LPS / SPS Interceptor Treatment - Red, Black, Invisible Bugs
I recently encountered a possible attack by black/invisible bugs at that are known to hitchhike via Aussie LPS (mostly chalices & acans) & quickly destroy LPS! It starts with one coral melting and very soon you’ll see many others joining the race to death!
I had a similar issue last year and pretty much tried every possible fix but failed and lost almost all LPS in my tank.
Ok to the treatment now… this is exactly the same procedure to treat Red Bugs on SPS if you have them.
I found a local reefer who was very generous to give me a few tabs of the Interceptor Spectrum (Tasty Chews) for Small Dogs. The most common ones are the large ones which are white & for large dogs.
The big ones have 23mg of Milbemycin oxime + 228mg of Praziquantel & is good to great 380gals of water. The green one I got came with 5.75mg of Milbemycin oxime good for 95gal.
I split the tablet in half which will make it good for 47gals (my entire water volume). Made it to a nice power by just jamming it with a spoon.
Next I heated 200ml of RODI water in the microwave for 90sec and added the powder to the water & stirred well. Powdering & hot water are important for the chewy tab to dissolve well.
Keep stirring and let the water cool and you’ll have something like this. Try to get this back to your tank temp.
Now to the most important part…
Inverts: Removing crabs is a must. Snails are optional (some have had luck with snails, some have lost them but I removed the big ones. Also left my long spine urchin in the DT
Skimmer: Turn off your skimmer for the 6hr period
Filter Media: Remove all GAC, GFO, Phosguard, Purigen, etc. for the 6hr period.
Finally poured the interceptor solution (11:30pm) over the powerhead so it stirs well & let it do its job for the next 6-7hrs. Make sure you have fresh saltwater mixed and ready to go (30-50% of your water volume).
Woke up next morning (after 6hrs), everything looked good… fishes, coral (no RTNs), my long spine urchin, small snails, etc. were all alive and happy. Went ahead and did the first 35% water change, got the skimmer & GFO reactor running again, added 2x new GAC.
Later that day I did a second 35% PWC and added the snails & crabs back to the DT. Its been a week now and every coral looks healthy... no more melting! I’m so happy I did this and going to advise this treatment to anyone as a last resort if they can’t get their LPS to stop dying.
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