Mehaffy's 1100+ gallon Plywood display in North Alabama

[CrimsonTide]

I plan to quarantine everything. I need to do more research on coral. Do I need to put in tank fallow for 76 days or is a coral dip adequate? I’m leaning toward 76 days fallow.

Well most people who quarantine coral dip them then fallow them. I just dip my corals if they come from someone I trust but if you're serious about the quarantine thing I would fallow them as well. With the new station you built after I left I would use one of the tanks set up some egg crates in there at different levels and put corals and colonies in there with lights and just wait it out. Only issue is you have to buy things all at once bc once you add something else you have to continue the fallow. Now without fish I think you can do a less fallow time. You'll have to ask someone like Jay or maybe @vetteguy53081. But without fish I think you can do like 40ish days instead of the 76? But I might be wrong. Without fish you're just worried about the eggs of parasites that are fish related and without fish to host they should die off once they don't have a host and hatch. When you fallow fish you are taking the parasites that are currently on the fish into account and the eggs they could have possibly laid and will hatch out and have to fallow for that time as well.

 

[GBRsouth]

But without fish I think you can do like 40ish days instead of the 76? But I might be wrong.

Unfortunately, no fish presence does not reduce the fallow period, as the fallow period length is to be sure to pick up late hatching ich. So 76 days minimum.

To allow continued purchase of corals with quarantining them properly, you can run a second coral qt. The first one continue loading corals into it for 76 days plus. At that point begin it's fallow period and don't add more to it. During the first tank's fallow you can now be adding new corals to the second tank for the duration of the first tank's fallow period. When the first tank finishes fallow, move it's contents to the display and begin the second tank's fallow. The first tank is now free to add new corals again.

 

[CrimsonTide]

Unfortunately, no fish presence does not reduce the fallow period, as the fallow period length is to be sure to pick up late hatching ich. So 76 days minimum.

To allow continued purchase of corals with quarantining them properly, you can run a second coral qt. The first one continue loading corals into it for 76 days plus. At that point begin it's fallow period and don't add more to it. During the first tank's fallow you can now be adding new corals to the second tank for the duration of the first tank's fallow period. When the first tank finishes fallow, move it's contents to the display and begin the second tank's fallow. The first tank is now free to add new corals again.

Ok thanks! I couldn't remember if it was shortened by not having a fish presence for the pests to latch on to.

 

[gunflintcamper]

Ok thanks! I couldn't remember if it was shortened by not having a fish presence for the pests to latch on to.

You could raise the coral QT temp to 80.6° and it would reduce the fallow period to 45 days. I wouldn’t do this with anything but healthy frags tho. But also I haven’t been doing this very long so I have yet to see the effects of the higher temp on more than a dozen or so corals.

 

[mehaffydr]

Salinity tonight up to 1.0122
Slowly making progress.

 

[mehaffydr]

The Hypo plan seams to continue to go well. All fish in the DT are looking good and healthy and some of the fatest fish I have owned. I have been raising salt for a week now and have it up from 1.009 to 1.0173

Today I just received 2 new fish that are looking good and in QT. I got a One Spot and a Bicolor Foxface. I got them from NY Aquatics and they look really good so far. A little skittish which is to be expected but already eating.

 

[mehaffydr]

As of this evening salinity is back up to 1.0229, so getting real close to being back at normal level. Fish are looking good eating good. Not signs of any disease at this time. I have to say I am a fan of Hypo. Of course it helped I had almost no coral but if I had Ick in a FOWLR I would for sure do Hypo.

 

[mehaffydr]

Great day Salinity is back at 1.025, Hypo went very smooth and I really had no problems throughout the process, Now I will QT everything and Fallow all Inverts and corals as I never want to deal with Ich or Velvet again.

 

[Sltloser]

Great day Salinity is back at 1.025, Hypo went very smooth and I really had no problems throughout the process, Now I will QT everything and Fallow all Inverts and corals as I never want to deal with Ich or Velvet again.

That is so exciting to hear! I'm glad everything is looking good and you're feeling good about the aquarium. How are the phosphate doing?

 

[McPuff]

Great day Salinity is back at 1.025, Hypo went very smooth and I really had no problems throughout the process, Now I will QT everything and Fallow all Inverts and corals as I never want to deal with Ich or Velvet again.

Cool Cats!

 

[Eric R.]

To allow continued purchase of corals with quarantining them properly, you can run a second coral qt. The first one continue loading corals into it for 76 days plus. At that point begin it's fallow period and don't add more to it. During the first tank's fallow you can now be adding new corals to the second tank for the duration of the first tank's fallow period. When the first tank finishes fallow, move it's contents to the display and begin the second tank's fallow. The first tank is now free to add new corals again.

