How to Quarantine Coral and Inverts

[melypr1985]

You gave me my hundredth like! Party time!

Hey. Whatever I can do to help

 

[tdunmore2]

Help! We are in the 49th day of coral QT, with Torch, flowerpot, duncan, finger and a couple unknown frags in a 20g.
Was running a small hob with carbon, just added an aquaclear using the media that came with it(sponge,carbon,biomedia).
We have a few inverts crabs, snails(a couple parished). We used biospira to seed about 2 weeks prior to 1st coral.
Everything looked GREAT until we noticed some brown(assumed diatom) algae, kind of like hair on acrylic.
We used a magnet to remove and almost instantly the Duncan retracted(more than we've ever seen), flowerpot also, finger (looks like it is shedding) no polyps out anymore and torch no longer fully extended.
Salinity 1.025, temp 77.8, Amm 0, nitrate 0, lighting older 24" 4 bulb T5 on for 9hrs a day.
Any Ideas?

Could be bacteria boogers. When seeding and cycling, it is common to have bacterial blooms, particularly if you dose a carbor source. Is your water cloudy?

 

[Hely'sreef1]

Have ready your article and comments with interest.... I'm about to upgrade my 120 litre to a 300, planning on using my 120 litre as qt for fish. I do have a 30 litre nano cube in the garage. So would you suggest I use the 120 for a qt fish tank and the nano a qt coral tank? The nano has very basic T5's - what else should I add to give my corals the best chance of surviving the qt period?

 

[tdunmore2]

Have ready your article and comments with interest.... I'm about to upgrade my 120 litre to a 300, planning on using my 120 litre as qt for fish. I do have a 30 litre nano cube in the garage. So would you suggest I use the 120 for a qt fish tank and the nano a qt coral tank? The nano has very basic T5's - what else should I add to give my corals the best chance of surviving the qt period?

Is the 120L more shallow than the 300L?

 

[melypr1985]

Have ready your article and comments with interest.... I'm about to upgrade my 120 litre to a 300, planning on using my 120 litre as qt for fish. I do have a 30 litre nano cube in the garage. So would you suggest I use the 120 for a qt fish tank and the nano a qt coral tank? The nano has very basic T5's - what else should I add to give my corals the best chance of surviving the qt period?

yes, I would use the 120 for fish QT. It's about 30 gallons which is fine to QT most fish under 4 inches. Having an ATO on the coral QT will help a ton with keeping things stable for you there. That along with regular weekly water changes should make it a bit easier to manage. A small powerhead will be useful as well.

 

[Hely'sreef1]

Yes the 120 is shallower, the 300 is 29 inches deep

 

[Hely'sreef1]

My 120 is 18 deep

 

[Jim C]

Are there certain statistics available? For example:
-Quarantining corals for 76 days makes them ich free 99% of the time?
-Quarantining coral for 30 days makes them ich free X% of the time?

 

[melypr1985]

Are there certain statistics available? For example:
-Quarantining corals for 76 days makes them ich free 99% of the time?
-Quarantining coral for 30 days makes them ich free X% of the time?

That would require a lot of testing, several QT's set up with corals and all the equipment that goes along with it, microscopes, and a lot of time (just off the top of my head) to figure that out. I'm not sure if there have been any studies that show that exactly, but there is one that shows there are a couple strains of ich that lasted 72 days..... most strains will die out within 30 days however. To be absolutely sure there is no ich coming from your corals, then 76 days is going to be target number of days.

 

[LoneStarReef]

Nice! Very helpful. So I know you said it has to be fishless but could you do fish only quarantine for x days and then do coral quarantine for x days? I am sure you would have to leave the tank empty for quite a while in between quarantines but I assume it would work, right?

 

[coweyes298]

Another question. I supposed that if I added batches of new purchased corals on different timeline then the 76 days clock will only start binding to when the individual coral gets into the qt. But what about if I added some corals and snails from my display (which is still on its fallow period for getting rid of ich)? I dip with Bayer and Revive for these display tank corals and rinsed them very well before putting into coral QT, as long as rinsed with new salt water three times for the snails. Do I need to start the clock for the whole stuff in QT again whenever I put snails/coral from display?

 

[mckinleyw]

Ive read all this and its awesome. Now my question is do i need sand if im just qt corals?

 

[Leaellynasaura]

I would recommend having some for the surface area alone.

 

[tidefanjam]

This may have been covered, I skimmed thru the thread but might have missed it, my 65 gal DT has cycled and is empty, would it be necessary to qt my first cuc, seeing as there’s no fish in my tank now? As long as I don’t add fish for 76 days? I have a qt tank, so I was planning on adding a cuc to the main, and quarantining my first few fish in the qt.

Thanks

 

[ViciousDlishus]

How is stability achieved in a coral qt? Ive recently set up a 20 g long with HOB filter, rocks, powerhead, heater and spare t5 light. Im worried about maintaining levels within this system as the number of frags increase. I could see myself amassing a large number of frags in a 76 day period when looking to fill a new system.

 

[coweyes298]

I use doser to do auto water change. My frag tank is 11 ~ ish gallon, so I setup to do 5 gallon WC a week. This gives me 1 ppm nitrate, 0.03 ppm PO4. I still get some small patch of hair algae here and there. I also use another channel of doser to do ATO with Kalk to maintain Ca and Alk.

 

[Bthomas]

Can a coral/invert quarantine be one that is taken down and set up when needed? Example: few days before bringing home new coral or inverts set up tank with fresh saltwater or water from dt, throw in some seeded filter media from main tank/bottled bacteria, and its good to go?

Seems like this would work if it works for fish but what do you feed the inverts while they're in there for 76 days since there wont be any algae or uneaten fish food or waste..

 

[Mikeand Mel]

I dropped some algae pellets in the tank.

 

[Big G]

@melypr1985 Any suggestions on w/c frequency in a coral/invert qt thats using the 76 day cycle? Thanks

 

[melypr1985]

@melypr1985 Any suggestions on w/c frequency in a coral/invert qt thats using the 76 day cycle? Thanks

That would probably depend on the types and amount of coral in the tank and how much you may be feeding them. It's always smart to do weekly water changes, but I'll be the first to admit that mine only gets a water change every few weeks or so. I also rarely scrape algae off the glass. lol Basically ... if you are QT'ing acros and milles or other corals that like nice clean water, then do them weekly. If you are QT'ing leathers and zoas, then you may not need to do them that frequently. Ya know?