Beginners Guide to Acclimation and Quarantine
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So this is drastically different than this article: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/current-quarantine-protocol.825055/
This thread is stickied in the beginners forum, and the article is written by a R2R staff member...so both seem "endorsed" by R2R.
Is it just a matter of a sliding scale personal risk assessment? No QT is high risk, QT using the thread here is medium risk, and full 60 day QT described in the linked article is low risk?
With my previous tank years ago I didn't quarantine at all, just drip acclimated and then added to the DT. With this tank, I'm mentally prepared for a 30 day quarantine or ideally the 11 day QT described above. 60 days is a whole different matter — and with the need to travel for work there is no period of time where I'm ever at home for 60 consecutive days as I typically travel 2-3 days every few weeks (once the COVID travel restrictions finally fully thaw). This really makes the 60 day QT process unachievable for me...
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Brew12
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Hi! Want to make a few points on this. First, R2R doesn't really endorse articles. They do go through a review process but even articles expressing non popular view points may be published on R2R. R2R doesn't want to restrict or be a caretaker of what information is discussed within the hobby unless it violates ethical issues.
When I wrote this back in early 2017 I wasn't a staff member and some staff members were against this being published. A 14 day copper treatment wasn't considered a viable option and I am just a hobbyist who happens to be a research junkie. I find it interesting that some of the same people who opposed this article being published now endorse one version of the 14 day copper with transfer method or another. Since I wrote this I have changed my practices considerably and no longer use metroplex or general cure. I also don't treat with copper unless I see symptoms. And I would definitely no longer recommend using other medications while treating with copper.
And a final thing to point out is that almost all of the content on R2R is from hobbyists. There are a few notable exceptions, and the article you link by Jay Hemdal is one of them. He is a marine biologist for a public aquarium and his method is based on years of research and practical application. If you want the highest chance at success with a QT protocol I would recommend following what he has provided.
johnreef
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it'
it's a very useful article that leading newbies as me on the right track. thank you!
Your beautiful new display tank is up and ready for fish. You have come up with your stocking list and you are finally ready to buy your first fish but you aren’t confident on how to proceed. I am going to walk you through a basic acclimation and quarantine procedure. I want to throw in a disclaimer and I really can’t stress this enough. What I am proposing here is not a 100% foolproof quarantine protocol. This is structured to provide beginners a faster, simplified method that will help avoid most common issues if done correctly. If you are setting up a 180g+ system with $1000+ in fish I recommend much more advanced quarantine practices. This is geared toward the average new hobbyist to give them a high chance of success in keeping healthy fish.
Preparation:
Prior to ordering fish or going to my local fish store I want to make sure I am ready. This means I have my quarantine tank setup and filtration ready. My quarantine tank is a 10g system with a hood, heater, thermometer, powerhead, and an oversized HOB filter with only the biomedia and sponge. I also put a Seachem Ammonia Alert badge in the tank since most ammonia test kits don’t work if with copper.
I prefer to set the tank up at least 4 or 5 days in advance. I will call or email the vendor and find out what salinity the fish will be delivered in. I’ll use a combination of tank water and freshly mixed seawater to match. Once the water is up to temperature I’ll add some Biospira and a little frozen food for ammonia control.
I also want to be prepared to deal with anything I may encounter when the fish arrive. This is a sample of what I keep on hand all the time. If a fish is sick the last thing I need is the stress of a run to the LFS or waiting on a delivery from an online vendor. Prime is one of those products that is great to have for multiple uses. I treat all my fish prophylactically with copper so I always have Coppersafe on hand. I also have an API copper test set. Not all test sets work with all copper products so it is important to check to make sure you have the right one. Prazipro is another medicine that I am more likely to use than not before the fish get to my display tank. In case a fish has a bacterial infection I like to keep MetroPlex, KanaPlex, and Furan-2 on hand. The Focus is used to bind the medications to the food. There are other options and other brands that will work just fine, these are just the ones I prefer.
Acclimation:
Many experts and suppliers recommend using drip acclimation and for some species of fish and inverts this is the only option. For most fish it isn’t my preferred method. It doesn’t matter to me if I pick up the fish in person or if I order them online, I will acclimate my fish the same way. As soon as I get them out of my cooler or the shipping container I will float the bags in my quarantine tank. This will begin the temperature acclimation process. If you have more bags than can be floated in your QT, try to keep them in the 75F-80F range until you are ready to match them to the quarantine system. Leaving them in the cooler or shipping contain may be the best option.
Once I have floated the bags for around 20 minutes it's time to do some testing. Just because I think I know what salinity my fish are in there is only one way to know for sure and that is to test it. I will cut as small of a slit in the bag as possible to draw a sample of the shipping water.
