Can you overdose interceptor

[tokigami]

i found some white looking bugs on some frags that came in and put into my Quarantine. After doing much research i think the only thing that will kill them is 4x interceptor treatment. I'm not worried about pods dying and only care about killing the white bugs.

is 4x interceptor for 12 hours 3 weeks in a row the only solution and is it possible to overdose the system and kill the coral?

has anybody ever tried a 10x dose?

 

[jda]

I do not know about 10x.

4x will not likely hurt any coral, but I would worry about most inverts... easy in a QT or coral-only, not so good in a reef.

I used to dose interceptor pretty strong just with corals.

 

[Big E]

You may also want to try a longer duration, like 24 hours at normal levels.

I know some people that do one dose of interceptor and just leave it in. They never water change or run carbon after the dose.

Try using expel or melafix as a dip. They kill them on incoming frags.

Of course the dip isn't much help if they are in the display.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Yea I have left it in the tank for days with no carbon or water change with no negative effects. I have used about 3 times dosage too and done that. I have had shrimp live through it too but sometimes one or two will die. It doesn’t kill everything, and populations will bounce back quickly afterwards.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

But I would think that a high dosage compared to that will mess with the tank a little, but would think it would recover. Not sure what the effects would be besides bug die off, maybe it would make the nutrient balance off and the bugs might not repopulate as quickly as normal.

 

[tokigami]

But I would think that a high dosage compared to that will mess with the tank a little, but would think it would recover. Not sure what the effects would be besides bug die off, maybe it would make the nutrient balance off and the bugs might not repopulate as quickly as normal.

thanks all for your responses. i did 4x doseage and its been 4 days and i still have not done a water change. corals seem fine. so i guess it worked

 

[Jettareefer223]

I will say this much interceptor is fairly safe, and I’ve done up to 8-9x dosage several times for 24-48 hours duration time for in tank treatments (equates to 4 11.5mg chews on 55 gallons net volume treating grey/black bugs). Followed by no more 10-15% w/c, 1/2 cup of carbon which I take out after 36-48 hrs, and make sure my skimmer cup’s clean and wet skim. My whole collection takes it without showing any noticeable signs of distress often displaying exuberant PE, except for my PC rainbows they immediately lose PE and becoming covered in filaments happens like clockwork (within 2 days post exposure return to normal, filaments retract after the w/c typically). Most lps coral display feeding responses I would like to think they enjoy the beef flavoring lol! I actually just treated my tank (55 gallons net volume) last night roughly 6-7x dosage (3 full 11.5mg chews used) @ 16 hrs last night. In the past I’ve waited to long and certain badly infected colonies needed time to heal from damage caused by the bugs. I finally reach a point where I feel confident at minimum 2-3 follow up treatments a week a part can be administered. I’ve decided to stick with duration times within 16-18 hours and more
reoccurring exposure vs. higher dosage at longer duration. Even at 8-9x dosage/48 hour duration they came back w/o follow ups. With all this said I don’t find interceptor dangerous just as long as you use it competently! You can kill just about anything with to much any certain thing “overdose” for that matter.

The biggest factor IMO would be treating a system that heavy which hasn’t had exposure to interceptor or regular reoccurring treatments due the amount of possible die off. Once a system is treated frequently I’ve notice associated “rebound” time significantly shorter with less associated “die off”.

 

[tokigami]

I will say this much interceptor is fairly safe, and I’ve done up to 8-9x dosage several times for 24-48 hours duration time for in tank treatments (equates to 4 11.5mg chews on 55 gallons net volume treating grey/black bugs). Followed by no more 10-15% w/c, 1/2 cup of carbon which I take out after 36-48 hrs, and make sure my skimmer cup’s clean and wet skim. My whole collection takes it without showing any noticeable signs of distress often displaying exuberant PE, except for my PC rainbows they immediately lose PE and becoming covered in filaments happens like clockwork (within 2 days post exposure return to normal, filaments retract after the w/c typically). Most lps coral display feeding responses I would like to think they enjoy the beef flavoring lol! I actually just treated my tank (55 gallons net volume) last night roughly 6-7x dosage (3 full 11.5mg chews used) @ 16 hrs last night. In the past I’ve waited to long and certain badly infected colonies needed time to heal from damage caused by the bugs. I finally reach a point where I feel confident at minimum 2-3 follow up treatments a week a part can be administered. I’ve decided to stick with duration times within 16-18 hours and more
reoccurring exposure vs. higher dosage at longer duration. Even at 8-9x dosage/48 hour duration they came back w/o follow ups. With all this said I don’t find interceptor dangerous just as long as you use it competently! You can kill just about anything with to much any certain thing “overdose” for that matter.

