Coral QT Setup Recommentation

[attilak]

I recently had an incident that I lost all my fish in a FOWLR tank due to velvet. I am thinking of making this tank an all reef tank now but I always see recommendations to quarantine corals before putting into the DT. Is this common practice or is it a waste? my fear is that I introduce something into the tank and kills everything! I know a setup to quarantine corals maybe even more difficult then fish. I would need the proper lighting, dosing trace elements, keeping alkalinity stable which maybe a difficult task when I add corals and remove.

Questions

1. Is quarantine a waste? what are some of the possible invasive bugs, etc. that can be introduced if not doing a quarantine with corals? once introduced, is it something that is easily dealt with? just trying to weigh my options as a new setup for QT is expensive.

2. What is really needed for the setup? I understand about good lighting, flow, temp. but do I also need to invest in a skimmer? as for filtration, can I just do simple HOB filter?

3. If anyone has pics of their coral QT setup I would like to see some pics!

Thanks.

 

[Miami Reef]

Quarantining corals for fish pests is extremely easy in comparison to quarantining them for coral pests.

Since we are talking about fish pests, I will talk about only that when I mention “coral QT” in this post.

Background info: we cannot use meds on corals. Our only method for ridding them of fish parasites is by starving them to death.

Rule #1: never keep ANY fish in a coral QT.

Tip: you may keep any coral and invert in this tank. Fish parasites cannot consume corals as energy.

Now, here’s all you have to do: Keep each coral in the tank for 45 days at 81F. Do not drop the temp below 81F because it helps us shorten the QT to 45 days instead of 76 days.

Dosing trace elements is not necessary. Don’t get confused from people who like to complicate things. Here’s the deal: you aren’t growing colonies in this tank, and you aren’t keeping corals inside long term. You’ll never need to replace trace elements because…

You will do weekly water changes! You won’t even need to dose Alk and calcium. Especially if your using a salt mix with elevated levels.

For lighting? You can use LED or T5. Both work very well for corals.

That’s it.

 

[Miami Reef]

Here’s a tip in case you like to learn about how this all works:

For ich parasites. They can free swim or they can encyst. The main risk with introducing unquarantined corals is that the encrusted eggs can stick to hard surfaces like frag plugs.

Does adding a new coral into the tank restart the 45 day clock? No. Because encysted ich (tomonts) cannot move around. Any ich parasites swimming in the water have a weak adherence and easily be washed off with a simple rinse in clean saltwater before adding into the DT.

 

[attilak]

This is very good info and thanks for the quick response. Regards to the higher temp. at 81 degrees. Is that what is killing any pests on corals? right now what I do is dip corals before I put into my smaller RSM 250. With fish it's easy, run copper, kills everything. I guess I am confused as to what is getting rid of these pests if I am not adding anything to kill them... or is it just the fact of monitoring and making sure they are bug free. You mentioned no fish, is there a specific reason? as I always notice that at the LFS, there seems to be small wrasse's with corals. I always think it's there to eat worms, etc.

Great info on trace elements. that will save me a hassle not to setup dosing, etc. what I may do is setup auto water change using APEX DOS. I have that on my 210 and it is the best thing I have done. Just mix 50 gal every 3 weeks or so. leave it and forget it.

 

[Miami Reef]

This is very good info and thanks for the quick response. Regards to the higher temp. at 81 degrees. Is that what is killing any pests on corals? right now what I do is dip corals before I put into my smaller RSM 250. With fish it's easy, run copper, kills everything. I guess I am confused as to what is getting rid of these pests if I am not adding anything to kill them... or is it just the fact of monitoring and making sure they are bug free. You mentioned no fish, is there a specific reason? as I always notice that at the LFS, there seems to be small wrasse's with corals. I always think it's there to eat worms, etc.

Great info on trace elements. that will save me a hassle not to setup dosing, etc. what I may do is setup auto water change using APEX DOS. I have that on my 210 and it is the best thing I have done. Just mix 50 gal every 3 weeks or so. leave it and forget it.

