Nightwatch
Community Member
Background: I have a reefer 250, set up and cycled with about a half dozen corals and a few shrimp, and CUC. Tank is doing great, set up with auto water changes from a saltwater mixing station in the basement using APEX and DOS for the water changes.
I had a QT set up and cycled, and had two fish in it preparing for an eventual transfer to the DT (coral beauty and royal gramma). Unfortunately, 2 weeks in they developed velvet and died despite trying to save them with copper power.
Maintaining two separate tanks was a challenge and I'm thinking of going a different route this time. I was wondering what opinions are of me purchasing 2-3 pre quarantined (full 6 week quarantine process from Dr. Reef) fish and adding to my DT. Here is my reasoning for going this route:
1) I don't feel confident I'm doing as good of a job keeping the QT stable, as it requires manual small water changes often, more testing (amonia/Nitrate/Copper if dosing copper), water temp fluctuates more as its only a 20 gallon long. I think this adds stress to the fish as opposed to being in the larger DT
2) My plan is to let the DT tank go fallow for 76 days. While the fish that got velvet were in a separate DT, once or twice I think I dipped my shot glass that I use to feed the fish in both tanks - its possible velvet transferred I suppose
3)I'm hoping to ask Dr Reef if he can quarantine 3 fish together in the same tank, though not sure that's possible. Because if they go through QT together, I don't have to worry about one fish being sick while the others are ok - and then cross contaminating when I add them all at once.
4) The pre quarantine process with Dr Reef seems as good or probably better than my process, as they also feed with meds for internal parasites etc.
5) If I only added one fish at a time, it would cost an extra $50 in shipping each time (flat fee), and I should really wait 45 days at least between each fish. Very slow process to get the tank stocked! Slow is fine, but that's really slow.
I am feeding the tank, and can also dose some ammonia to get the bacteria counts up so the tank can handle all 3 fish (going to be a royal gramma, coral beauty, and maybe a fathead anthias - small fish)
In a nutshell, with the autowater changes daily and monitoring, do you think this is an ok strategy? I know gold standard would be to QT each fish for 76 days individually dosing copper and meds myself, but I've decided I'm not doing that. So is this an ok plan B?
I had a QT set up and cycled, and had two fish in it preparing for an eventual transfer to the DT (coral beauty and royal gramma). Unfortunately, 2 weeks in they developed velvet and died despite trying to save them with copper power.
Maintaining two separate tanks was a challenge and I'm thinking of going a different route this time. I was wondering what opinions are of me purchasing 2-3 pre quarantined (full 6 week quarantine process from Dr. Reef) fish and adding to my DT. Here is my reasoning for going this route:
1) I don't feel confident I'm doing as good of a job keeping the QT stable, as it requires manual small water changes often, more testing (amonia/Nitrate/Copper if dosing copper), water temp fluctuates more as its only a 20 gallon long. I think this adds stress to the fish as opposed to being in the larger DT
2) My plan is to let the DT tank go fallow for 76 days. While the fish that got velvet were in a separate DT, once or twice I think I dipped my shot glass that I use to feed the fish in both tanks - its possible velvet transferred I suppose
3)I'm hoping to ask Dr Reef if he can quarantine 3 fish together in the same tank, though not sure that's possible. Because if they go through QT together, I don't have to worry about one fish being sick while the others are ok - and then cross contaminating when I add them all at once.
4) The pre quarantine process with Dr Reef seems as good or probably better than my process, as they also feed with meds for internal parasites etc.
5) If I only added one fish at a time, it would cost an extra $50 in shipping each time (flat fee), and I should really wait 45 days at least between each fish. Very slow process to get the tank stocked! Slow is fine, but that's really slow.
I am feeding the tank, and can also dose some ammonia to get the bacteria counts up so the tank can handle all 3 fish (going to be a royal gramma, coral beauty, and maybe a fathead anthias - small fish)
In a nutshell, with the autowater changes daily and monitoring, do you think this is an ok strategy? I know gold standard would be to QT each fish for 76 days individually dosing copper and meds myself, but I've decided I'm not doing that. So is this an ok plan B?
