. I would basically have had to dismantle my reef, much more intrusive and difficult than treating the entire tank. It really is a simple treatment.

 

[foshizzle]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7292974#post7292974 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by nemofish2217
i was going to treat the whole tank, but in eric's article, he says that it is almost pointless to do it that way when you can treat the corals by themselves. He says that the bugs can only live the max of 5 days without a host, so thats why i would QT the corals for about 10 days.... why don't a lot of people endorse this method?

They're skeered. I asked the same question, but I followed the crowd and treated the whole tank anyway. Borneman could be wrong, but if redbugs are obligate acro parasites and don't lay eggs, there should be no danger from treating outside the tank. I wish I had. Go for it.

 

[oosurfin]

here this should help you im in the same boat
http://www.reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=439155#439155
and my thread
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=836665