Acro pests?

[Acro maniac]

So the Story begins with with the find of flatworms on February 27th this year. Which isn't a big deal because I've dealt with them in the past they're pretty easy to eradicate. Over the past two months I have been working a long hours but have been able to maintain my regular maintenance schedule of cleaning Rock sucking out this detritus and weekly water changes. On March 8th I decided to switch salts from instant ocean to Aqua Forest. My first water change with aquaforest consisted of 15gallons. On the 13th from work I noticed I had some tissue loss on a couple frags and and PE Loss on a milli. I blamed it on the new salt. So this week I decided to do 50% Instant Ocean 50% aquaforest for my water changeon the 17th. When I return home on the 23rdSsc and vivid rainbow showed slight stn. So i hit them with some glue to stop the progression.
24th, 25 gallon 50/50 left for the week returned on the 31st, the stn stopped, but colors paled slightly, on many corals. When I returned on the 8th I had no PE on purple Nana and tri-colored validia. A couple Acans receding. Also noticed hair algae which has not ever been an issue so I switch back to Instant Ocean thanking all the issues were due to the salt change. So on the night I did my normal routine but uped wc value with a 35-gallon instant ocean only water change to get out a volume of af. Also started taking pictures to log the progress. I'll post the pictures below.
Some other things to note would be my dosing schedule had to be reduced due to the lack of growth on the 14th. I also on that day noticed the corals looking more stress with zero polyp extension for the Nana, Validia comma 50% PE on the red planet, Joe the coral, Ballina and many other frags. One thing I noted was I'm still consuming calcium but not consuming the amount of alk as before.
Now on the 20th the corals again look worse pale color now.So I've been doing a little research on pests and done some inspecting with a magnifying glass. What I thought were pods, but after reviewing Castaways thread (oh man im freaking out )could possibly be red bugs? Do red bugs effect pe? Also what would be the connection with the acans?
If there are any details I forgot to leave out and please ask and I'll respond as soon as possible. Fwiw comma all my calcium magnesium alk po4 no.3 specific gravity temp levels have been stable through this whole situation.
Heres a pic before and now of purple nana.

View attachment 20161228_181850.jpg

 

[Salty1962]

Red Bugs definitely effect PE. The other corals could be acting up due to the change of the salt. Too many changes and new found pests are probably your issue. JMO

 

[Acro maniac]

Thanks, thats what im suspecting. Ill be looking into effective treatments

 

[Acro maniac]

After closer inspection the suspect critters dont show the yellow and red color that is associated with the red bugs. Could they be tan bugs? I tried to take picutures with no success.

 

[BrunoSnow]

Did you test for your ph no2 no3 or amónia?
The light is OK or do you have for a long time?
Let's start from the basic tho try to understand the problem because red bugs are lot different from pods you will be able to diferenciate them right away

 

[Acro maniac]

I have not tested amonia in 12or so years. All po4 no3 mag cal alk sg and temp have all been tested weekly and are stable. Ph I dont test offten although i did test it last week out of concern and it was the same as the last time i tested 8.15. All wc water is tested dosed and tested to match system water.

 

[Acro maniac]

Not convienced i have (red bugs) due to no color maybe a different type of pest bug. Here is a pic from my cell phone of my tricolor validia. The dots in the pic all move like pods and look like pods to me but i could be wrong.
Someone please help me id this.

 

[BrunoSnow]

http://melevsreef.com/redbugs

This article is about red bugs from the photo that you have, to me seems very diferent they seem some kind of black bug, did you add any new coral to your system?

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2010/3/corals

Maybe here you can find the answer

 

[Acro maniac]

I did add anew frag about 3 months ago. I have now learned a valuble lesson.

 

[BrunoSnow]

Living and learning
At least a bath in water of your tank and iodine concentration, do not solve all the problems but helps when you buy new coral.
Now is the time to solve the problem be very careful with medications and do a lot of new water in case you need to do a water change andhave active carbon is my advice, best of luck in your demand, keep us posted.

 

[Acro maniac]

Living and learning
At least a bath in water of your tank and iodine concentration, do not solve all the problems but helps when you buy new coral.
Now is the time to solve the problem be very careful with medications and do a lot of new water in case you need to do a water change andhave active carbon is my advice, best of luck in your demand, keep us posted.