Once I get my sample I will tape over the opening to prevent air exchange. This is especially important for shipped fish. As the fish consume oxygen in the water they release CO2 and Ammonia. Ammonia (NH3) is very toxic to fish but the buildup of CO2 in the shipping water is going to help us by lowering pH. At a lower pH the NH3 tends to shift toward Ammonium (NH4) which isn’t nearly as toxic. We want to trap as much of this CO2 in the water as possible at this point to prevent an increase in pH and converting the NH4 back to NH3.
I use my refractometer to measure the shipping water and compare it to my quarantine tank. I want them to match exactly if at all possible. I keep a gallon of very strong salt water solution and some RODI water to make raising and lower salinity easy. For my latest batch of fish I was told they would ship at 1.021 yet when I received them my test showed 1.017. Not a problem though, I just pulled some salt water out, added RODI, waited for the temperature to equalize and I was good to go. Before cutting the bag open I like to verify temperatures match which is where the digital thermometer comes in handy. A quick dip in the quarantine tank to check the tank and then I peel back the tape from my earlier slit to check the shipping water. If they are within a few tenths of a degree I am ready to move on and I consider my fish acclimated at this point even though they are still in the shipping water. Some people recommend matching pH. I don’t bother since the pH will rapidly change once the bag is cut open and is exposed to fresh air.
Transferring:
At this point, I am ready to get the fish out of the shipping water and into my quarantine tank. I know that the shipping water is high in ammonia and other waste. What I don’t know is what else is in that water which is a lesson I learned the hard way. I purchased fish that had been shipped in water that contained copper. I was still drip acclimating at the time so I added Prime to the water to neutralize the ammonia. Unfortunately, while Prime took care of the ammonia it also makes copper significantly more toxic. Those poor fish didn’t last 2 hours. To make sure nothing like this happens again I do my best to get rid of all of the shipping water. You never really know what is in it.
With the salinity and temperature matched, we are finally ready to put them into the quarantine tank. I set up a bucket with a large strainer on it right next to my quarantine tank. I find a strainer easier to use than a net and I don’t have to worry about fish with spines, like Foxface’s, getting stuck in it. Now that I am ready, I cut the top off the shipping bag and dump the fish and water into the strainer. I lift the strainer out of the bucket and slide the fish into the quarantine tank. I’ll repeat this process for all the fish I need to add that day. I use a 5 gallon bucket so it normally isn’t an issue, but I want to make sure the bottom of the strainer stays above the shipping water.
Early Care:
I feel it is very important to reduce the stress for new fish as much as possible. For the first day I will only light the tank with ambient light from the room. For some fish, I will never turn the tank lights on at all. This last group I just put through quarantine were Dispar Anthias. They are shallow water reef fish which are more comfortable in brighter lights. As prey, not predators, they associate dim lighting as time to hide which raises their stress. So for this group I left the lights on for 12 hours a day.
My biggest concern with new fish is to get them feeding. I want to try starting them with whatever it is I plan on feeding them when they get into my display tank. For me that consists of a high quality frozen fish food blend, frozen mysis, and sheet algae. If they don’t start eating by day 2 I will try whatever else it takes to get them to eat. I have yet to find a Tang that will eat algae from a clip as soon as they are introduced into my system. To train them to eat I will rubberband small pieces of algae to a PVC elbow. This has worked very well for me.
Treatment:
How I treat fish while in QT tends to vary based on the situation. I will normally try to not add any medications to the tank for at least the first 3 days. I want to give the fish time to adapt and adjust to feeding without introducing any new stresses. If I do see something during the first 3 days that causes concern I will adjust my treatments based on the situation. Assuming that all the fish look to be doing good after day 3, I will do a freshwater dip on each fish to check for flukes. As long as there are no indications of flukes, the fish are all eating, and none have white stringy poo then I will skip treating with Prazipro. If Prazipro is needed, I will treat at the recommended dose twice, 7 days apart. I will follow this with a 50% water change and running carbon in my HOB for a day or two.
At this point I am ready to begin treating with copper. I use Coppersafe with the API test kit. I find reading these test kits challenging since I never seem to actually see a color that is on the chart. Instead, I mix up 1 gallon of saltwater and add 1.8mL of Coppersafe. I test it with my API kit and this color becomes my new target. If future tests are lighter I know I need to add copper. If they are darker I need to dilute the copper a little. My 10g quarantine tank needs 20mL of Coppersafe to reach the proper therapeutic level. I slowly raise the copper level in my tank by adding 3mL of Coppersafe each morning and evening for 3 days. It is important to maintain this level of copper without interruption! Even a few minutes at lower copper will give parasites an opening! I maintain therapeutic copper levels for 14 days. It works well since I only get fish on weekends and this keeps things lined up for my personal schedule.
