I have tryed a slight variation of the technique described in this thread, and after 3 months, I think it is safe to say that it worked. I will say that I did not do a controlled scientific experiment, but I hope my results will encourage someone to do just that. Personally, I don't have the time or the resources.
My objective was to modify this technique to be able to irradicate the bugs without adding medication directly to the tank. I did not want to loose my shrimp and other crustations, and did not feel confident that there would not be a possibility of some kind of residual effect from the medication.
Here is what I did:
First I filled a cooler with tank water and placed a powerhead and a heater in it. I then took all of my acroporas out of my tank and placed them in the cooler (luckily most were still small). I then dosed the cooler with slightly more than the recommended amount, due to some uncertainty about the drug store scales I used being accurate. I decided to leave the acros in overnight, just to be sure that all bugs were dead.
The next day, I took all of the acros out and placed them in a seperate tank that I had set up, which previously had no acros in it, hence no bugs. I left the acros in this tank for 12 days since there was some discussion that they could not live more than 10 days in a tank without a host.
I then placed them back into my main tank, which, as I said before, has been bug free for 3 months now.
I did not repeat the treatment after the initial 12 hour dip. That is not to say that some other factor could not have prevented them from returning.
Out of about 15 different acros, I lost none. Some browned out a little from the lower light in the temporary tank, but they bounced back within about a week of being put back in my main display.
Take this as a grain of salt. What worked for me may not work for you. Also, I realize that it may not be feasable for everyone to remove their entire colonies from their tank or to set up an additional tank. If anyone else does decide to try this or a similar method, I would be interested in hearing about your results.
My objective was to modify this technique to be able to irradicate the bugs without adding medication directly to the tank. I did not want to loose my shrimp and other crustations, and did not feel confident that there would not be a possibility of some kind of residual effect from the medication.
Here is what I did:
First I filled a cooler with tank water and placed a powerhead and a heater in it. I then took all of my acroporas out of my tank and placed them in the cooler (luckily most were still small). I then dosed the cooler with slightly more than the recommended amount, due to some uncertainty about the drug store scales I used being accurate. I decided to leave the acros in overnight, just to be sure that all bugs were dead.
The next day, I took all of the acros out and placed them in a seperate tank that I had set up, which previously had no acros in it, hence no bugs. I left the acros in this tank for 12 days since there was some discussion that they could not live more than 10 days in a tank without a host.
I then placed them back into my main tank, which, as I said before, has been bug free for 3 months now.
I did not repeat the treatment after the initial 12 hour dip. That is not to say that some other factor could not have prevented them from returning.
Out of about 15 different acros, I lost none. Some browned out a little from the lower light in the temporary tank, but they bounced back within about a week of being put back in my main display.
Take this as a grain of salt. What worked for me may not work for you. Also, I realize that it may not be feasable for everyone to remove their entire colonies from their tank or to set up an additional tank. If anyone else does decide to try this or a similar method, I would be interested in hearing about your results.