81F speeds up the parasites life cycle so they can starve sooner.

Parasites need a host (food) to survive. Without fish in the tank, and they will die.

If you have fish in the tank the parasites can reproduce and keep laying eggs that may attach to the corals. You’ll never be able to eradicate fish parasites if you keep a fish in there. Remember, we can’t use meds with corals because meds will also kill the corals!

The only tool we have to eradicate fish parasites from corals is starvation.

If you care more about coral parasites, you will need a microscope and repeat coral dips. A fish can never be used for coral pest eradication - only management, which is fine in most cases.

 

[Miami Reef]

About the LFS, they do not care about fish parasites on corals. They don’t even care about fish parasites on fish! They just keep fish in sub therapeutic copper which temporarily reduces symptoms until they are sold and placed into med free water.

 

[mdb_talon]

These threads inevitably end up being one side saying they are a waste and the other saying they are a must have so not sure you will get much clarity from it.

For me coral QT is essential. It was not always that way and i could go years at a time without a major infestation that wiped out a lot of coral. However there are few things in the hobby more depressing than seeing several years worth of colony growth slowly succumbing to a nasty pest.

As for pests the list is long, but the more common ones include zoa nudis, monti nudis, acropora eating flatworms, redbugs, polyclad flatworms, zoa spiders, etc.

Some of these pests are easier to eradicate than others. Some are extremely difficult to near impossible in an established tank full of colony size pieces.

QT can also be used to identify and remove things like aiptasia, bryopsis, etc but in my opinion those are slight nuisances compared to what redbugs or aefw can do for example.

The point is not to proactively treat a coral QT. Its about observation. Dipping kills adult pests oftentimes but rarely if ever the eggs. A qt gives you time to observe and see if pests are there before adding to the dt.

Trace element dosing is certainly not necessary. For 99.9% of hobbyists who are just going to be buying frags or a few pieces i imagine dosing period should never be needed.

 

[attilak]

These threads inevitably end up being one side saying they are a waste and the other saying they are a must have so not sure you will get much clarity from it.

For me coral QT is essential. It was not always that way and i could go years at a time without a major infestation that wiped out a lot of coral. However there are few things in the hobby more depressing than seeing several years worth of colony growth slowly succumbing to a nasty pest.

As for pests the list is long, but the more common ones include zoa nudis, monti nudis, acropora eating flatworms, redbugs, polyclad flatworms, zoa spiders, etc.

Some of these pests are easier to eradicate than others. Some are extremely difficult to near impossible in an established tank full of colony size pieces.

QT can also be used to identify and remove things like aiptasia, bryopsis, etc but in my opinion those are slight nuisances compared to what redbugs or aefw can do for example.

The point is not to proactively treat a coral QT. Its about observation. Dipping kills adult pests oftentimes but rarely if ever the eggs. A qt gives you time to observe and see if pests are there before adding to the dt.

Trace element dosing is certainly not necessary. For 99.9% of hobbyists who are just going to be buying frags or a few pieces i imagine dosing period should never be needed.

Thank for this info! yea, I completely understand about the divide on QT or not ... I have been in the salt water / reef hobby for roughly 5 years. Fresh water probably about 20 years. Based on my experience - it's not if it's when crash of a tank happens or disease outbreak. And of course usually happens when we are away on vacation I have had a few and feels like it's always something else I don't think about! Losing an entire tank to velvet is devastating and makes me question the reason why I am in this hobby. It is no longer a hobby when we get frustrated and angry within the hobby. It's great to have the support on R2R and have got some quick responses with help throughout the years.

With this said, I want to do things in stages now and setup for success. You bring up a very good point, I have got many nice corals and all the sudden I have an aiptasia outbreak and then lose a crap load from getting stung. This is one great reason to quarantine as you mention.

