coral qt.. no need to reset clock with new pieces?

maevepotter · Oct 18, 2018

Any ideas about this random green dot that just appeared?

So other questions, if you put coral in the QT and then took out the newer pieces because everything else had hit the deadline, and you wanted qt to become DT, how many days would you wait before water free of free swimmers?

How big are the flatworms and spiders? I haven't seen anything but don't really know what I'm looking for.

pdxmonkeyboy · Oct 18, 2018

It takes 76 days from the LAST piece you put it to be clear of swimmers. It breaks down like this..

1. New pieces can have "eggs".. even though they are not actually eggs but whatever.
2. The eggs can't move from piece to piece.
3. It can take up to 76 days for the eggs to hatch and babies to swim in the water column.
4. Without fish, babies can't lay eggs.
5. babies can be reasonably mitigated by rinsing your piece before putting it into the DT.
6. Sooo... every piece has a 76 day clock because it may have egss on it, new eggs can not form. The risk of free swimmers is low and can be mitigated through rinsing.

The pests..Google them.. there is more than enough info on this site. Come on now... don't be lazy.

That green dot is bubble algae. Take the frog spawn out of the water and flick it off with your fingernail. Try not to break it open, if you do, rinse the f.spawn and put it back in.

maevepotter · Oct 18, 2018

Thanks for the ID on bubble algae. Believe me I'm far from lazy. I've been doing as much extensive reading on this hobby as possible but I also have a baby and a preschooler who take turns screaming or needing something whenever I try to research something. It's infuriating. This way sometimes I have the answer in minutes rather than a day or three later. But of course I will also be googling.

pdxmonkeyboy · Oct 18, 2018

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06ZY6BQHJ/ref=sspa_dk_detail_3?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B06ZY6BQHJ

Use those top look at all new corals. Look for white spots, bumps, little slimy looking "discs", little spider looking things, etc. If you see anything then post up.

maevepotter · Oct 18, 2018

Hi, looking at your edit, not sure I was clear.... What I'm asking is if I temporarily housed a new frag in the QT tank, then removed it (I would like to store it there temporarily), on the off chance something hatched off that new one and I then remove the piece from the tank, how many days can the free swimmers live? 4-7? After that, if all the other pieces are cycled to 76 days, would I be good to move my fish over? Thanks for all of your help.

Tomonts could be on every surface, correct? Tank walls, filter, coral, etc. Do they not land on sand at all?

HotRocks · Oct 18, 2018

Most forms of fish parasites cycle and free swimmers are gone after 45 days in a fishless environment.

There is one strain of ich that is extremely slow to cycle. Therefore you have the 76 day rule.

If you are constantly adding new frags each individual frag carries it's own 76 day rule. But... But... If you add coral #2 on coral #1 75th day, you can still remove coral #1 day later. You need to rinse it very well with water from DT. If there are free swimming tomites being released from coral #2 you risk transferring them with coral #1 in a single water droplet. Make sense.

If you plan to add fish to the tank where the coral is being housed (if I understood your last post correctly)

You would have to remove any frag that hadn't spent 76days in the tank before adding fish:

Then...

Free swimming ich lives for 3-7 days. Without a fish host.

Free swimming velvet dinospores can live for up to 16 days without a fish host. It is a flaggelate and can survive purely from a light source.

Tomonts can encyst upon anything hard. Therefore if one is knocked off of a frag plug when you are moving stuff around and still viable. Even though you removed the frag you could still be in trouble when fish are added.

I would just restart the 76 day clock each time a new frag is added if you plan on keeping fish in the coral QT at a later date. Better safe than sorry.