Huskymaniac
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3 treatments 1 week apart. About 4 months.
Treating BLACK bugs with Dr. G's
- Thread starter JustinZ
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3 treatments 1 week apart. About 4 months.
Capitol Reef Corals
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Just wanted to share my experience with Dr. G's and black bugs.
So a few days ago I noticed some bugs on my smooth skin acros. I had red bugs before and I initially thought I had them again. Because of my prior experience I already had Dr. G's on hand. I tried my previous dosage of 7ml/30 gallons, turned off my carbon reactor, skimmer, and UV sterilizer, let it sit for 24 hours and checked on it again. To my surprise the treatment did nothing to them. Did more research and figured I had black bugs. I then upped the dosage to 1ml/gallon and within a few hours, all of the bugs have disappeared!
Dr. G's does work to treat black bugs! I would highly recommend anyone trying it out. I will echo that you have to remove as many inverts as you can because it will kill them. Going to let it sit a few days, then turn back on the carbon, skimmer, UV, and do a large water change.
It's just a shame that Dr. G's seems to be so expensive nowadays. $35 on their website, then an additional $15 for shipping. When I first bought it I think I paid $30 total. But of course, I ordered another bottle just in case!
So a few days ago I noticed some bugs on my smooth skin acros. I had red bugs before and I initially thought I had them again. Because of my prior experience I already had Dr. G's on hand. I tried my previous dosage of 7ml/30 gallons, turned off my carbon reactor, skimmer, and UV sterilizer, let it sit for 24 hours and checked on it again. To my surprise the treatment did nothing to them. Did more research and figured I had black bugs. I then upped the dosage to 1ml/gallon and within a few hours, all of the bugs have disappeared!
Dr. G's does work to treat black bugs! I would highly recommend anyone trying it out. I will echo that you have to remove as many inverts as you can because it will kill them. Going to let it sit a few days, then turn back on the carbon, skimmer, UV, and do a large water change.
It's just a shame that Dr. G's seems to be so expensive nowadays. $35 on their website, then an additional $15 for shipping. When I first bought it I think I paid $30 total. But of course, I ordered another bottle just in case!
Capitol Reef Corals
Well-Known Member
Seems like Dr. G's at 1ml/gallon actually did not affect my Astrea snails. I have seen 1 small emerald crab die, however I have also seen 1 small and 1 large emerald crab live this whole time.
Just a side note on cost (unrelated to Dr. G's). The FDA sued an "aquarium medicine manufacturers" (Not Dr. G's) over chloroquine phosphate. It's just that it's a risky business to be in; the risks are high to the business and hence cost, especially for a niche medicine goes up.
I've gone to vets to ask them to prescribe chloroquine phosphate for my fish, and to say they were less than supportive would be kind; so I went to ebay, it worked great, saved my fish and that's just the logistics. It's sad when good laws intending to protect people become troublesome for others; it's hard to predict how laws will be enforced.
I too will pony up for Dr. G's next time. I've used it a few times with good success.
Huskymaniac
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Those black bugs are the worst. I got them from one of the live sales through a vendor sponsor. I thought I beat them in June but think they may be back.
Capitol Reef Corals
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Also wanted to emphasize again that you will have die off in the tank from some inverts, pods, and stuff. My nitrates shot up from 16 ppm to 90 ppm. I lost a couple of high end acro frags/colonies because of this (MattV Rainbow Envy, Pink Cadillac, CC Disney Jr., Rainbow Blossom). Make sure you key an eye on your nutrients. My alk and calc did not seem to be affected much.
NYC Penciler
New Member
Just found the reason for coral loss in my tank. BlaCK BUGS! little jerks.
I’m about to start Dr. G’s. I was hoping you could help me:
1: Should I do 3 treatments, once a week? Or is 2 treatments enough?
2: Should I do a water change between treatments? If not, wouldn’t the amount of Dr G’s in the water go up too high?
3: Is the correct amount: 1ml OF THE CONCENTRATE per gallon? Or is it diluted first?
Thanks!
