need help: red bug and re-aqualscape

[malulu]

D*** it, it is my turn!

Renee's family was at my house yesterday, and she noticed that i have these sucker red bugs too!! (knew this will be coming anytime soon or later, cause i did not dip any new arrivals...!!!)

for those of you that recently get frogspawn, zoo, mushroom from my tanks, please double, trible check your systems. very very sorry if this ever happened to your tanks.

before i get to the need-help part, just wanted to say, the information in this thread http://www.njreefers.org/joomla/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=26&topic=863.0 is excellent, and very helpful. All thumbs up for all your contribution.

and very sorry for the long post...

i have some questions and need help with:

(1) beside the crustaceans (shrimp/crab/hermit-crab), do i need to remove the clams and snails?

(2) I have tons of pods in my refugium!! (any ways to save them? like, not treat the refugium?? )

(3) anyone can help to get "interceptor"?
i don't have any pets, i do know some good friends have pets, but they all have small dogs, i have 400g of water volume, need the BIG pills.


(4) need some big containers
- am already thinking to re-aqualscape anyway (around the spring break time April 21th-25th)
- i already have a lots of 5g ones, and checked with Bob (Magic) and Dan (DanTheManNJ) to borrow a 20g and a 55g bucket. need some "wider" containers for holding/transfer my corals for rearranging...

(5) here is the plan, doing treatment and re-aqualscape at the same time (please help to comments and give suggestions)

() current setup - 210g-display ---> 30g-pre-sump ---> 100g-refugium ---> 100g-sump ---> back to display tank.

(a) make a lots of fresh salt water... (this is the new Kati-Ani unit be big help here!! should come within the next 2 - 3 weeks).
(b) remove the in-sump skimmer to save space for the sump (will clean with tap water, and let it dry with the Sun), will this be good enough?
(c) move all corals to wide containers #1 and #2, (can't stack the corals)
(d) move all non-corals live rocks to sump, layout as flat as possible... put on egg crank, lay corals on egg crank, TALL corals will be going to the pre-sump and the refugiums. due to space restriction, the corals would be without lights for as long as it takes for the first treament process. (hopefully only a day or 2)
(e) due to space limitations, may need to put some LR into a seperated container #3 (do a seperate treatment)
(f) remove all crustaceans to a holding place #4 with some livesand from the pre-sump. (this should be wide, so they will get more spaces to move around...)
(g) fishes will be still in the display tank
(h) remove my carbon basket (about 1/10 size of a 5g bucket)
(i) start to treat the system with interceptor (display -> pre-sump -> refugium -> sump -> back to display tank)
(j) 6 hours later, suck all debrits out of the crush coral from the display, leaving the CC still in it. (will this break the balance of the system?) will have water change of about 100g (25% of total volumne), i can do more, IF i have more big containers to hold fresh salt water...
(k) add carbon, NOTE: due to no room/space, no skimmer running yet (as oppose to the suggestion by Merv)
(l) remove all corals to containers #1, #2, place all live rock back in the dislay tank with fishes still in it, will tie all rocks with tie-wrap (this would take a long time, to get the looks and feels that i wanted),
(m) place back skimmer into sump, turn it on, start to place corals back in display tank. (will need a lots of proxy glue)
(n) wait 2-3 hours or so for the proxy release those slimy stuff which will causing the skimmer go crazy, then do 100g water change.
(o) at this point, everything should back to the way it should (EXCEPT the shrimp/crab/hermitcrab still in a holding tank #4).

(p) repeat treatment for 2 more times, for the next 2 weeks.
(q) place crustaceans back in display tank
(r) garranteed with have a lots of brokern corals!!!


current issues:
(1) Kati-Ani, this much be available (status - pending)
(2) proxy glue, need to order (status - pending)
(3) need some egg cranks, will goto home depot (status - pending)
(3) I only have 2 55g container so far, would be nice to have 100g more water storage. (status - unknown)
(4) I need 3 more wide containers - 1 for crustaceans, 2 for corals transfer. (status - unknown)
(5) i am sure, it will have more surprise along the progress...!!! (status - for sure)
(6) sure i can do this all by myself, but it definately would be helpful to got few helping hands. (during 4/19 - 4/27, my planned "Vacation")
;D

thanks all in advance for all your helps and comments and suggestions.
-david

 

[reneeRN]

this is not an urgent thing, the red bugs just gradually make the corals lose color then stop growing. long process til death, if ever. start collecting crabs and shrimp. mine lived in another tank for a month before i treated. it takes a while to finally catch them all. then treat. I used this website and advice to a "T".
http://www.melevsreef.com/redbugs.html

 

[magic]

How big are they? Magnifing glass size.