During this treatment I have another task to accomplish along with the copper treatment. I want to use this time to adjust my quarantine system to match my display tank. This latest group of fish was a little more challenging since they came in at 1.017 and I keep my display tank at 1.025. I don’t like to change my salinity by more than 0.001 per day so this was a long adjustment. To make it easier I mixed up a 4 gallons of saltwater in a dedicated and well marked bucket to 1.040. I then mixed in 5 mL of Coppersafe. Remember to add the copper to the makeup water prior to adding to the tank to make sure there is always have a therapeutic level of copper in the system. Every morning and evening I would add my RODI top off water (if needed), pull a cup or two of water out of the quarantine tank, and replace it with this higher salt mix. I started with smaller changes and increased the amount I pulled as the salinity in the quarantine tank got closer to the make up water. This was an easy way for me to raise salinity and maintain copper without daily mixing. Just make sure the bucket is clearly marked and dedicated for the QT system. It would be a disaster if this was used as makeup water in a display tank!
After the 14 days in copper and with the salinity in my quarantine tank matching my display tank, the fish are just about ready for their new home. Ideally, the next new home will be another clean quarantine tank where we can observe them for an additional two weeks but I realize it can be a challenge for some hobbyists to set up one QT system, let alone two. If you don’t have the second quarantine system available DO NOT transfer them into your display if you have any questions about their health such as if they are breathing heavy or have frayed fins. If there are any doubts you can keep them in the original quarantine system with therapeutic levels of copper for 30 days. At this point, instead of transferring the fish you, you can safely remove the copper and treat with any additional medications that may be need. I like to give at least 1 fish in the system another fresh water dip to check for flukes prior to the transfer.
Final Transfer:
It is finally time to move the fish into my display tank. I use my Apex to adjust the temperature of my display tank to match my quarantine tank to make it easy to do a straight transfer. Manual adjustments of the heaters may be necessary if a controller isn’t available. I take the bucket and strainer that I used when I added the fish to my quarantine tank and set it up in front of my display tank. I have a small container that hangs on the front of the tank which I fill with water from my display tank. I will pull the PVC elbows out of my quarantine tank and either use a net or a small strainer to catch the fish and put them into the container. I dump this container into the strainer as a final rinse to minimize transferring copper or other medications into my display tank. From the strainer, I put the fish into an acclimation box in my display tank. They will spend anywhere from 1 to 5 days in the acclimation box depending on the risk of aggression issues. All that’s left at this point is to open the lid to the box, let the fish out, and enjoy my display knowing that I have an excellent chance of avoiding any major disease outbreak in my system.
BamaCoastPyrat
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Hello, I am setting up my first aquarium in 20+ years and have just been informed that quarantining new fish in a separate tank is no longer a suggestion, but a requirement. I am trying to follow your guide and that of @Jay Hemdal for quarantining. I have two captive bred oscellaris clownfish from ORA that are supposed to be delivered tomorrow. I do not believe that I can set up a safe quarantine tank in time to do a proper quarantine. Since these two are my first two fish, can I place them in my display tank for now, and then begin a proper quarantine in a quarantine tank in a couple of weeks? Or will the damage have already been done by placing the fish first in my display tank?
Jay Hemdal
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I would say that a proper quarantine is a "strong suggestion", not a requirement. Many people do not quarantine. There is less risk with captive raised fish, UNLESS those fish are mixed by the dealer, with wild caught fish before you get them. In those cases, they can carry diseases into your tank. If you are getting them straight from ORA, they would be fairly safe to just add to your tank.
Quarantining them after a couple of weeks as you proposed doesn't help - they will have either brought a disease in or not. You may need to have a treatment tank ready though, in case they do get sick.
Jay
BamaCoastPyrat
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Thank you Jay, they I will try to see how many middle men have touched the fish between me and ORA and make a decision from there.
BamaCoastPyrat
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I was only able to read through 6 of the 25 pages of comments, so please forgive me if you covered this, but I am confused about how you get the nitrogen cycle going in the QT. I have a 40 gallon tank that has been running for about 8 weeks and I am picking up my first two fish tomorrow (captive bred ocellaris clowns). I have an aquaclear 70 running on my 40g tank. I can pull the sponge out of the filter and put that in the QT. Will that have sufficient bacteria on it to run the nitrogen cycle?
I am thinking about buying an aquaclear 30 to use as filtration in the QT. Once I am finished quarantining, can I put the aquaclear 30 from the QT on my DT until it is needed for another quarantining? If so, I would think the aquaclear 30 would have sufficient bacteria in it for the next round of quarantining. I am also guessing that if I can move the aquaclear 30 to the DT that there is probably a specific process for cleaning it before doing so.
