Update:
While the tank was starting to settle in post-fumigation & growth was kicking in, I settled into a new maintenance rhythm. Testing the tank once a week, 15% water change every other week, etc.
Things were going well until I spotted some white patches at the base of one of my SPS mini-colonies. At first I thought it was simply a delayed stress event from the fumigation two months back. But then I noticed some STN on another colony base and another.
I've learned in this hobby to not over-react. How I responded:
As far as I can tell, these are black bugs: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/black-bugs-an-acro-keepers-worst-nightmare.493329/page-6
When it set in that I have a big pest to deal with and it affected my most expensive coral, my stomach turned. I've been here before with bubble algae or GHA and I know why some people just give up and restart their tanks. But to some extent I was also relieved - it's not my water quality, it's not anything I'm doing wrong as a reefer (other than not dipping coral purchases enough).
In terms of next steps, it seems as though the only way to treat black bugs in the tank is to do an Interceptor treatment, but you'll also wipe out your pods & some of your inverts in the process. I could live with this route if I didn't have a captive-bred Mandarin. Wiping out my pods would be a massive setback for her and she doesn't eat prepared foods. So the only other route is dipping.
The problem with dipping is that most of my corals are glued to the rock structure so it's very difficult to remove, dip, and return the coral to the tank. So what I've decided is to follow @Coral Euphoria's lead by mounting all of my SPS to removable rod. Here is a video where he details how he does it.
Here's the plan:
While the tank was starting to settle in post-fumigation & growth was kicking in, I settled into a new maintenance rhythm. Testing the tank once a week, 15% water change every other week, etc.
Things were going well until I spotted some white patches at the base of one of my SPS mini-colonies. At first I thought it was simply a delayed stress event from the fumigation two months back. But then I noticed some STN on another colony base and another.
I've learned in this hobby to not over-react. How I responded:
- Water chemistry. First step was I sent in an ICP test. I always keep one on hand for this very reason.
- Change carbon. In case something got into the tank or if there was chemical warfare from the softies, I wanted to have fresh carbon filtering the water.
- Cuprisorb. In the past, I've had ICP results show high tin or other metals so I threw in a bag of cuprisorb, which is something else I always keep on hand.
- Inspect magnets. If there are metals, exposed magnets are a common source. It's a bit of a PITA, but I didn't want laziness to stand in the way of tank health so I removed every piece of equipment in the tank to fully inspect for any signs of rust.
- All For One. I noted that I switched to Tropic Marin's DIY All For One a month back as I liked the concept of having 1 dosing head vs. 3. Due to some "I never had this issue before All For Reef" paranoia, I switched back to ESV 3-part (although now I know this wasn't the problem).
- Water changes. After finding nothing obvious amiss, I decided to start changing out the water as another precautionary measure. In the week after discovering the STN, I did two 40g water changes (33% water change).
As far as I can tell, these are black bugs: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/black-bugs-an-acro-keepers-worst-nightmare.493329/page-6
When it set in that I have a big pest to deal with and it affected my most expensive coral, my stomach turned. I've been here before with bubble algae or GHA and I know why some people just give up and restart their tanks. But to some extent I was also relieved - it's not my water quality, it's not anything I'm doing wrong as a reefer (other than not dipping coral purchases enough).
In terms of next steps, it seems as though the only way to treat black bugs in the tank is to do an Interceptor treatment, but you'll also wipe out your pods & some of your inverts in the process. I could live with this route if I didn't have a captive-bred Mandarin. Wiping out my pods would be a massive setback for her and she doesn't eat prepared foods. So the only other route is dipping.
The problem with dipping is that most of my corals are glued to the rock structure so it's very difficult to remove, dip, and return the coral to the tank. So what I've decided is to follow @Coral Euphoria's lead by mounting all of my SPS to removable rod. Here is a video where he details how he does it.
Here's the plan:
- Remove SPS. This is going to be painful because I'm going to damage corals & break-up colonies in the process, but I'm going to remove all SPS and attach them to removable structures.
- Augment Aquascape. Unlike Abe, I didn't factor this into my original aquascape so my structure doesn't have holes to put the rod mounts into. My plan is to drill live rock I have in my sump and then adhere it (as seamlessly as possible) to the my existing aquascape.
- Weekly dips. Until I see zero signs of black bugs, I'm going to do weekly dips. I have Bayer & Revive on hand so those are going to be the first dips, but I also purchased Dr. G's SPS dip, which is supposed to be the most effective alternative to Interceptor.