Quarantining Coral: Do you? Should you? How do you?

Do you quarantine new coral before adding it to your reef tank?

  • YES always

    Votes: 102 17.0%
  • Sometimes depending (tell us why)

    Votes: 66 11.0%
  • NO never

    Votes: 414 69.1%
  • Other (please explain)

    Votes: 17 2.8%

  • Total voters
    599

Coral Winslow

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Corals and Inverts go into the frag tank for minimum 2 months. I run fallow to prevent Ich from entering my display. Coral RX before going into the frag and again before leaving to the display. Scraping or replacing plugs under magnifying glass.

20 Gallon Long, FijiCube AIO, 3D printed 3 tier media basket w/ filter floss, sponges, small bag of carbon/Purigen. Dragon’s Tongue Macro with a grow panel through the side. Red Sea ReefLED 90, JBJ Ocean Pulse Duo with 2 JBJ Ocean Stream power heads, 2 additional Sicce Voyager 1000’s, Reef Octopus BH1000, 9 Marine Pure 2” cubes, Inkbird Controlled Colbalt Neotherm and fans.
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maleshka21

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I voted other because I only buy QT corals and fish. I had to go through ich last year. QT is very time consuming. I found a wonderful vendor Marinepleasures, they are very good about the QT process, so anything i get is 100% guarantee.
 

Jubei2006

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Yes don't be me....."hey this zoanthid rock looks great. It's got one aiptasia on it, but I got aiptasia x and Joes juice so I'll kill it and be fine" 2 years later.....and removing most of my sand, recycling rock and reaquascaping later.....To top it off, the zoanthids melted within 6 months. Thank God I didnt put any of this in the 500. And I recently got Berghias to clean all this out. So hopefully in a few months I'll have some established corals for the big tank.
 

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paddle41773

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I’ve been doing a 6 week quarantine with dips every 2 weeks. Got AEFW a year ago and fortunately beat them with weekly dips of ALL of my acros. No thank you again.

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My QT tank is 3 gallons and is plumbed to receive waste water from my display via AWC. Excess water drains out into a floor drain via the overflow. This way it gets 100% water changes daily and matches my main systems parameters! It also has a HOB UV and a regular HOB for additional bio filtration too.
Which HOB UV? I need one for my 20gal QT!
 

paddle41773

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I’ve been doing a 6 week quarantine with dips every 2 weeks. Got AEFW a year ago and fortunately beat them with weekly dips of ALL of my acros. No thank you again.

7E40EB99-4650-4BB2-9BF5-3327A4DFA130.jpeg


My QT tank is 3 gallons and is plumbed to receive waste water from my display via AWC. Excess water drains out into a floor drain via the overflow. This way it gets 100% water changes daily and matches my main systems parameters! It also has a HOB UV and a regular HOB for additional bio filtration too.
Which HOB IV? I need one for my 20gal QT!
 

bnord

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Depends on what you mean by quarantine - I quarantine in a small plastic container for 7 to 10 minutes with iodine prior to adding to the frag rack in the display.... grimace

I do intend to bring one on line with a AWC from the display as soon as I can get another Versa.
 

bnord

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my challenge is knowing how to rotate frags in and out; does addition of a new piece start the clock all over; I have almost no new fish additions, but regular coral adds... and am I quarantining to keep fish parasites out or coral parasites, or all of the above

But I am convinced of the value of watching for health, adjusting to water chemistry and keeping them out of display fit 30 days is they hav a substantial Stoney base to reduce chances of ice/velvet.
 

M Stein

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I never have, but should.
One small hitchhiker on a coral, and a long road for the recovery of your DT.

QT for me would be a sponge filter, (doesn't have to be cycled, it's for aeration and water circulation) in a five gallon bucket or small aquarium. I would hang a par 38 light above it and run the system for at least a month. If anything is on the coral, it'll likely show itself by then and you can then treat it.

That's what I believe in doing, but not what I actually do in practice.

Edit: oh and don't forget to do water changes as necessary.
 
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AngryInch

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I've had some pests come along so I'm pretty strict with my frags now.
Everything that goes into the fr ag tank gets dipped in coral RX, Bayer, and Seachem iodine dip. Then they spend a day in a small tank setup with peopermint shrimp and only then do they make it into the frag tank that has bumble bee snails, trochus snails, a six line wrasse, a sailfin tang, and countless mini brittle stars.
 

xiaoxiy

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Which HOB IV? I need one for my 20gal QT!
Aquatop!


This was my plan for having a coral/invert QT. I see the the other post that you didn’t have to setup an ATO. I tried this in one setup but salinity crept up. It must work cause it’s such a small tank getting 100% water change per day
I think the 100% water change is the key to
not having salinity creep.
 

Coral Winslow

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my challenge is knowing how to rotate frags in and out; does addition of a new piece start the clock all over; I have almost no new fish additions, but regular coral adds... and am I quarantining to keep fish parasites out or coral parasites, or all of the above

But I am convinced of the value of watching for health, adjusting to water chemistry and keeping them out of display fit 30 days is they hav a substantial Stoney base to reduce chances of ice/velvet.
Yes, any new additions of coral restarts the clock. Ich is the biggest example of why this is. If you place a new coral that just so happens to have some ich on it, then potentially every piece of coral in the QT tank could once again have it and you can just as easily transfer that to your display. 2 months minimum from the last addition, doesn't matter if it's coral, or invert, or Macro. If it's wet the whole tank waits 2 months since last addition. I also run fallow, any fish in your system will just keep the Ich cycle going and then wind up in your display.
 

DeniseAndy

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I do quarantine corals with few exceptions. My set up for qt has been running longer than my actual large set up, so it is pretty settled. The lights are all T5 and on my main set up they are T5, MH. So, not too much different.

Now, any coral that has a base or rock attached is qt'ed. If it is small, it is qt'd and grown out. Qt will last a minimum of 3 months.

Exception: if a coral is not attched to anything - no rock, plug, anything and it is dipped and clean I may add to a display. Shrooms I wait till they attach and same with leathers. Then to display they will go. I still usually wait about a week to put in any display if the above conditions are met.

Mainly to keep an eye on them and make sure growing and happy.
 

TheDragonsReef

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Always qt. After you get nudibranchs, aefw, red/black bugs, etc. Youll never not qt again.

I use my frag tank as a qt system. New corals always go in there after acclimation and dip. Always cut the base off. After that i typically just observe for a month or 2. Ill pick up the coral and inspect it top to bottom every few days.

I currently have 2 new montipora with nudibranchs in qt. Even dipping every week theyve still be showing up so until theyre nudi free for atleast a month or 2 they wont be going in the tank
 

Rick's Reviews

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Great thread thanks but no good for newbies like me, I have 200litre aquarium and currently have two tiny clown fish, 1 cleaner shrimp, 3 X small stripped leg (haiwian) hermits 5 X very tiny hermits, snails (clean up crew as such). They are alive from purchase so I'm on the right track (1month)
Tomorrow I get delivered.
Pulsing Xenia , green Star polyp, golden silk palythoa? I do not have space for quarantine, (again newbie pack) I have Hydrogen peroxide and seachem reef dip.
1st question. Have I made the right choice
 
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