A little Help with Red Bug Treatment

Acro maniac · May 28, 2018

I know theres plenty of threads out about red bugs and treatment... But i have not seen anyone talk about how long they can live without a host. The reason Im asking is because I have them in both my systems. I have removed all the acro frags from the rocks (new tank)and relocated to a rack on the front glass and my plan was to dip all my sps in a bayer solution 1 time a week for about 3 weeks. After each dip they will be returned to the tank.
The other system is an overloaded frag tank that i can remove and dip then return to the tank.
Is this going to be sucessful or can the red bugs live without an acro host in the system? What is the life expectancy of red bugs? Should i dip more frequently?
Like the title says, a little help please.

jda · May 28, 2018

I am just going off of memory, but 60-90 days without acros if you want to be sure.

I would just treat both tanks. This is a very safe treatment with few side effects. If you do not have any ornamental shrimp, then you might never even notice anything.

Be prepared for AEFW... lots of people get AEFW infestations after they kill the red bugs. It does not happen to everybody, but it does a lot of people. The red bugs seem to keep the AEFW at bay but they can flourish without them.

Acro maniac · May 28, 2018

jda said:
I am just going off of memory, but 60-90 days without acros if you want to be sure.

I would just treat both tanks. This is a very safe treatment with few side effects. If you do not have any ornamental shrimp, then you might never even notice anything.

Be prepared for AEFW... lots of people get AEFW infestations after they kill the red bugs. It does not happen to everybody, but it does a lot of people. The red bugs seem to keep the AEFW at bay but they can flourish without them.

Thanks for the input but Im not going to treat the whole tank. I have interceptor been down that road it didnt end well for me. Complete unexplainable tank crash 9 months later in a 10 year old system. I also have shrimp in both.
60-90 days for red bugs or aefw??