How do you practice bio security in your tank?

[Paul B]

Now having a QT tank for fish is almost a no brained for me.

I feel just the opposite. I want my fish to always be healthy and immune from everything and for about 40 years they have been. I have not lost a fish to a communicable disease in about that long and never will. Some of my fish are 30 years old and still spawning. None of my fish were ever quarantined or medicated. I keep them immune.

Not QTing everything wet is like riding a motorcycle. It’s not a matter of if, but when u go down. It’s gonna happen.

In 3 weeks my tank will be 50 years old. If it happens now I will still call it a success. Everybody here with a 50 year old quarantined tank where nothing has ever been sick and the fish only die of old age, raise your hand......Higher.

 

[bdif]

I feel just the opposite. I want my fish to always be healthy and immune from everything and for about 40 years they have been. I have not lost a fish to a communicable disease in about that long and never will. Some of my fish are 30 years old and still spawning. None of my fish were ever quarantined or medicated. I keep them immune.



In 3 weeks my tank will be 50 years old. If it happens now I will still call it a success. Everybody here with a 50 year old quarantined tank where nothing has ever been sick and the fish only die of old age, raise your hand......Higher.

Congrats. I too just turned 50. However, I suspect yours is the only hand...

I agree there are phenomenal tanks out there who have never QT’d. I saw a video on YouTube where Melevs Reef interviewed some one in the Seattle area I believe. He has never QT’d anything and his tank is unbelievable and he has forgotten more about reefing than I will ever know.

However, the prudent route for anyone who has not had the same tank running successfully since Nixon , is to quarantine. I think you would agree...

 

[xxkenny90xx]

Not QTing everything wet is like riding a motorcycle. It’s not a matter of if, but when u go down. It’s gonna happen. Hopefully it’s the equivalent of just tipping the bike over at a stop sign, but often it’s much worse.
16 years in this hobby and I can’t understand why you would not QT. “I can’t Afford a QT”. Really? Its like 75 bucks for fully equipped system. “I don’t have the space”. My microwave takes up a bigger footprint than my 20gal QT.

Be honest with yourself as to why you don’t QT. The real reason is you’ve fallen victim to the #1 culprit of tank failure and financial disaster. YOU WANT INSTANT GRATIFICATION. I just got this x/y/z fish/ coral/invert that’s gonna look awesome in my DT. The idea of waiting 30+ days before putting in DT Is just not gonna happen.

I QT everything and medicate prophylacticly even with no sign of disease. If whatever it is can’t make it through my militant QT standards, it doesn’t see the DT.

How did I come to implement this regimen? My “motorcycle” crashed 10 years ago

I can pretty much guarantee you that the amount of fish I have lost over the last 10 years in my no qt system to disease is less than the amount of fish the average qt tank loses over a 10yr period... And I'm pretty much an expert on this since I've crashed 2 motorcycles

 

[Paul B]

However, the prudent route for anyone who has not had the same tank running successfully since Nixon , is to quarantine. I think you would agree...

No I actually would not. There is way more to it than just throwing fish in a tank. I see that you are new here and welcome.
I know many people believe that quarantine is a safe, healthy thing to do but it is just the opposite. I have written many articles on this and even a book so it is to long to go over it again. But on this one we will just have to agree to disagree. But it is nice to meet you and I hope you enjoy it here.

Melev, myself and 2 or 3 other members have the oldest tanks by far and none of us have quarantined. There are no old quarantined, healthy tanks where the fish never get sick.
Just saying.
Here's a thread I started on here. It is an ongoing, "friendly" discussion.

The Other Way to Run a Reef Tank (no Quarantine)

The other way to run a reef tank (No Quarantine) I was asked by my friend Humblefish to start a thread on my practices of running a tank with no quarantine, hospital tanks, medications, dipping or almost anything else. It is "not" just to take a fish from a store and drop it in your reef...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[josephxsxn]

I agree with the idea of quarantining everything, and prophylactically medicating like many others here with copper or other medications as required for 30+days and 45+ days for all inverts. I had a bad outbreak of ich or velvet and tore down all my rockwork to catch my fish and go fallow in the display and frag tanks for 78 days.

No one I believe has mentioned anything about tool security and cleanliness. I have multiple scrapers one for each tank along with many other multiple tools for different utilities and they are wrapped in colored electrical tape depending on what fish tank they are dedicated to: red/copper, yellow/qt-inverts, blue/frag, green/display to help stop someone from bringing something by accident from another. For me inverts will hang out for 45+ days in thier own yellow system before being promoted to the blue system were they will live for a while. Only after some time in blue will they then move up to green.

Additionally I believe that your order of operations is important. For example if you are doing all of your maintenance on one big day you need to work down from the safest environment to the most risky environment. This allows maintenance on all of the systems without transferring things up the chain potentially on your hands or other wet things you may have on your body.

 

[Desperado Lucky]

A couple people have mentioned vendors that QT before sale. Who are these? I’m curious about the price. I have a QT setup and will likely continue to do on my own, but that could be a nice added layer of mental security.

 

[Desperado Lucky]

To OP, I quarantine fish only, dip corals, and don’t let water from anything get in the system.

 

[TheDragonsReef]

I have 2 display tanks, a coral and invert qt tank (20 gallon) and a fish qt tank (40g). Everything gets quarantine time now. Ive dealt with just about every pest or disease out there over my 20 years in the hobby and qt was the best solution for everything.