I guess thats the bonus of me starting fresh, hopefully all pests are gone. Good luck Kien, if you need a hand (only 1 :lol: ) shoot me a PM I'd be glad to assisit.

Kien, just curious, but is 3 - 4 weeks really needed? From my understanding interceptor is supposed to kill them pretty effectively in one 24 hour dose. So two doses a week apart should be enough, no?

Also, your invert tank should be clean if kept isolated from any acros for about 10 days. Hasn't it been suggested that the longest one of the red bugs can survive without a host is 5 - 6 days?

From my readings on the interwebs many people do 3 doses to account for potential eggs hatching? So ya, 1st one to nuke what's currently there, then the second one to catch eggs and I think the third dose is a safety, just in case you missed any :D

Ya, I do recall reading that about the life span of red bugs I think. I'm just really paranoid I guess :)

:wink2: Your Wrasses are GORGEOUS!!! kien When they tick you off enough you can send them out to me.

They sure are.. and you best be posting some photos in the POTM thread. :twised:

I dealt with red bugs about a month ago and found the interceptor treatment to be very easy. I used half a large tab in my 145 gallon total system, dosed it before I went to bed when the lights went out and 12 hours later threw a bag of carbon in my overflow for 2 hours then did a 15% water change after that. I was really stressed about having to do it but in the end found it to be one of the easiest thing I have ever done to my system. I lost my hermits and pods but all snails,brittle stars and fire shrimp survived:) You should only need to dose one and dont be afraid if you dose a little too much. Read Stone's post in this thread I found it to be very informative and took some stress out of this mess.
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/sho...ht=interceptor

Cheers
Ray

Way to slip that in there while a guy is bummed out about his fish Leah! Very stealthy, I like it! :lol:

Okay here ya go. Something I just slapped together real quick, so nothing fancy.

kien's mixed reef 2011 - Part 1

Sorry about the particulates and micro bubbles. My goby was having one of those days and my skimmer, well, it needs to go into the recycling bin soon.

Nice man thanks for posting. Love the 4-stripe of course lol.

Your PBT is looking really good...thick too!

Looks great :thumb:

Looking great as usual!

kien vs The Red Bugs: Round 1 - FIGHT!
 

Okay, so this evening marked the first treatment of interceptor for The Red Bugs. Here's how it went down..

First, another thank you to my supplier :)

I was able to obtain a few Interceptor tablets ranging from 5.75 mg to 2.3 mg. Fairly small pills. From my research on various sites, including canreef , I was able to determine an appropriate dosage for my system. According to Melev, one large (23mg tablet should treat roughly 380 to 400 gallons). I'm probably at about 320gallons so I'd need roughly 21(ish)mg, give or take. I went ahead and dosed 23mg anyway because I didn't have a scale.

So here we have my pills ready to get crushed into a fine powder.

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1297490670

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1297490697

fine powder!

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1297490720

Once I was satisfied with my interceptor powder I dumped it into a container of tank water and started to mix it. It actually mixed fairly well. This is before I actually stirred it.

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1297490792

After mixing it all I simply dumped it into the return section of my sump. I removed the skimmer cup from my skimmer to allow it to overflow and I took my carbon off line. The next step is to wait 12-24 hours to turn my carbon back on and put my skimmer cup back. After that I will likely do another dose next weekend. The new school of thought seems to be that you only need one treatment since Red bugs don't lay eggs. From what I recall reading they are live bearers so the fear of eggs hatching in your tank seems to be a false concern. I'm going to do another treatment anyways just in case I got the dosage wrong on the first go round :)

So that's about it. Not terribly exciting but hopefully tomorrow's inspection should reveal a lot fewer red bugs, if any at all.

Tagging along. Man you summed up how to do it in a few lines. I'm tempted to get it on too. So you're doing a total of two doses now? Both 23 mg?

Good luck man. I have just started to notice that the population on my teal acro is indeed growing (as is the coral lol)

Ya, it was literally as easy as it looks. Crush pills, mix pills, dump into tank, done.

Ya, I'm going to do another dose next weekend of 23mg. I'm not 100% confident in my dosage :lol:

Really nice system kien! Cool video.

So are you seeing like... a storm of dead pods floating around or what?

Good luck with the treatment brochacho.....hearing someone has red bugs sure makes you look a little closer at your own tank!....

Probably :) I can't tell, lights are out.

Thanks!

Did you catch all the acro crabs first? Where are they hoteling it for the time being?

It took me all week but ya, I think I got them all :lol: They are enjoying a vacation in the basement. Although without any acros in there I doubt it'll feel like a vacation.

Good luck with the treatment. It looks so easy, which is great for future reference.

Yes.. it is surprisingly easy.
Hardest part is sourcing the Interceptor if you don't have a dog/vet already.

When I did it years back I lost some pod population and that was about it. Its surprising how fast the pods rebound though.

I lost all shrimp and acro crabs as well.

Well, the lights are on now and I can not find a single red bug. Even on the most infected acro, not a trace. I did find a couple of hermit crabs on the sand bed that I apparently didn't catch for the sanctuary, oops!

:cheer2: kien: 1 - Red Bugs: 0 :cheer2:

Casualties of war..

*** WARNING: Some of the images you are about to see may not be suitable for young children. Viewer discretion is advised ***

this guy looks very much alive, but he is dead. It is almost as if he just froze in his tracks and kicked it. There are others like him.

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1297542031

This guy just fell off a rock and died.

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1297542093

Nice work boss! So what are your plans for a waterchange now? That's the big reason I haven't done this now...I really don't wanna burn through half a pail for a big one. I'm not even really setup to do that.

And my system is about 110 gallons total. How many mg would I need?

I just plan on doing my regular weekly 10% water change tomorrow. I will do another interceptor blast next saturday and then maybe up my water change to 25% the following sunday maybe. I'll observe to see how everyone reacts to the treatment during the course of the week. So far no one else is phased at all. I suspect if I slap on some carbon it'll take out most of the meds anyway.

I would say, aprox, 1/3 of a 23mg pill :)

I don't have a fancy pestle. Might try and SLAPCHOP it up haha.

Also, this stuff is photosensitive, so the lights will help burn it off. Carbon can take the rest and a regular water change is all you need.

Well, it has been about a week now and still no signs of red bugs. I've been looking for them pretty much every single day for the past week. None, nada, zilch! I was going to do another Interceptor blast this weekend but I think I'm going to forgo that treatment. If they reappear then I'll do another treatment but as it stands, I'm going to call it a success!

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5133/...6b466db3_b.jpg

:thumb::thumb::thumb:

Fantastic photo Kien! all of the photos from members tanks has convinced me a blenny must be my next fish purchase

Awesome news man. Are the crabs back in?

:cheer2: Go Kien, you tell those bugs who's boss!

Thanks! Those little blennies have so much personality :)

Not quite yet, probably sometime this week.

Thanks! And, in celebration of the eradication of the Red Bugs I have put together a new video :)

kien's Reef - Part 2

kien's Reef - Part 1

Great video Kien. Corals look outstanding!

that blenny shot is awesome

Glad everything turned out Ok Kien. Great video !

Nice video!!!

Congrats on the victory over the "Red Buggers" man......
Saweet vid too.....three things really jumped out at me...
1) Im soooo envious of your yellow bird......need to find me some*nudge, nudge, wink wink, say no more*
2) those clams are beauts and look killer grouped together like that
3) and the acans are just......*drool*