reefiness

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So of the corals that I dipped in fw they were surviving, looked really crappy but definitely had polyp extension. Decided to take them out and discard them after I saw one bug crawling around on a dipped piec. If they were larger pieces I cut the tips off and reglued.

It?s defintiely going to be a battle and any corals that show signs of damage are going to be removed, clipped, dipped and returned to the tank.

Sad this happened to me but hopefully someone out there has had them and beat them.

I beat them! You can too!
 

nanoreefer22

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Just quick update here. Daily basting and the addition of wrasses doesn?t seem to be anything at all. I know it?s only been a few days but definitely seeing an increase in the population.

I?m going to try something a bit more direct. In addition to what I?ve already done I?m going to scrub any acros that look damaged with a toothbrush with the bristles cut down. Has anyone ever tried that? Figure the shirt bristles will injure or kill anything it brushes, including the damaged acro skin.
 

nanoreefer22

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So I took a bit more of a direct approach to beating this before it gets worse. Since my corals weren?t encrusted a ton I decided to remove them all. I took each piece one by one and fragged it down to basically a nub leaving no traces of the base of the coral. Any colonies were fragged to a single branch. Even if a coral wasn?t showing signs of pests it was fragged. All glue and other traces of acros on the rocks were cut away with frag sheers.

I glued all the fresh cut pieces to a large mag float that can be easily removed from the tank and dipped weekly or more frequently. My thought process here is that the bugs need acros to eat and with no more on the rocks they?re either going o starve or make their was to the mag float which is a good way from the rock work and in front of a gyre. If they make it to the mag float they will stay there and can be picked off and dipped easily.

I know this seems a bit drastic but I don?t want to be dealing with this for the next several months only to end up losing everything. I saw bugs as I was fragging and bite marks here and there but I wouldn?t be surprised if I just eliminated the majority of them.

This tank has essentially become my qt tank

Thoughts?
 

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mshur

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Wow . Did you find out what kinda bugs are those ?
I know someone here who got black bugs and he had to re srart his tank. Hope you dont have to do that bro
Terrible



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

nanoreefer22

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Thanks bud. It's gonna be an uphill battle I'm sure, just have to stick with it. Today, as I hoped there are no signs of any bugs and all corals that were fragged last night look great. That doesn't mean they aren't somewhere in the tank, cause I know they are. As soon as my dips arrive, I'm going to start.

Going to do 30 seconds - 1 minute of melafix marine, then rinse, then 5 - 8 mins in Revive. Hoping the double dip will weaken them. I chose these two dips because people reported success with both at least stunning the bugs. At this point there isn't much to lose.

Mike, it really sucks as I had just completely filled my tank with all acros. I kept track of where all my acros came from, so whatever I lose will be replaced once I'm bug free for at least a month. Keep that purple slimer for me, I still want it!:thrash:
 

nanoreefer22

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Everything looks okay today. Haven?t seen any bugs since fragging and placing them all on the mag float. Bugs are still in the tank for sure I?m just not sure if they can make it to acros as this is directly in front of a gyre xf250 so it may be too turbulent for them to land or crawl to.

Dips arrive in a few days and the real fun will start. If there?s no signs of bugs I?ll just do the gentle melafix dip and a regular strength revive dip immediately after.
 

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reefiness

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I still cant believe that magfloat. It looks so funny with all those different sticks coming off. Good luck with the dipping. As I had mentioned earlier, my strain was immune to everything. Never tried melafix, but they laughed at revive
 

nanoreefer22

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Alright so day 1 of dipping is over and I saw what I believe to be those bugs fall off the corals. I counted less than a dozen when I finished the melafix marine dip and then another 3 when I finished the revive dip.

I did normal strength for both dips at 5 minutes each. Shaking and swirling the bucket every minute. I placed the mag float flat on the bottom of the bucket and attached the magnet to the outside so it wouldn?t move. Worked like a charm. Spent 15 minutes total dipping. Next dip will be Saturday, just melafix. Follow in 4 days by revive. Then in another 4 days by melafix and revive. I?m going to keep dipping until I see no pests for 3 weeks straight.
 

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nanoreefer22

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Day 4 dip and things are looking promising. I've seen no new bite marks and corals are holding up pretty well. Today I wasn't able to see any bugs fall off, just some pods. I went through the same process of Melafix Marine followed immediately by a quick saltwater bath and then Revive. Both dips were done at normal strength for 6-7 minutes each.

I'm going to continue dipping for a few more weeks to make sure they are really gone and no eggs are hidden waiting to hatch. I may have caught this early enough and taken drastic enough measure to beat them. Cutting the corals back to little pieces got rid of the masses and the stragglers seemed to get knocked off in the first dip.

I'll keep this thread updated dip by dip to see what comes of this.

Cautiously optimistic over here.
 

nanoreefer22

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Another week gone and no sign of bite marks or pests. Did another round of dipping today and didn?t have any bugs fall off.

Going to do two more weeks of dipping. Colors are sticking around and corals are starting to slowly encrust the glue on the mag float. All good signs.

Hopeful I won?t lose any more pieces at this point.
 

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