Jesse,
Here is the regimen I used to treat Redbugs in my system successfully. This is actually a quote of a post I made on the topic in 2010. My experience only.
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Redbugs are like fleas on a dog. Treat it. Easy to do. One time gets them.
Plus, no one likes getting frags from anyone with RBs.
One large breed dog sized Interceptor pill is just under 1 gram (I weighed it on a digital scale) and treats 400 gallons. Determine your net gallons of water in your system and treat accordingly, 1/2 pill 200 net gallons, 1/4 pill per 100 net gallons. Discontinue any GAC filtration, cut off the air on your skimmer, but keep it running. You dont want to skim out the medicine. Leave everything else as is. You want the Interceptor to circulate everywhere water goes. 6-8 hours ought to do it.
After 6-8 hours some folks recommend a large water change. I think you can just use fresh GAC to get the interceptor out, but what ever you feel safe with. I place fresh GAC in the sytem after treatment, then replace it the next day after 24 hours. This worked for me. I did not do a large WC, but it certainly wouldn't hurt.
The important thing to keep in mind is that more interceptor doesn't mean better. The above dosage will kill redbugs, but should leave your larger crustaceans unharmed. It did in my system when I treated last year. You can OD corals with Interceptor, as it does not hurt corals even in high concentrations. But you can kill larger crustaceans with an overdose of Interceptor
Larger crustaceans have 75+ times the body mass of a RB, so the concentration needed to kill RBs is much smaller, so the Interceptor will kill the RBs, but only irritate larger crustaceans. People have issues with shrimps and hermits, etc, dying when they dose too much Interceptor, or do repeated treatments one week apart, which IME is unnecessary.
>
Here is the regimen I used to treat Redbugs in my system successfully. This is actually a quote of a post I made on the topic in 2010. My experience only.
>
Redbugs are like fleas on a dog. Treat it. Easy to do. One time gets them.
Plus, no one likes getting frags from anyone with RBs.
One large breed dog sized Interceptor pill is just under 1 gram (I weighed it on a digital scale) and treats 400 gallons. Determine your net gallons of water in your system and treat accordingly, 1/2 pill 200 net gallons, 1/4 pill per 100 net gallons. Discontinue any GAC filtration, cut off the air on your skimmer, but keep it running. You dont want to skim out the medicine. Leave everything else as is. You want the Interceptor to circulate everywhere water goes. 6-8 hours ought to do it.
After 6-8 hours some folks recommend a large water change. I think you can just use fresh GAC to get the interceptor out, but what ever you feel safe with. I place fresh GAC in the sytem after treatment, then replace it the next day after 24 hours. This worked for me. I did not do a large WC, but it certainly wouldn't hurt.
The important thing to keep in mind is that more interceptor doesn't mean better. The above dosage will kill redbugs, but should leave your larger crustaceans unharmed. It did in my system when I treated last year. You can OD corals with Interceptor, as it does not hurt corals even in high concentrations. But you can kill larger crustaceans with an overdose of Interceptor
Larger crustaceans have 75+ times the body mass of a RB, so the concentration needed to kill RBs is much smaller, so the Interceptor will kill the RBs, but only irritate larger crustaceans. People have issues with shrimps and hermits, etc, dying when they dose too much Interceptor, or do repeated treatments one week apart, which IME is unnecessary.
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