wow, this interceptor stuff is strong!!!

[nemofish2217]

well, i pulled my sps out today to treat them for red bugs, and have been since about 4:30. well, as i was sitting here, i saw a couple a small snails cruising around, and i know that they are unaffected, but i wanted to make sure that the stuff was working... so, i went to my sump, found a nice big juicy copepod, chased him around for a while, lol, then took him out and dropped him in the treatment tank....dead on contact with the water....simply amazing..... i am aware that i way overdosed my tank (i used about 1/8th of a tablet, so that would be rated for the treatment of about 45 gallons and i am treating about 6 or 7 gallons of water,) but all the corals look great....they are even trying to extend their polyps some...ill continue the treatment all night then move them to a QT tank tomorrow.... but i just wanted to comment on how effective this stuff is! I am so glad we have people (Dustin Dorton, Eric Borneman) who care so much about this hobby and the wildlife that they do research and help make our stuff happy!

 

[Snausages01]

So, your not treating the whole tank? Seem like if you had any trace of an SPS base in the tank that red bugs could still potientially be in your system, or even if you had a few on the rocks or floating around somewhere. How long are you goign to let your tank go SPS (acro) free?

 

[Freed]

Why did you remove the SPS? Uh, seems like a worthless way to treat for red bugs if you're not treating everything at the same time. You put the SPS back in and you still have red bugs. What am I missing here?

 

[nemofish2217]

Freed- you are missing the article and treatment method that Eric Borneman posted. It is a revised treatment method to the Dorton method. I chose to do this method based on Eric's knowledge of corals, and the research he has done...its not the popular method, but i believe it is the best method. It seems to be better than treating your wole tank. With this method, you have a lot better chance of getting 100% kill rate, than with the whole tank method. Mr. Borneman states that when you treat the tank you have no way of knowing if you killed everything.
www.ericborneman.com/Tegastes-content/Treatment.html.

he says that basically if you take the host away from the red bugs for 5 days then they will die off. thats why it is not worthless to QT.

Snausages01- very true, if i did have any acro remains in the tank i very well could still have the bugs in the tank. But, i was very careful not only when removing the corals but also i never really had any missing frags or anything. Like i stated before Mr. Borneman said that these critters can only live a maximum (from the evidence he's found so far) of 5 days without an acropora host. I would rather try it this way and not have to nuke my tank and kill all of my pods, crabs, and shrimp....IF worse comes to worse, and i in fact do have some acro remains in the tank(which i don't believe i do), then i will just have to treat the whole tank later. Seems like a better solution to me....that way i might be able to defeat the problem without messing up the biobalance of my tank, keeping it as stable as possible. Because Borneman reccommends leaving the main tank sps free for a minimum of 5 days, i am going to go ahead and just leave them in QT for a week or so, just making sure.

Like i said before, i know this isn't the popular method, but i am at the point where i can QT, so i believe that this will work....thanks

 

[jeffnsa]

i did one treatment at about triple the dose for twelve hours and kept my corals quarintined for two weeks and sofar no red bugs after a month.

 

[cfishrun]

Last summer I did a very similar process to that which E.B. outlines there. Although I did not have a heavy infestation (only 1 or 2 corals were confirmed to have RBs), I too did not treat my whole tank in fear that I would kill many more "good" crustaceans than "bad" ones. I removed all the Acros and target-treated the colonies that were confirmed to have RBs by placing them in a concentrated solution with vigorous water movement for 30 minutes. Afterwards I placed those, and all the other Acros, in QT where they were treated with 1 "light" dose, ran continuously w/ a UV sterilizer, for 10 days. This time frame ensured that the entire RB life cycle was broken (any eggs would have hatched, and RBs in the tank would die of starvation, while RBs in the QT would die from the Interceptor). The corals were fine and I've been RB free ever since.

 

[RichConley]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7301224#post7301224 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Freed
Why did you remove the SPS? Uh, seems like a worthless way to treat for red bugs if you're not treating everything at the same time. You put the SPS back in and you still have red bugs. What am I missing here?

Red bugs have no egg stage, and can only survive about a week with no host.

So if you move all your SPS to a QT tank, and treat, then wait a week, you're clear.

 

[cfishrun]

Good point RichConley, I should have pointed that out. When I treated my corals for RBs, I was using the data collected by Dorton, which showed uncertainty about their life cycle. The original recommendation called for 3 separate treatments to ensure RBs at different stages of development were exterminated. Since then, more data has been collected to show that the RBs are direct developers and have no larval stage (see "Reproduction and Development of Tegastes acroporanus" at http://www.ericborneman.com/Tegastes-content/Research.html). So yes, if you're using the QT method, you just need to wait about a week for the RBs in the untreated tank to die of starvation.

 

[nemofish2217]

Red bugs have no egg stage, and can only survive about a week with no host.

So if you move all your SPS to a QT tank, and treat, then wait a week, you're clear.

exactly, this is why i chose the QT method. this way, i know i kill all the red bugs, and i dont have to worry about moving my shrimp or crabs, and i dont have to worry about nuking all of my pods...which could lead to a spike of some sort in the tank.....

 

[Freed]

Copy that! I have never seen the new data or studies so I was going off the 3 treatment method ideology. Thanks for the info.