Bob

 

[magic]

Dave

If you had a fancy digital slr camera I'd say Renee put them there. ;D Let me know if you need any help.

Bob

 

[danthemanj]

David,

I can get you Interceptor.

Call me,

Dan

 

[malulu]

Renee,
yes, i will plan this slowly, action will be on next month.

Bob,
sure, i will call you when i need a hang; and no, Renee did not have her camera here...


Dan,
thanks for the offer, i will pick it up along with your 55g barrel some time early next month.

 

[roadking05]

I have a 100G rubbermaid graytub. You can borrow it, long as I can get it back in few months.

 

[Phyl]

As long as you can remove all traces of acropora from your system, you can fallow your system for 6 days and treat the corals in a separate tank during that time.

 

[malulu]

Danny,
cool, that would be a great help, pls PM me your phone #, i will contact you and arrange to pickup when ever it is convenience for you.
thx

Phyl,
I try to do all with one system-loop, if i treat them seperately, i will need more works...

I have a 100G rubbermaid graytub. You can borrow it, long as I can get it back in few months.

 

[malulu]

should i try to take risk, and SKIP th refugium?

meaning:
display -> pre-sump -> sump -> then back to display?

after all treatments, connect back the refugium... wait few weeks...

if no more red-bugs, then add back the crustaceans
if still see red-bugs, then re-treat the whole thing again, add crustaceans later...
??

 

[MikeNapoli]

Dave, I'm doing the same exact thing you're doing.

Tagging along to see how it goes.

 

[Phyl]

If you leave the fuge offline for a week, fallow of acros you'll be fine.

 

[RichT]

I gottem too. Everyone should check their stuff. One thing to keep in mind, Red Bugs are actually yellow.

I'm gonna nuke everything. Good thing Reef Topia is coming up.

 

[malulu]

Phyl,

i got what you mean now...

i am going to try that, remove all arcopora to the 100g container (will be borrow from Danny), then will have lights and treatment there for 3 weeks. leave the other tanks un-treated.

thx

As long as you can remove all traces of acropora from your system, you can fallow your system for 6 days and treat the corals in a separate tank during that time.

 

[camz28]

i check my acros and so far i dont see anything , but im still sweeting i think im going to have steve come here and take some good macro shots ;D.

 

[reneeRN]

Don't sweat it David. The task is not big. I had to treat my whole system 550 gallons a few months ago, that is why I notice red bugs so easily. Every coral I get from someone goes into my quarantine for a good 10 days, I treat every frag with interceptor 3x then i do a lugals dip or similar dip on the last day, for another 15 minutes. EVERY ROCK EVERY ZOO EVERY FRAG >>>>EVERY TIME! My quarantine tank is always running. Zoos dont get the lugals.
All I did was treat the tank for a week or so, utilizing a whole box of large dog tablets. $50 bucks from my vet in Pluckemin. I told them it was for coral, they were so interested, they had me send them the article from melevsreef.com. I forget the dose, used melev's site for info. I crushed the tablets in a cup of hot water, then into the sump. Then i went to work, never looked back. 15 hours later when I got home from work, I ran a pound of carbon. waited a couple of days, 3 i think, then did the same thing. The hardest part was catching the crustaceans for a month. Nothing died or looked sick except a shrimp i couldnt catch. My kids caught over 100 crabs. My refug was fine, i ran my skimmer without air bubbles, my whole system was treated. TRUST ME>>> no big deal. Just calculate the water by measuring all of your stuff. I mean all of it, pipes too. Let me know if you need help. It shouldnt be a big task.

 

[malulu]

Renee,

thx for the info, like you said:

- the hard part is catcing all the crustaceans (and i need a tank on the side to hold them)

- since i am doing the re-auqalscape soon any way, therefore i am going to remove all rocks, then start to catch the crustaceans (should be easier)

- last night, doing search on the web, saw someone said a dragon-face-pipe-fish and nudi-branch may help (hit or miss), RedSands have them both, will stop by tonight, and get one of each to see how it goes.

thx for all the info.

 

[Hawkeye]

- the hard part is catcing all the crustaceans (and i need a tank on the side to hold them)

I'd imagine you could ask some folks nearby to hold some of the inverts for you in their sump (assuming they all play nice together). My tank isn't set up yet otherwise I'd definitely offer. Perhaps even Feng could help?

 

[malulu]

not a bad idea, got to think about it... the issue is, once it is in a reef tank, it would almost impossible to get them out...

 

[Hawkeye]

When I fed my serpent stars at night they always had to duke it out with the nass snails, hermits and shrimp - I'd imagine most of yours will come out hungry too. Good luck - not to sound pessimistic but at least there are invert group buys.