My understanding is that you actually don't need to QT corals in batches, unlike fish. This is because in a fishless system, the parasites (ich, velvet, etc) can't complete their life cycle. So once encysted, newly hatched free swimmers (theronts) can't re-encyst until after they've infected a new fish host. With a coral QT, you just want to make sure that all tomonts (encysted stage) will have hatched and the theronts died in the QT before moving corals into the DT. I could be misunderstanding this however.

See Meredith's article: https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/how-to-quarantine-coral-and-inverts.228/

Quote from her article:
"The good news here is that you don’t have to introduce the corals and inverts in batches. Each individual coral needs to be in the QT for 76 days. Adding another coral later doesn’t restart the clock for the first coral. I like to add them in small groups (mostly because they are like potato chips, how do you just buy one?) and keep a list of which corals or inverts went in the QT on what date. It helps keep track of which ones can be added to the display so I don’t accidentally add one that hasn’t been in quarantine for the full 76 days."

 

[GBRsouth]

My understanding is that you actually don't need to QT corals in batches, unlike fish. This is because in a fishless system, the parasites (ich, velvet, etc) can't complete their life cycle. So once encysted, newly hatched free swimmers (theronts) can't re-encyst until after they've infected a new fish host. With a coral QT, you just want to make sure that all tomonts (encysted stage) will have hatched and the theronts died in the QT before moving corals into the DT. I could be misunderstanding this however.

See Meredith's article: https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/how-to-quarantine-coral-and-inverts.228/

Quote from her article:
"The good news here is that you don’t have to introduce the corals and inverts in batches. Each individual coral needs to be in the QT for 76 days. Adding another coral later doesn’t restart the clock for the first coral. I like to add them in small groups (mostly because they are like potato chips, how do you just buy one?) and keep a list of which corals or inverts went in the QT on what date. It helps keep track of which ones can be added to the display so I don’t accidentally add one that hasn’t been in quarantine for the full 76 days."

Yes, that will work if you can ensure that no free swimmers are caught up on the coral as you transfer it. For the sake of another small tank, light and other equipment to support the corals, I can avoid having to consider how to ensure that.

I just prefer the extra protection doing batches gives against transferring free swimmers accidentally and feel that advising this gives others a better chance of success.

Your way can definitely work for someone who does things carefully.

 

[Sean Clark]

Great build.

 

[mehaffydr]

Yes, that will work if you can ensure that no free swimmers are caught up on the coral as you transfer it. For the sake of another small tank, light and other equipment to support the corals, I can avoid having to consider how to ensure that.

I just prefer the extra protection doing batches gives against transferring free swimmers accidentally and feel that advising this gives others a better chance of success.

Your way can definitely work for someone who does things carefully.

I do have 4 QT tanks and room for more if needed so for now I will most likely just fallow an entire tank for 76 days. At this point I may over do it but that sure beats having pests in the DT.

 

[mehaffydr]

Great build.

Thank You and thanks for checking it out.

 

[Ashish Patel]

Just spend awhile reading your build thread.. amazing builder you are and very determined reefer! keep up the good updates and love the tank!

 

[mehaffydr]

Just spend awhile reading your build thread.. amazing builder you are and very determined reefer! keep up the good updates and love the tank!

Thank You for following the build. It has been a journey with good and bad but I sure enjoy my time with the building and the reefing both.

 

[mehaffydr]

Its been a while since last update so just thought I would let you guys know how things are going.
Right now I am very happy with the tank. Its at about a year and since the initial leak at the beginning no structural issues at all.
I completed Hypo and it seams to have done the trick all fish have survived and no signs of any disease in the tank at all.
The corals and rock I pulled out have completed over 80 days fallow and I am putting them back in the Display.
The rocks I bought from Gulf Live Rock have also completed 80 plus days fallow and are going into display. I did get a bonus hitchhiker. I literally watched those rocks looked at them daily even going in at night with a flashlight looking for critters. As I was moving rocks to display a medium size Emerald Crab jumped out.

I was in St Louis last week and stopped by one of the fish stores I used to frequent when I lived there and they had a nice fat One Spot Foxface about 5-6" that they took in on trade. I bought him and a Large Pajama Cardinal. They are currently in Quarantine along with a smaller Bicolor Foxface i bought from NY Aquatics.
They will go into the display in early May if all goes well.

Nitrates and Phosphates are still higher than Id like but definitely better than they had been so I will just keep up the 20 hour light on Refugium and keep bringing those down.

 

[Sltloser]

That's great to hear! It's been a fun process to follow along with and I'm very excited that you're happy with the aquarium and feeling comfortable getting more critters for it.

Now for the dreaded question.....do we get more pics when you're back home?

 

[Daniel@R2R]

That's great to hear! It's been a fun process to follow along with and I'm very excited that you're happy with the aquarium and feeling comfortable getting more critters for it.

Now for the dreaded question.....do we get more pics when you're back home?

Yes! Yes! More pics!!