Treatment Update

I finished my first treatment of Interceptor on Sunday in my frag tank and I started my first dip of ReVive today. Surprisingly after dipping 200+ corals only one had AEFW (Eggplant Nana). AEFW seem to love Tri-Color's. I still have a long way to go but this is a good start. I added one tablet of Interceptor and let the tank run for 24 hours before hooking the airline tubing to the skimmer and adding the carbon back. I did not perform a water change because Interceptor is ineffective after 24 hours. When I dipped the corals in ReVive the dips are at the recommended strength and are dipped for five minutes. The Turaki, Lokani, Echinata, and Caroliniana are dipped at half the recommended dosage for three minutes because their tissue is very sensitive.

QT Update

After 48 hours of being in quarantine with Interceptor, the corals went in a 10 minute ReVive bath. The corals were rinsed in fresh tank water before being placed back into the display tank. So far everything looks much better and the polyp extension has increased.

Setting up a quarantine tank

I set up a 5 gallon tank to use as a quarantine tank yesterday afternoon. I’m using the Koralia nano for water circulation, a 50/50 spectrum 40 watt power compact light fixture and a 50 watt heater. I did this so I could inspect a few of my corals that have a few bite marks on them possibly from Acropora Eating Flatworms (AEFW). I also wanted to make sure the red bugs were gone so I added 1/16^th of a large dog tablet of Interceptor. I plan to dip these corals in TLF ReVive for 10 minutes to see if the AEFW’s fall off any corals. I will keep you updated on my progress.

The ORA green acro with blue polyps on the left has a few bite marks and is turning brown.

You can see the Tri-Color on the right has a few bite marks and is turning brown.

The flatworm is 1cm long.

Picture Update

I finished the three dosages of Interceptor to treat the tank for Red Bugs and they are no longer visible. Here are a few pictures. . .

Red Bugs

I came home from school a two weeks ago to find most of my acropora's infested with the dreaded Red Bugs (Tegastes acroporanus). I was able to obtain a couple of pills of Interceptor from my Vet after showing them Dustin Dorton's research documentation. Interceptor has been known to kill hermit crabs and shrimp so I made sure I tried to capture as many of these inverts as possible. First, I took out all of the hermit crabs and snails I could find and put them into a 5 gallon quarantine tank. Next, I tried to catch the two Scarlet Skunk Cleaner Shrimp and two Fire Shrimp with no success. After four days had passed with no success I decided to add the Interceptor to the tank with the shrimp still in there. Before I could treat the tank I had to submerge my skimmers airline intake underwater so it would not create foam and I took out the bag of carbon. I crushed up half of a large dog pill of Interceptor and mixed it in with a half gallon of tank water. I added half of this solution into the display tank and the other half into the sump. I kept all of the pumps running and let the tank run for nine and a half hours before I reconnected the skimmer and added new carbon. I started the treatment at 11:30am and around 12pm all the Acro's were showing their feeding tentacles. At 3:30pm the polyp extension was very noticeable and some of the Red Bugs were falling off. At 7pm all of the Red Bugs had fallen off and I could see Amphipods, Isopods, Mysid Shrimp, and baby snails all moving around in the refugium. Aat 9pm I added a cup of the ROX 0.8 carbon and reconnected the protein skimmer. The next morning all the shrimp were still alive so I added the snails and hermit crabs back into the display tank. Four days later all the the inverts are doing well and it seems that the Interceptor did not kill any of my pod population. I have looked at all of my acro's with a magnifying glass and cannot find a single Red Bug! I still have two more treatments to do but so far this method has been a success.