This maybe a dumb question but I am going to ask it anyway so I have purchased one of those low boy frag tanks and setting up. I assume I can just use freshly mixed salt water, no need to worry about cycling as this is coral and no fish? or do I take water out of my display tank and use that cycled water? concerned a bit about that because of the recent velvet outbreak... although I am not goingto have fish in the frag tank.

Thanks!

 

[Miami Reef]

It doesn’t matter which water you use. As long as you have mature live rocks or are patient enough to wait a few months for dry rocks to mature.

You need cycled rocks for corals. Dead rocks will allow nuisance pests to overrun the tank and can possibly suffocate corals depending on severity of the outbreak.

 

[mdb_talon]

Thank for this info! yea, I completely understand about the divide on QT or not ... I have been in the salt water / reef hobby for roughly 5 years. Fresh water probably about 20 years. Based on my experience - it's not if it's when crash of a tank happens or disease outbreak. And of course usually happens when we are away on vacation I have had a few and feels like it's always something else I don't think about! Losing an entire tank to velvet is devastating and makes me question the reason why I am in this hobby. It is no longer a hobby when we get frustrated and angry within the hobby. It's great to have the support on R2R and have got some quick responses with help throughout the years.

With this said, I want to do things in stages now and setup for success. You bring up a very good point, I have got many nice corals and all the sudden I have an aiptasia outbreak and then lose a crap load from getting stung. This is one great reason to quarantine as you mention.

This maybe a dumb question but I am going to ask it anyway so I have purchased one of those low boy frag tanks and setting up. I assume I can just use freshly mixed salt water, no need to worry about cycling as this is coral and no fish? or do I take water out of my display tank and use that cycled water? concerned a bit about that because of the recent velvet outbreak... although I am not goingto have fish in the frag tank.

Thanks!

You definetely do need a tank capable of handling ammonia for coral QT for anything longer than a a day or two. The approach I use is to keep those cheap bioblocks in the sump of my main system. Then i use newly mixed saltwater in QT and take some of those blocks from the other system and put in the QT. Nice and compact and should be full of nitrifying bacteria.

 

[attilak]

It doesn’t matter which water you use. As long as you have mature live rocks or are patient enough to wait a few months for dry rocks to mature.

You need cycled rocks for corals. Dead rocks will allow nuisance pests to overrun the tank and can possibly suffocate corals depending on severity of the outbreak.

very good point. I always have extra live rock in my sump so will use some of that in my coral QT. Thank you.

 

[attilak]

You definetely do need a tank capable of handling ammonia for coral QT for anything longer than a a day or two. The approach I use is to keep those cheap bioblocks in the sump of my main system. Then i use newly mixed saltwater in QT and take some of those blocks from the other system and put in the QT. Nice and compact and should be full of nitrifying bacteria.

cool. yup, I always keep extra live rock in my sump as well as sponge filter and use on QT tank - in this case I can also use on coral tank.

 

[Coxey81]

@Miami Reef

Hi, I was hoping you could possibly answer a question for me. I have everything set up for my coral QT, but these will be my first corals ever. I plan on getting 3-4 frags... LPS and softies mix.

What would you recommend feeding them during QT, how much, how often, and how (target feed with baster?)

I know they will use light for most of their food source, but since this will be a new tank and I won't be feeding anything else in it during the QT period it will be fairly devoid of food and nutrients.

Its a 10 gallon and I was thinking about starting it with 5 gallons of DT water and 5 gallons of new water. Would that be a good idea and would you include any DT water weekly water changes?

Thanks for any advice

 

[Angel_V_the_reefer]

It doesn’t matter which water you use. As long as you have mature live rocks or are patient enough to wait a few months for dry rocks to mature.

You need cycled rocks for corals. Dead rocks will allow nuisance pests to overrun the tank and can possibly suffocate corals depending on severity of the outbreak.

I’ve heard about not cycling the coral QT. I don’t have experience so I’m assuming even without a cycle, algae would still grow