Interceptor for LPS, yes, LPS

[benihana]

Yes, I know many of you have used this treatment for SPS, and SPS only. I have tried to document everything that I have noticed and did, incase there are others of you out there that have either experienced the same thing or may experience the same thing down the road.

I started to notice that one of my Acan Lord colonies was not extending it’s feeders on a regular basis about 2 weeks ago. Over the past week, I noticed that the tissue was starting to recede and the colony looked “flat”. I proceeded to take out the colony on Saturday 10/15 and dip it in 2x strength TPMCC for 15 minutes, and placed it back in the tank. On Sunday I looked at the colony multiple times and it still was receding, so on Monday I went to SWE and talked to Li, he recommended that I try a mixture of Reef Dip and Melafix for 15 minutes. He went on to say that if that did not work, people have posted on RC that they have had success with this issue by using Interceptor. I was not able to mix up the concoction until Tuesday night, but when I was able to I used 1 cap Reef Dip & 2 caps of Melafix to ½ gallon of tank water and let the corals sit for 15 minutes. On Wednesday I looked at the colony and it still was receding, albeit slower, but it had not stopped completely.

So on Thursday I read up on the Interceptor treatment on RC (link is below) and called my vet to confirm that he would be willing to prescribe/sell me one of the large tablets used to treat 51-100lb dogs. One of these tablets treats 360 gallons of water. I then went over to SWE and picked up some extra carbon to ensure that I would have enough to run when the treatment had run it’s course.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1400291

When I got home on Thursday night I mixed up a fresh batch of SW, and set up the 40B that I had just picked up last Friday. I added about 15 gallons of water to the tank, along with a heater and a powerhead for water movement. I then went to my tank and started to collect as many of the snails and hermit crabs as I could find. I got most of them, including the Acro crab that was in one of my colonies. I then made a fish trap in hopes of catching both of the Cleaner Shrimp that I have, but had no luck. I covered the air intake of my skimmer since the treatment has to pass through all of your equipment, and the skimmer has to be on, just not producing skimmate. I opened the Interceptor and put it in a bowl and went back upstairs to grab a spoon to crush it with, when I came back down, the tablet was gone and my Beagle (who eats everything) running away from the bowl…so after a bit of frustration, and a little worrying since he is only 30 lbs, I went back to the Vet (it just happened to be their late night) and picked up ANOTHER Interceptor tablet. Since I was not able to catch the shrimp, I decided to cut back the strength to about 2x or about 1/3 of the tablet for my total water volume in my system after reading that an individual on RC had luck at 2x strength and it NOT killing her crustaceans. I was going to add the Interceptor on Thursday night, but by the time I was ready to do so, it was about 9pm, and everything I had read said to do a 25% water change at the 6 hour mark, so I decided to wait until Friday morning.

It is now Friday morning and I tried again (albeit another failed attempt) to catch the cleaner shrimp at about 7am. I dissolved the 1/3 of a tablet that was crushed on Thursday night in some tank water, and let it sit for about 20 minutes since it does not dissolve very quickly. At 8am, I added the treatment to my tank.

Now, we just sit and wait….and PRAY that this works!!

I will continue to update as I am able to

[David Grigor]

All that trouble to get the interceptor and the dog ate it......quite funny reading about it not so funny for you though......

[freshfish]

Hey Ben I had the best luck with melifix treatment multipul times of treatment. And cutting the recession off.

[Screwtape]

Good luck!

I'll be interested to see how it turns out for you. I also have an Acan Lord frag that is receding and hasn't responded to any dips and read through that thread also. I might have to give this a shot soon too.

[tico mike]

Melifix here too. LPS recession stopper. May take multiple dips.

[benihana]

Well, as of 11:30 when I looked I saw one of the cleaner shrimp still alive and kicking, so that is a good sign.

[benihana]

Yeah, I thought more about the melafix and was worried that since I was seeing it in a couple colonies, one more so than the others, I thought it may be best to just do the whole damn tank

[benihana]

I changed 25% of the water at 2pm (6 hours after the initial treatment), and headed out to run some errands.

It is now 9:35 and the lights just went out. There have been no casualties, including both cleaner shrimp and a few snails that I missed in the 1st pass.

Planning on changing another 25% tomorrow.

As far as the Acan, it looks like the recession has stopped, but I think I need another day or two to accurately make that statement

[benihana]

So it has been a couple more days and the Shrimp are still alive, and best part is the recession has not started again. PLanning on doing another treatment on Friday/Saturday to kill off anything that may have either made it through or hatched since then.

Overall, things are looking good

[David Grigor]

So did you witness any of these "Black bugs" coming out of the acan during the interceptor treatment ?

[benihana]

I didn't witness any, so I can't confirm that is what the problem was. But, from what I read they are pretty small and I could have easily missed them

[Screwtape]

Glad to hear things seem to be going well.

[benihana]

Just a quick update. The acan has started to regrow the cener of the polyps that were "eaten" away, so it looks as if it has made a full recovery. The only loss that I had was my acro crab, and that was becasue I could not find him in the Q-tank when I went to get all of the snails & crabs to put them back in the DT.

All in all, this was a very successful method of getting rid of what ever my Acan had.

[Screwtape]

Great to hear. Also to clarify, did you start running the carbon after the 6 hour mark when you did your waterchange as well? Also did you end up just doing the 2 25% water changes for 2 days in a row, or did you do any more to try and remove the interceptor?

[benihana]

I actually only did the 1st 25 gallon water change, and not the second. As far as the carbon goes, yes, I stated running it when I did the water change.

If I would have done a higher dose of the Interceptor, I would have done another (maybe even 2 more) water change, but felt that since the dose was low, and there was nothing ill-effected from it, I decided not to do the second WC or dose

[David Grigor]

Water change is just a pre-cautionary. After doing the interceptor treatment many many times for acros, I now skip doing the water change part. If your system is small then probably worth the cost of the salt. Larger systems where it may take a whole bucket, it can be skipped.