The biggest factor IMO would be treating a system that heavy which hasn’t had exposure to interceptor or regular reoccurring treatments due the amount of possible die off. Once a system is treated frequently I’ve notice associated “rebound” time significantly shorter with less associated “die off”.

thank you for the writeup... i dosed 24 hours ago 4 small dog pill in my 400 gallon. Today all pods are alive and so are the white bugs i am dosing it for. so i guess i need to increase the dosage as this did not kill anything

you mentioned you are dosing for white bugs.. did the treatment kill them or did they keep coming back? also you mentioned things bouncing back.. isn't the idea to kill the white bugs completely so they don't bounce back?

 

[Jettareefer223]

thank you for the writeup... i dosed 24 hours ago 4 small dog pill in my 400 gallon. Today all pods are alive and so are the white bugs i am dosing it for. so i guess i need to increase the dosage as this did not kill anything

you mentioned you are dosing for white bugs.. did the treatment kill them or did they keep coming back? also you mentioned things bouncing back.. isn't the idea to kill the white bugs completely so they don't bounce back?

I would say they’re more grey probably the same thing. You’ll have dose a significantly higher amount than 4 small dog pills in 400 gallons. I assume you have 2.3mg chews? I did the calculation that’s not even enough to treat red bugs once. For ex. I’ve dosed 4 medium dog chews 11.5mg in my 50 gallon for a single treatment (1/8th of your volume).

You have to do 4x standard dose or higher to notice any improvements from my experience with these bugs which will decrease their numbers but doesn’t completely eliminate them. The most important thing is to do 2-3 follow up treatments at the same 4-8x dosage a week apart. This is the only to eliminate them it only works if you do extreme levels of interceptor.

 

[Jettareefer223]

This is the calculator I use. It’s for red bugs so once you plug in which size pills you have and your volume. The amount it spits out you’ll times that by 4-8x! Does that make since? Lol

Acropora Red Bug Milbemycin Treatment Calculator

About the Treatment Acropora Red Bugs (Tegastes acroporanus) are a common pest in Small Polyp Scleractinian (SPS) reef aquariums. While they are nuisan

reefs.com

 

[Reefcowboy]

I just treated my tank a second time two days ago. Used half a large dog chew, 23mg on a 150 gal tank. Approximately 11.5mg
It took the bugs out as far as I can tell. Pods are MIA I'm sure they went out at most part but I'm not worried about them. I would worry about the parazanquitel more than milbemycin if a super high dosage is introduced

 

[tokigami]

I will say this much interceptor is fairly safe, and I’ve done up to 8-9x dosage several times for 24-48 hours duration time for in tank treatments (equates to 4 11.5mg chews on 55 gallons net volume treating grey/black bugs). Followed by no more 10-15% w/c, 1/2 cup of carbon which I take out after 36-48 hrs, and make sure my skimmer cup’s clean and wet skim. My whole collection takes it without showing any noticeable signs of distress often displaying exuberant PE, except for my PC rainbows they immediately lose PE and becoming covered in filaments happens like clockwork (within 2 days post exposure return to normal, filaments retract after the w/c typically). Most lps coral display feeding responses I would like to think they enjoy the beef flavoring lol! I actually just treated my tank (55 gallons net volume) last night roughly 6-7x dosage (3 full 11.5mg chews used) @ 16 hrs last night. In the past I’ve waited to long and certain badly infected colonies needed time to heal from damage caused by the bugs. I finally reach a point where I feel confident at minimum 2-3 follow up treatments a week a part can be administered. I’ve decided to stick with duration times within 16-18 hours and more
reoccurring exposure vs. higher dosage at longer duration. Even at 8-9x dosage/48 hour duration they came back w/o follow ups. With all this said I don’t find interceptor dangerous just as long as you use it competently! You can kill just about anything with to much any certain thing “overdose” for that matter.

The biggest factor IMO would be treating a system that heavy which hasn’t had exposure to interceptor or regular reoccurring treatments due the amount of possible die off. Once a system is treated frequently I’ve notice associated “rebound” time significantly shorter with less associated “die off”.

also do you know if you have black bugs or is it white bugs. i know the interceptor will not kill the black bugs but i heard it kills the white bugs. so maybe you have black bugs which is why they keep coming back..

I would say they’re more grey probably the same thing. You’ll have dose a significantly higher amount than 4 small dog pills in 400 gallons. I assume you have 2.3mg chews? I did the calculation that’s not even enough to treat red bugs once. For ex. I’ve dosed 4 medium dog chews 11.5mg in my 50 gallon for a single treatment (1/8th of your volume).