Thank you very much for taking the time in helping with a ridiculously complicated hobby.
I am thinking about buying an aquaclear 30 to use as filtration in the QT. Once I am finished quarantining, can I put the aquaclear 30 from the QT on my DT until it is needed for another quarantining? If so, I would think the aquaclear 30 would have sufficient bacteria in it for the next round of quarantining. I am also guessing that if I can move the aquaclear 30 to the DT that there is probably a specific process for cleaning it before doing so.
Thank you very much for taking the time in helping with a ridiculously complicated hobby.
Jay Hemdal
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Unfortunately, there isn't any way to know for sure if filter media will have enough beneficial bacteria on it to assimilate the waste given off by a group of fish.... experience allows for some educated guesses, but that about it. Monitor the tank accurately for ammonia is the best assurance that the ammonia is being dealt with.
Beneficial bacteria grows on all surfaces in a tank, and the longer the tank has been set up and the more fish it holds, the larger the bacteria population will be. Moving items (like filter material) from an established tank to a new one transfer the bacteria, but in a unknown quantity.
My guess is that the filter media on a 8 week old tank will not have sufficient bacteria living on it to clone a new tank from. You should probably have some extra "bacteria in a bottle" on hand in case the ammonia spikes.
Yes - you can move the aquaclear 30 back to your DT after a quarantine run has been completed. That will keep it active until next time. Some people will tell you no, you need to "sterilize" the filter. That isn't true since you already moved fish from the QT to the DT, there is no risk in also moving the filter media. The only time I won't do that is if there was a failed quarantine due to an unknown disease, then I'll sterilize everything.
jay
BamaCoastPyrat
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I was afraid that 8 weeks would not be near enough. I have API quickstart on hand. Can I add some of that to the QT to help? Is there anything in there that will mess with the copper or other treatments?
I can get extra sponge filters for the aquaclear 30 and remove the carbon and bio rocks, that way it is 100% mechanical filtration. In doing that I think it would give a lot of extra room for bacterial growth without media that would remove medications.
I can get extra sponge filters for the aquaclear 30 and remove the carbon and bio rocks, that way it is 100% mechanical filtration. In doing that I think it would give a lot of extra room for bacterial growth without media that would remove medications.
Jay Hemdal
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Sorry, I’ve never used the API product. It should work though. I just am more familiar with Fritzyme and the Dr Tim products.
Tough to explain, but beneficial bacteria grows exponentially….starts off slow but then increases rapidly after a month or so. If you add enough bacteria to get you into the exponential growth phase, things will work out ok,
Jay
Brian24540
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A complete newbie, I just read through all 25 pages of this thread. My initial thoughts were focused the amazing dedication and expertise that had gone into the exercise. Then I got to the end and discovered that the author has moved away from many of the practices proposed throughout (General Cure, Metroplex, use of copper). I think it is great that even experts continually grow and learn and honestly modify their techniques. But why oh why are beginners invited to read such a long post, make copies notes - and then have to throw them away?? Sometimes newbie guides have to be thrown away. For what it's worth, I think @Brew12 is a hero.
damsels are not mean
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6 Weeks in a separate tank at ~80F with no fish. All fish parasites will fail to complete their life cycle and die off. It also gives you time to observe for aiptasia, bryopsis, other coral pests and treat accordingly. Coral flesh cannot carry fish parasites but frag plugs, clam shells, worm tubes, and exposed skeleton can. Snail and hermit shells can carry parasites as well. It is possible that parasite cysts can land on a crab or shrimp shell but if so this would be safe after they molt. Starfish, slugs, and urchins I'd just give a rinse in clean water and then in. Can't form cysts on them and they don't carry in anything else like aiptasia unless it's in the water.
Fichmiester
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Jay, generally would you say that if we are getting fish directly from the supplier (in shipped bag) before emptied into LFS systems, copper treatment probably isn't immediately necessary?
Jay Hemdal
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Sorry, not sure understand…what type of supplier? Many wholesalers are a great melting pot of diseases, worse than even a LFS. If you mean getting the fish directly from a domestic fish breeder, then that is safer. Some overseas fish breeders seem to be having issues though..
Jay
Fichmiester
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I recently purchased 2 fish my LFS ordered for me from Quality Marine. They never entered the LFS’s water system, I picked them up in the shipped bag, so I wasn’t sure about if copper dosing was necessary…
Jay Hemdal
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Well, I would always treat fish from any big wholesaler - not just copper, but praziquantel as well. It’s just the nature of the beast but these wholesalers mix fish by the tens of thousands from around the world, so parasites are common. They only hold the fish for a few days so they don’t see the issue themselves.
Jay
Highoffcoral
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definitely a supper useful one !
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