Coral Advice - What would you do?

[Silverrshadow]

I just started up my first tank (180g). My brother has been hosting some coral for us while we have been setting up. Now his tank is starting to have problems (bubble algae, aiptasia, and some sort of brown slime).

Do we risk our new system by introducing these coral?
Would dipping be sufficient?
Should we try a coral quarantine tank? What would we need to do to set one up?
Should we cut our losses and say bye to those corals?

Any insight and advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

[PatW]

Aptasia is a coelenterate (same phylum as corals). Dipping is no protection against aptasia. If the coral is just naked coral, no rock or no plug. It should be fine. I don’t think that dipping will help against algae. All it takes is for a few cells to get into your tank.

For aptasia, holding the corals in a quarantine tank may allow you to spot any aptasia and eliminate them. But aptasia can be tiny and are easily over looked.

 

[Mikedawg]

If you observed these same conditions at a LFS's tank, would you buy from it?

 

[csb123]

I would cut the corals off the rock or plugs, so there is no substrate attached. Then rinse the corals off with your tank water, and mount them in your tank. Those pests are unlikely to be residing on living coral tissue.