I keep posting the progress .
I read the article earlier thats actually the one that lead me away from red bugs and to black . Seems to me im looking at intercepter as treatment . Because i have it on hand also corals most effected are on rocks that i would have reaquascape if removed.
I do have about 35gallons of water on hand and can make more . But i need to reasrch some more about the treatment before i just do it. Also need to relocate some shrimp and crabs to my orher tank.

 

[Acro maniac]

I have started dosing interceptor.
Based on the research o have done these black bugs are less responsive to treatment. So i uped the dosage 4x.
Based on some of the founders of the use of interceptor a larger dose has no ill effects on corals or fish. So we shall see. I have transplanted as many crabs and shimp as possible to a temp home in another growout tank for the duration of the treatment.
My plan is to dose the one tablet (done) with skimmer airline removed but still running. After 12hours i will do a 25% water change and commence skimming.observe for the week and retreat the tank next weekend. With thevsame process as well as a third treatment. I will keep posting progress or decline. Hopeful for progress.

 

[Acro maniac]

Just an observation as i was finishing the above post. All the fish in the tank are actively feeding on some i cant see. Possibly black bugs and not just my benificial pod population.

 

[Sabellafella]

Not convienced i have (red bugs) due to no color maybe a different type of pest bug. Here is a pic from my cell phone of my tricolor validia. The dots in the pic all move like pods and look like pods to me but i could be wrong.
Someone please help me id this.

There is no id but i know what these are. Theyre parasitic copepods to acropora. Theyre almost.near impossible to get off with a dip. I dont know what species they are, but i do know youll have to try your best to get them off because theyre a real pain

They also eat away at base growth and form a "web" type of mucus on the flesh of acropora. Try using a higher concentration dip of coral rx or bayer. Youll have to be relentless with a baster/pipette at blowing them off

 

[Acro maniac]

Dip isnt really an option for a few of the infested colonies, as there encrusted to rocks that are fixed o other rocks with acrylic rod.
I hope this works i really dont want to tear this tank apart now. Im in the process of having a new house built and have a 180g in the garage awaiting a build. Worst comes to worst ill frag everything and start for scratch.
Not wanting to go that route.

 

[BrunoSnow]

When I say that you will have a demand in your way I didn't think that was going to be this hard... Have you read in that link that I post to change temp and water flow

"Parameters Possibly Affecting Parasite Populations
Part of a successful control strategy for parasites might include manipulation of physical parameters. We'll briefly discuss two - temperature and water motion. These are easily (but not necessarily inexpensively) controlled."


Maybe the stress on the parasites could help a better effect from the medical

 

[Sabellafella]

Dip isnt really an option for a few of the infested colonies, as there encrusted to rocks that are fixed o other rocks with acrylic rod.
I hope this works i really dont want to tear this tank apart now. Im in the process of having a new house built and have a 180g in the garage awaiting a build. Worst comes to worst ill frag everything and start for scratch.
Not wanting to go that route.

Its real tuff to be tearing off colonys like that, but you can always reglue them over the encrustment usually will grow back in no time. But i skipped by your interceptor post, witch is 100% your best way to go about it. The treatment works great all together.

Going to need to remove all shrimps crabs and snails as well

 

[Acro maniac]

When I say that you will have a demand in your way I didn't think that was going to be this hard... Have you read in that link that I post to change temp and water flow

"Parameters Possibly Affecting Parasite Populations
Part of a successful control strategy for parasites might include manipulation of physical parameters. We'll briefly discuss two - temperature and water motion. These are easily (but not necessarily inexpensively) controlled."


Maybe the stress on the parasites could help a better effect from the medical

I have read a bunch of info in the past few days to pin piont specific thread for a specific statement. Idk but ill reread the link

 

[Acro maniac]

Its real tuff to be tearing off colonys like that, but you can always reglue them over the encrustment usually will grow back in no time. But i skipped by your interceptor post, witch is 100% your best way to go about it. The treatment works great all together.

Going to need to remove all shrimps crabs and snails as well

Thanks hoping for the best.
I can actually cut the colonies off with a hack saw if it comes to that and reglue the cut . The rock i have cuts pretty easy

 

[Acro maniac]

I did reread the temp and water movement i didnt add the temp change to my treatment plan do to the many times he said it was inconclusive. I feel i have decent water flow in my90g dt (2) maxspecs 230's on 90% and a hydor 1150 . Plus the fact that im blowing off the infestwd corals with a baster and or extra powerhead