You have to do 4x standard dose or higher to notice any improvements from my experience with these bugs which will decrease their numbers but doesn’t completely eliminate them. The most important thing is to do 2-3 follow up treatments at the same 4-8x dosage a week apart. This is the only to eliminate them it only works if you do extreme levels of interceptor.

thank you very much for your comments.

I was using 4 pills of the medium size dog one which is one tablet 11.5MG so 4 pills so i think it was 1x the normal treatment for 400 gallons and it did nothing lol

 

[FacebookJail]

I've dosed Sentinel (same main active ingredient) about 50% above recommended dosage with no ill effects.

 

[youngreef]

I will say this much interceptor is fairly safe, and I’ve done up to 8-9x dosage several times for 24-48 hours duration time for in tank treatments (equates to 4 11.5mg chews on 55 gallons net volume treating grey/black bugs). Followed by no more 10-15% w/c, 1/2 cup of carbon which I take out after 36-48 hrs, and make sure my skimmer cup’s clean and wet skim. My whole collection takes it without showing any noticeable signs of distress often displaying exuberant PE, except for my PC rainbows they immediately lose PE and becoming covered in filaments happens like clockwork (within 2 days post exposure return to normal, filaments retract after the w/c typically). Most lps coral display feeding responses I would like to think they enjoy the beef flavoring lol! I actually just treated my tank (55 gallons net volume) last night roughly 6-7x dosage (3 full 11.5mg chews used) @ 16 hrs last night. In the past I’ve waited to long and certain badly infected colonies needed time to heal from damage caused by the bugs. I finally reach a point where I feel confident at minimum 2-3 follow up treatments a week a part can be administered. I’ve decided to stick with duration times within 16-18 hours and more
reoccurring exposure vs. higher dosage at longer duration. Even at 8-9x dosage/48 hour duration they came back w/o follow ups. With all this said I don’t find interceptor dangerous just as long as you use it competently! You can kill just about anything with to much any certain thing “overdose” for that matter.

The biggest factor IMO would be treating a system that heavy which hasn’t had exposure to interceptor or regular reoccurring treatments due the amount of possible die off. Once a system is treated frequently I’ve notice associated “rebound” time significantly shorter with less associated “die off”.

?

hey guys ive been battling black bugs for months now.ive tried interceptor at 4x and did nothing even for the bigger amphipods/copepod idk which is wich and theyre still alive, some crabs died but thats it. I want to try at 8 or 10x. have you been succesfull with this treatment after the three week period? btw all i can get my hands on now is interceptor plus for big dogs but its the brown chewy things

 

[danreefman]

IME no I'll effects on corals with high doses. Didn't work until I blasted the tank. Unplugged skimmer. Never really followed water change protocol either. You'll want to reseed asap. Have some bacteria on hand as well.

 

[youngreef]

IME no I'll effects on corals with high doses. Didn't work until I blasted the tank. Unplugged skimmer. Never really followed water change protocol either. You'll want to reseed asap. Have some bacteria on hand as well.

thank you for replying. i dosed the tank with 8x the dose left it for 12 hours before i turned skimmer back on and added carbon i didnt do a water change. i havnt seen a copepod since then but im going to dip today and see what comes off.
what was your dose btw?
i didnt re-seed i dont relly have access to pods, i have to order some from algeabarn. i dont wanna just throw in some macro from somebody elses tank.

 

[Phildago]

I overdose it in the sense that I dosed it for my tank rated gallons, not actual number of gallons of water.... No issues at all

 

[C. Eymann]

I have found triple dosing Dustin Dortons original recommended dosage seems to be the sweet spot for me, carrying it out 2-3× afterwords eliminates them for good, yet the pod population seems to come back in a few months, but not the RBs.

 

[danreefman]

thank you for replying. i dosed the tank with 8x the dose left it for 12 hours before i turned skimmer back on and added carbon i didnt do a water change. i havnt seen a copepod since then but im going to dip today and see what comes off.
what was your dose btw?
i didnt re-seed i dont relly have access to pods, i have to order some from algeabarn. i dont wanna just throw in some macro from somebody elses tank.

I did 3 pills on a 240-260. Not positive on gallons cause sump. Ended up using the blast method, cause like you normal dose wouldn't do it. So you could say I did 3.5-4 times recommend dose.

I use algea barn as well.

Corals stretching there polyps yet?

 

[youngreef]

p.e. is nothing to brag about atm.
but i still dont see anything crawling around so it might have worked this time.
i think the sps not showing p.e. is also due to the fact the phosphate completely plummeted so im not too worried about them. but the zoas are opening up! im starting to believe these bugs will eat anything... i saw them on clove polyps and euphilla before and they werent happy, now everything is doing better all together.