I’m about to start Dr. G’s. I was hoping you could help me:
1: Should I do 3 treatments, once a week? Or is 2 treatments enough?
2: Should I do a water change between treatments? If not, wouldn’t the amount of Dr G’s in the water go up too high?
3: Is the correct amount: 1ml OF THE CONCENTRATE per gallon? Or is it diluted first?
Thanks!
Huskymaniac
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1 treatment per week. Large water change in between treatments. Does 4ml per gallon since you want to dose 4x standard amount for Black Bugs.
NYC Penciler
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Thanks! 4ml?? Now I’m confused. The other people in this thread both used 1 ml per gallon successfully. I thought 1ml per gallon was already more than the standard dose.
Huskymaniac
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The 1ml was for regular red bugs.
NYC Penciler
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Nope, on this thread both Justin Z and Stephen Petruzzo used 1ml per gallon for black bugs.
JustinZ:
Stephen Petruzzo:
Huskymaniac
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I'm they were still alive for me at 1ml per gallon.
NYC Penciler
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I’m just concerned that is too high, will that dose hurt my corals?
Huskymaniac
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Hey guys hopefully everyone won the battle against black bugs.
I too had them last year and lost a lot of corals, not only acropora btw. Anyway, i also tried doctor G's and it seemed to work but after a few days to a week the bugs were back.
The only thing that worked for me was "interceptor" pills for dogs.
you might have to sweet talk your vet for it though and also it has a different name now . or find it online somehow, there's an article on "melevsreef" on how to approach this.
the only thing is that black bugs are resilient mofos. so i ended up having to up the dose by 10
times. this will annihilate all inverts and all copepods in your system. and basically anything on live rock. to be followed by an outbreak of green hair algae. This seems to be an indication that the interceptor did the job. i know it sounds drastic but its worth it when everything is dying. i remember before i tried this i was ready to tear down the tank after battling the bugs for over 6 moths.
if anyone wants to try this, remember to remove all inverts you don't to kill.
if you want to make sure. repeat the process after one month!
and then re seed with new copepods.
this is the instructions just multiply the dose by x10
https://www.melevsreef.com/articles/red-bugs-no-more
I too had them last year and lost a lot of corals, not only acropora btw. Anyway, i also tried doctor G's and it seemed to work but after a few days to a week the bugs were back.
The only thing that worked for me was "interceptor" pills for dogs.
you might have to sweet talk your vet for it though and also it has a different name now . or find it online somehow, there's an article on "melevsreef" on how to approach this.
the only thing is that black bugs are resilient mofos. so i ended up having to up the dose by 10
times. this will annihilate all inverts and all copepods in your system. and basically anything on live rock. to be followed by an outbreak of green hair algae. This seems to be an indication that the interceptor did the job. i know it sounds drastic but its worth it when everything is dying. i remember before i tried this i was ready to tear down the tank after battling the bugs for over 6 moths.
if anyone wants to try this, remember to remove all inverts you don't to kill.
if you want to make sure. repeat the process after one month!
and then re seed with new copepods.
this is the instructions just multiply the dose by x10
https://www.melevsreef.com/articles/red-bugs-no-more
Dr. G's and interceptor are pretty much the same thing, milbemycin oxyime.
I find that if you have an infestation in your main system, your going to have to treat your system multiple times to really eradicate the infestation. Similar to antibiotics, you need to take the prescription for the entire duration to get good results.
I keep about 2 bottles of Dr. G's on hand constantly. Bit pricey but it's a solid dip/treatment.
NYC Penciler
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So cool that you got rid of them!
My understanding is that the active ingredient in Interseptor is the same as in Dr G’s (Milbemcyn oxime). So theoretically both should work. I’m just trying to figure out the proper dosage of Dr. G’s.
I’m still black bug free. Two treatments of 1cc/gallon about 10 days apart. Did not do any water change or carbon use after the treatments. Turned the fractionator off for the first few days each time. If I had another bottle I would have liked a third treatment for good measure. I think not doing water changes helped since the bugs didn’t die instantly and hung on for a day. Good luck.
going that route. did you also kill all your copepods and iverts? how about the algea bloom?
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