Quarantine/frag tank for SPS

Max93 · Jan 17, 2022

Hello,

Recently, I had a very traumatic experience with ich in my display.

hence, I’m not taking any chances at all when it comes to the quarantine process. I saved all my fish from ich, in the display. Check my post if you want to see more about my ich journey, still a battle but about done.

now, I have learned that a Bayer dip does absolutely nothing to ich. Given my luck, I am going to treat every single acro I buy as AEFW infested and ich infested.

I plan to:

buy all my acros from one source, except here and there I’ll buy 1 name brand one at conventions once a year or so. The source I plan to get the majority of my acros from is Battlecorals.

now dipping is one thing..scorched earth style, but what about ich? How can I correctly set up my frag/quarantine tank to house acropora frags for 76 days and ensure a successful transition (not letting those frags die during quarantine).

I was thinking:

setting up a 30g frank tank
Run a cheap black box for lighting
Lots of flow
Cheap skimmer
Weekly water changes
No fish, just inverts that will go in the display after 76 days as well.
auto top off

I will add 10 acros at a time plus all inverts (snails,hermits, pistol shrimp) and wait 76 days.
However, I feel that I’m going to end up losing my frags due to parameter swings etc.. how do you guys do this? Just do it the hard way and treat your frag tank like a display permanently? Am I overthinking?

thank you for the help, I’m looking to stock a 220 waterbox with a ton of acros and be successful.

jda · Jan 17, 2022

You are going to need to set up another reef tank and just go fishless. QTing corals is one thing, which is not easy in a sterile tank, but inverts is something else... they need algae, rock, etc. to live and live well or else you lose too many of them.

I will just speak to my coral QTs since I don't worry about ich. I have 2 tanks set up 40b and 50g lowboy. They have corals, nems and fish in them. They have live rock and sand in one and some sand and tile frags in the other. The tanks are teeming with life... pods all over the glass in the morning, worms, shrimp, crabs, mini brittle starfish, etc. When I get new acropora, I dip in bayer and replace the frag plugs. Then they go into the frag tanks for observation for a while - the amount of time depends on the source... but usually at least two months. I want them encrusted the frag plug and with no signs of tissue necrosis or pests.

For ich, you almost have to do the same thing, but just skip the fish. If you do this, I would study up on dosing ammonium to feed the corals. Having shrimp and crabs can help some too, but they don't eat like fish do.

I would match the lights to your display and at least treat this as a second reef tank. I use MH over my QT tanks just like display. I keep water quality the same. I credit both of these with success and introduction rate.

You can get acros from multiple sources. There are plenty who are good at what they do and even some of those that are good at what they do get stuff from time to time.

There are other ich strategies that work, but they require things that lots of people don't want to do, but if you want to hear, just ask and I can expand. I usually stay out of this unless people ask.

Max93 · Jan 17, 2022

jda said:
You are going to need to set up another reef tank and just go fishless. QTing corals is one thing, which is not easy in a sterile tank, but inverts is something else... they need algae, rock, etc. to live and live well or else you lose too many of them.

I will just speak to my coral QTs since I don't worry about ich. I have 2 tanks set up 40b and 50g lowboy. They have corals, nems and fish in them. They have live rock and sand in one and some sand and tile frags in the other. The tanks are teeming with life... pods all over the glass in the morning, worms, shrimp, crabs, mini brittle starfish, etc. When I get new acropora, I dip in bayer and replace the frag plugs. Then they go into the frag tanks for observation for a while - the amount of time depends on the source... but usually at least two months. I want them encrusted the frag plug and with no signs of tissue necrosis or pests.

For ich, you almost have to do the same thing, but just skip the fish. If you do this, I would study up on dosing ammonium to feed the corals. Having shrimp and crabs can help some too, but they don't eat like fish do.

I would match the lights to your display and at least treat this as a second reef tank. I use MH over my QT tanks just like display. I keep water quality the same. I credit both of these with success and introduction rate.

You can get acros from multiple sources. There are plenty who are good at what they do and even some of those that are good at what they do get stuff from time to time.

There are other ich strategies that work, but they require things that lots of people don't want to do, but if you want to hear, just ask and I can expand. I usually stay out of this unless people ask.

Hi!
Thank you for your reply and explaining your set ups. Pretty much setting up a nano tank to match is the best solution to this. I’ll also look into the ammonium.

the other ich strategies I know are for ich management such as running UV, feeding better, etc. however I want complete eradication, it just feels terrible when I see something hurting the fish when it could have been prevented. I would like to hear your thoughts on the other strategies.

jda · Jan 17, 2022

In those same tanks, I keep substrate and a mature system. There is worms, pods, starfish, etc. I put new fish in there with a friendly fish to show them how to eat flakes and other food. Ich does not stand a chance in there. When the tomont drops off of the fish, the microfauna, and probably macro fauna, are always looking for meals. The display is the same way. While I doubt that this is eradication, I never see spots on my fish and even if I get a fish with some ich on it, I will put them in there and it just disappears and the other fish do not get it. This is how I manage my ich, but people don't start tanks with diversity anymore since they are so scared of pests, but anything that I ever got in live rock and sand was not nearly as bad as ich, velvet, dinos, cyano. etc. Most modern tank setups are sterlie petri dishes and perfect breeding grounds for fish parasites.

I know myself and that I will not QT my inverts for the full time, so there is little chance that I will never introduce it, so I want the fish as healthy as possible and a super mature system to make life as hard as possible for the parasites.

I do treat some fish for flukes with prazi, but that is mostly pacific angelfish. That is a quick deal, though.