How to Quarantine Coral and Inverts

[gray808]

How small can a QT tank be for small crabs, snails, etc?

Someone mentioned 20g, which seems insane to me.

I have 2 10gs to swap between for fish QT.

I **want** to be stringent and QT my CUC as well as fish... but I am running out of space (and fiance good-will) to keep adding tanks. If I could get by with something tiny, like a 1 or 2g tank, it would be doable.

I'd love to just put them in the garage, but our outside temps are in the low 100s right now, so that won't work.

--Gray

 

[SeeFu]

i just rotate out my 20g w/ fish, corals, cuc each time. with 20g qt i was able to qt 25 snails easily. i did need to feed though since they ate up all the algae quickly.

 

[simonfchr]

Have some coral frags that came from a tank with velvet in my coral qt. They have been there for about two weeks. I have some older corals which has been in the qt for 76 days now. How do i make sure that there are no free floating parasites hiding in the older corals which came from the new corals?

 

[SeeFu]

just rinse off the old corals w/ fressh saltwater a few times.

 

[simonfchr]

But how about lobophylias which are filled with water?

 

[shnapper20]

i just rotate out my 20g w/ fish, corals, cuc each time. with 20g qt i was able to qt 25 snails easily. i did need to feed though since they ate up all the algae quickly.

hi seefu what did you feed the snails? and how ? thanks john

 

[SeeFu]

i dont know if they actually ate the stuff, but i just dropped in some hikari seaweed pellets

 

[shnapper20]

thanks seefu I did a search and nori seems to be the flavor, so ive placed nori and some pellets

 

[Mindblock769]

How often am i to dip corals? I have about 13 corals that have been in QT for 2 weeks. I dipped once before putting in QT, but am i supposed to dip more? I understand im QTing really to fight fish diseases, but if I have pests how do i fight them if i only dip once? I have not noticed any new pests, but just curious.

 

[rroberts18]

This has probably been asked but can we up the temperature to 81 and speed up the process?

 

[shnapper20]

hi have been trying this method with limited success for nearly 6mths. Some corals make it to the end but a lot don't, I'm currently running 2 80lt tanks, using 1 at a time when the algae starts to build I swap tanks transferring the water to the new clean tank. The filter airstones and heater are also swapped along with having algae scraped from them. I find once the algae starts to take off the nitrates and phosphates plummet . When the tank is pristine I can maintain constant po4 nh3 readings, both of which I dose to maintain. My lighting is a hd52 and I set it to 300par at the start and alow it to reach 400par by the end using the climatization feature. I also do a 25% water change fortnightly. Yet im still losing acro frags. After googling youtube I noticed people quaratining acro frags with any success are using systems where they run a skimmer a sump biomedia etc. I also noticed these same people started out using the the 80Lt tank to qt their acros. The money I have been throwing away on corals would have paid for a proper frag tank, Im guessing the reason im losing them is maybe the corals are releasing proteins and toxins which a skimmer would possibly remove. Would love to hear others opinions on whether this is the case or am I doing something wrong?

 

[shnapper20]

to long winded, ok has anybody had success qt sps corals using a 80lt tank as suggested over the 60day isolation period? thanks

 

[Tradevg]

This is a great forum but I have a quick question and apologies if already asked. What should I feed my CUC (snails, crab, etc.) during QT? Guessing nori sheets but can someone please chime in regarding the sheets. Thank you!!!

 

[Mike976x]

Great thread! Maybe I missed it through the 11 pages of comments, but as stated, adding new corals does not restart the 76 day clock to previously added corals. Does this also go for inverts, such as crabs and snails as far as ich/velvet? Thanks!

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Great thread! Maybe I missed it through the 11 pages of comments, but as stated, adding new corals does not restart the 76 day clock to previously added corals. Does this also go for inverts, such as crabs and snails as far as ich/velvet? Thanks!

Anything wet can potentially introduce disease propagules from an infected tank. The variables are how much water is moved, and how many disease causing organisms are present in the originating tank.

76 days for marine ich, Cryptocaryon has since found to be excessively long. That figure came from a study where the researcher maintained the ich tomonts in a lab, at cooler temperatures and no bacteria, and they remaining viable. A more reasonable amount of time is 60 days, with 45 days being o.k. in many cases. That is all for moving new fish into an infected tank. When trying to clear invertebrates in isolation, even 30 days will often work.

Here is an article I recently posted on "biosecurity":

Biosecurity

A short introduction to aquarium biosecurity

www.reef2reef.com

Jay