Dr G's Anti-Parasitic Food

As I've written in my build thread (see sig for link) I had a bout of marine velvet in my tank that took a big toll on my fish population. Unfortunately, without breaking down my entire system (something I wasn't willing to do) I could not get all the fish out. This meant that the velvet would still be in the tank (and thus is still there).

I keep it in check by running an Aqua 200W UV sterilizer 50% of the time. I see no visible signs of the disease, but the occasional fish scratching on a rock gives me periodic reminders that it's still there.

Ideally I want to turn off the sterlizer and have it only as a backup. It draws a lot of power and kills beneficial organisms. When I saw a thread about Dr G's new anti-parasitic food, I thought that it could be a way to rid the tank of the parasite. Now I don't know whether it will work or not, but I figure it's worth the try.

I was able to get a few packages sent to me (arriving tomorrow) so I will be trying it out as an experiment. I will feed it to both tanks for a period of weeks then slowly turn down the amount of time the sterilizer is on to see if the velvet rears its ugly head again. I will continue to post the progress here.

 

That is a great experiment I am def subscribing! Quick question how did you get a hold of the food I went to their website and they say that they dont ship the frozen food?

 

I know him and he is well known here in Florida. I have used all of his products at one time or another and I have not been disappointed. I have used the anti parasite food with great results. Follow the directions to a tee.

 

I did it through a World Wide Corals. It's getting packed in dry ice and sent to me.

 

not to railroad the thread here, but what exact beneficial bacteria and organisms does a UV kill? from what I understand, it does kill pathogens in the water along with other free swimming microscopic organisms, but from what I read we don't have large populations of these organisms in an enclosed system. And the nitryfying bacteria that is good for our tanks resides in the live rock, not in the water column.

 

I've got a large refugium before the UV sterilizer. There are organisms from there that I want to get into the tank that are getting zapped. It's not critical, but it is a consideration.

 

rocketmandb, look forward to seeing how it works; good luck with your tank :thumb_up:


dowtish:

You could ask the guy who posted this I guess
http://www.3reef.com/forums/coral/feed-your-corals-116071.html

remember, pods are typically demersal and tend to "hop" into the water column. Also, too bad there isn't a video for bacterioplankton, that would be another perhapse more important consideration.

 

Update:

I used a full dose of Dr G's to see if it had any effect on my Goldflake Angel that was showing signs of Brook.

After finishing the regimen I'm happy to say that the symptoms on the angel disappeared. The only thing is that I don't know for sure if it was Brook. It was showing skin lesions that sometimes accompany it, but they also could have been bacterial - doubtful, because they stuck around for so long and went away with treatment.

My next test will be to lower the amount of time that my UV sterilizer is on to see if the treatment got rid of the velvet.

More news later.

 

Another update:

I've lowered the UV sterilizer time from 10 to 8 hours with no ill effects noticed. No scratching, no nothing.

I'm going to give it another couple weeks then lower it to 6 hours to see if any symptoms show.

 

Any more experiences with this? Why is it impossible to find an online retailer that sales this stuff?