If this treatment kills vermited, I would probably do it. I'd want to set up a separate tank to put in my clams.
I think the flip side of this would be to restock the tank with beneficial microfauna. Perhaps have an order ready to go from IPSF and seeded sand from an established tank.
I'd also be concerned with what else ivermectin disrupts. Would it cause any harm to bacteria? What gets thrown off balance?
I'm going to discuss this with a few buddies and see if one is in a position to do this in an isolated established system.
Definitely would be nice if somebody could treat a smaller QT first. Every system will have a different amount of die-off. It will be a lot for sure. The crazy thing is that after that guy did the 15mL to 90/G dose…he dosed two additional smaller doses. None of the acros died. He said the acros and everything recovered in basically 1 hr. The fish had issues though. It took 3 days for the fish to recover. I’m wondering if it had a significant impact on oxygen levels.? I tried to reply to that thread on their forum, but some weird error occurred, and it wouldn’t let me post. My guess is that a much smaller dose will achieve the same results (might take a little longer) and reduce the impact on the fish. Remember, for my 1% Ivermectin… 2mL’s treats 220 lbs. That 2mL dose in the water should be absorbed by everything taking in water or breathing. I’m honestly surprised that the anemone wasn’t affected.
I think one of the biggest things is being able to manage the die off effectively. It’s kinda like adding some LR to a tank w/o curing it, but probably not as bad, because you can siphon and net things floating before they break down and cause large spikes. A lot of the stuff will crawl out of the rocks when it’s dying unlike live rock that is shipped. I believe a lot of the stuff dies in the rock because it has nowhere to swim or go inside wet newspaper. However, It’s the stuff that does die inside the rocks that will become a problem. Honestly, how many people have large fish and snails die in there system that they never find. Surely that has similarly effects. Both are die off’s. When I’ve lost bigger fish that died inside the rocks I remember seeing my glass start growing green algae as the nutrients spiked.
I think you would need something like the following:
Have some bacteria ready to go like Dr. Tim’s One and Only & Waste Away, Fritz Turbo Start, MB Start XLM, etc…
Long “fine mesh” net to scoop things out near the bottom and top. Having a garbage can ready by tank to throw dead crap in would be helpful.
Siphon hose ready to go.
Fresh filter socks or wool already in. (Might be good idea to block overflow with wool so dead crap doesn’t go down and get stuck in the drain chamber.?)
Run a PowerFilter at the same time to help with clean up.
Have water change water ready to go.
Turn skimmer down completely to reduce overflowing when turned back on.
Turn off auto-feeders and don’t feed the fish for 3-4 days or so.
Have new carbon ready to deploy.
Maybe turn down Alk prior to treatment. If dosing nutrients- stop all dosing. Be ready to test 3x daily watching for slowing consumption or nutrient spikes. However, this would be different for each system depending on the volume of critters, and some systems may see very minimal impacts if things are removed prior or if they don’t have many critters to begin with. Depends a lot on system age.
For example…
My system would have dead Bristle worms, Limpet snails, Spionid’s, Amphipods, and regular pods. I don’t have much more in there that will die, but I’m sure some nice surprises will show up. Lol. If the fish are not fed for about a week before, they might help take care of some die off if they don’t get stunned.
Also remember, you have about 12-24 hrs to net/ siphon these dead worms, snails, pods, etc…before they break down and become a problem. The more you can remove the less of a issue it will be.
If it were me….I’d probably dose the Dr Tim’s One and Only about 10 -12 hrs in. The One and Only will have basically zero effect on nutrient levels. Very safe! Since I’m already dosing Organic Carbon I’m sure that will help manage the NO3 level. I already have a solid bacteria population that should be able to handle a significant amount of die off. I’d also dose some Waste Away about 24 hrs in to help boost the process, because he saw the NO3 spike on day 2.
The question is how would Ivermectin effect the bacteria load and would it matter? All these people treating their whole systems with Ciprofloxacin which is a very broad spectrum gram negative antibiotic. They don’t seem to have any issues at all, and I know it’s killing a massive amount of bacteria. Would all these bacteria be suppressed or killed by Ivermectin? Do we really need the bacteria? Would the dead worms and pods cause a nutrient spike due to their lack of scavenging?
From what I see in his documentation is that he had a 10ppm NO3 spike on day 2. That needs to be mitigated as much as possible, because a 10ppm NO3 spike “could” slow down Alk consumption, “could” cause Alk to spike, and “could” cause PO4 to spike. Also remember his 10ppm NO3 spiked happened with water changes being done, but I’m confused about how much he actually did? He said he lost 1/4 of the water from the skimmer overflowing and replaced it, and then mentions he did a 20% water change later. So 42.5 gallons?
Funny thing was that in 1 month the corals were growing faster than ever, better PE, and color. Lol. People say the same after they dose Cipro. I’m wondering if it killed a lot of the bad bacteria in his system.?
