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My Reef Tank · by **Acro** » January 24th, 2004, 9:42 pm

Well this is sounding intresting. Dustin glad to hear of your hard work and research going into this project. Also much appreciation to those that have volunteered there time and tank to this project. Dustin will this be a product you will introduce as a product line or will you simply be notifying us what the medication is and the proceedure to follow?

by **DustinDorton** » January 24th, 2004, 9:46 pm

The medicatoin name will be public knowledge as soon the tests are done. I havent decided yet if I will disclose the name when we see the results from the remaining 3 testers, or if I will wait until all the testers perform the full 3 treatments.

We just have to cross our fingers and hope they dont pop back up. I am going to start working on a quick kill dip dosage this week.

by **Louey** » January 25th, 2004, 10:52 am

You should call it "dustins juice" and sell it to the masses. :twisted:

Louey

by **DustinDorton** » January 25th, 2004, 11:01 am

Wouldnt that be nice!

by **Blue Jester** » January 25th, 2004, 11:06 am

Each volunteer gets 5%!!!

by **DustinDorton** » January 25th, 2004, 11:09 am

How is your tank this morning Chris?

by **Blue Jester** » January 25th, 2004, 11:21 am

Going great. Polyp extension is as good as ever, probably better overall, no apparent stress on any of the other corals. I've actually observed a good number of pods, and all the snails have been unaffected. Still not a single sign of a red bug left.

by **reefnut** » January 25th, 2004, 2:56 pm

This sounds like a great break thru. I also have a problem with these pests. I have already lost several nice frags to red bugs. I can't wait to find out what the medication is and the final outcome.

DustinDorton thanks for your time in helping find a cure. I'll stay tuned to hear more.

by **ScavDog** » January 25th, 2004, 5:24 pm

OK,

I just administered the drug 20 minutes ago. I will attempt to post pics with my Nikon.

Stay tuned.

by **ScavDog** » January 25th, 2004, 5:34 pm

25 minutes in

by **ScavDog** » January 25th, 2004, 7:16 pm

After the 1st hour some of the dreaded bugs looked lethargic and appeared to be dying off.

2nd hr.

No active bugs are observed. Many appear to still have a foot-hold on the coral, where-as others are wavering in the current.

by **Paul A. Ifkovits** » January 25th, 2004, 7:36 pm

Sorry to interupt ScavDog... I just completed my treatment and the results are listed below...

Tank info

120 gallon:
- Livestock includes, numerous LPS , numerous SPS, leathers, mushrooms, ricordia, large (naturally occurring) sponges, macro algae, large red serpent star, cleaner shrimp, fighting conchs, tiger tail cucumbers and star polyps…
- 5” deep sand bed
40 gallon prop:
- Livestock includes, same as above and more and a large crocea clam

alkalinity – 8 dkh
salinity – 1.025
temperature (at start of test) – 80.2

Log:
11:45 – Added dry medicine to 3 cups of tank water and stirred vigorously. It did not dissolve as readily as I thought it would and some stayed in a dry form. I slowly poured the contents into both tanks adding to the current. Skimmer was turned off and all carbon removed from the system.

12:00 – No visible changes to livestock. Particularly watching my cleaner shrimp which is unchanged.

12:15 – A. robusta seems to have more pronounced polyp extension on the radial coralites, no change on axial coralites. Also notice a swaying motion to the red bugs on this coral, seem to be losing ability to stay fixed to the coral. No change to the cleaner shrimp. Examined a submerged A. robusta frag under 12x jewelers scope and the red bugs seem to be alive and attached but unable to move.

12:35 – A. clathrata sliming heavily, slime is thicker and hanging tight to the coral. Not the same looking slime that would appear during fragmentation or stress. Cleaner shrimp looks unaffected. A. gemmifera showing greater polyp extension including polyps from the axial coralites. All SPS in the pocilipora (4 large colonies and one frag) family showing some polyp closure. Though polyps are extended, they appear to be closed at the tips (like a closed hand…)

1pm – Cleaner shrimp seems unaffected. Showed strong feeding response when flake added to the tank.

1:30 – No change with bugs or corals. Cleaner shrimp looking a little unstable.

2pm – All corals, fish, snails, stars and clam seem normal. Shrimp looking lethargic and more unstable. Removed him from the tank and placed in isolation with 6 cups fresh ASW and two cups tank water. Attempted to blow bugs off A. robusta colony using a turkey baster. Bugs held tight!

3pm – Re-examined A. robusta frag using 12x jewelers scope. Out of the 20+ red bugs that initially infested the coral, I could only find two. One still on the coral, one floating off the coral on a string of slime. Neither appear to be alive. Tried for second time to blow bugs off A. robusta colony. Several were blown off but not 100%.

4pm – Examined numerous frags (all notorious for infestation) using scope and can find very few bugs. Of those I can find, they appear dead. Using the naked eye you can not see any! The cleaner shrimp is recovering.

6pm – No red bugs can be found. All livestock seems perfectly normal. Started skimmer, added carbon and getting ready to start a 20% water change. The cleaner shrimp died.

by **DustinDorton** » January 25th, 2004, 8:31 pm

Sorry your shrimp died!!, give us an update tomorrow Paul.

Thanks
Dustin

by **andre** » January 25th, 2004, 9:11 pm

I thought I lost my cleaner shrimp when I saw him stuck to a strainer in the back of the tank but it was just an empty shell. I fed the tank and the cleaner shrimp and fire shrimp pop out of nowhere looking for food.I did not lose anything except the red bugs with this 1st treatment.I did another 25% water change.So far so good now I will leave the tank alone until next Saturday so I can do it all over again.Any changes during the week I will post them here.

by **ScavDog** » January 26th, 2004, 2:58 am

Hour 3:

Bugs look dead, however some are still afixed to colonies and frags. Corals seem healthy as do the fish, snails, anemones, and clams. I am missing a hermit crab. I assume he has died.

Hour 4:

Not too much has changed. I found my first casualty. A comensile crab.

by **ScavDog** » January 26th, 2004, 3:04 am

Hour 5:

90% of bugs initially observed are nowhere to be found. I manually removed some via a small powerhead. They were easily removed.

Hour 6:

I have gone over the frags/colonies with a magnifying glass. It appears the bugs are wiped out. All livestock is healthy and happy.

20% water change done. Skimmer and carbon now running.

by **ScavDog** » January 26th, 2004, 3:47 am

Specs:
75 gal
20 gal sump
euro-reef es-5-2

PH-8.1
DKH:10
cal: 420
temp:81

Livestock:
RS Sailfin Tang, pair amphiron percula, flame hawk, 2 rose BTA, misc lps and sps as well as a few misc softies (xenia, anthelia), 3 t crocea, 1 squamosa.

by **DustinDorton** » January 26th, 2004, 8:47 am

I think the bugs either get stuck in coral slime, or use those hook on their appendages to dig into the coral before they die. I have found them stuck to the coral 24hours after the treatment, but they are dead.

Well Joe, you were the last of the weekend testers, we are waiting on one more person who will be testing on tuesday.

It seems that all of the first tests went well with a minmal amount of damage. Now we have to sit and wait for 2 more treatments and see if these guys come back!

by **Paul A. Ifkovits** » January 26th, 2004, 11:55 am

Glad everyone is reporting positive results!

Everything looked great last night after the lights went out as well as this morning. At night, all corals showed normal polyp extension. This morning, all livestock fed normally.

by **Jacob** » January 26th, 2004, 3:24 pm

just taggin along and bumping the thread up

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