Reefcleaners.org Quarentining and fish disease

[shawtygotbass]

I was wondering if anyone could provide me some first hand experience with reefcleaners.org’s CUCs. I’m mainly wondering if they are truly running a 100% closed system without fish that we don’t need to QT for.

Do you get a shipment and just acclimate then plop them into your display tank without any fear of fish diseases? Has this all worked out well for everyone?

I’m pretty paranoid about brook or other parasites after making the mistake of not quarantining a fish a year ago :( Never again.

I have been running without a CUC for 8 months and am in a constant battle with algae. Paramaters are good (2 nitrate and .08 phosphate), I just don’t have anyone eating the algae. I started QT for a turbo snail 3 weeks ago but would obviously like immediate results if this business is super trusted within the community.

 

[JumboShrimp]

I 100% can see where you are coming from. It has taken me 'forever' to quarantine several Butterfly fish, and I don't want to risk them. From what I have read here on R2R from people whom I trust, Reefcleaners 'do' in fact keep their inverts in a fishLESS system. I am personally contemplating placing an order for things like Brittle Stars.

 

[JGT]

Don’t think they even offer fish for sale so I wouldn’t worry. Me and many others have bought from John and have been very happy. He stands by his products.

 

[NanoSteam]

If it's of any value, I have not had an issue adding CUC from them directly to my tank. No issues but I did scrub the shells, there was a bit of algae on some of them.

 

[exnisstech]

I've never seen their facility so I have no idea if it's fishless or not. I've ordered several times and temp and dropped everything right into the DT with no issues. That said I have never QTed coral or inverts.

 

[Ziggy17]

You can always use a tooth brush dipped in peroxide and carefully clean the shells before you put them in. It helps for not bringing in algae like briopsis or bubble algae.
I do not QT inverts FTR, just brush them.

 

[Sam7]

You always got to check your stuff up close no matter who you get it from

 

[JumboShrimp]

Up with Fish . Down with Ick .

 

[Kasrift]

For what it's worth, I agree with everything said. They run fishless systems, but that doesn't eliminate the chance of disease. I'm in the same boat for my 200g which I quarantined everything that went in. For my Reef Cleaners order, I did a hybrid tank transfer using 2.5g tanks from Petco. They are cheap. I scrubbed the snails each transfer.

Candidly, I lost about 20% of the snails. I put algae on a clip and dropped some food in for the nassarius, but those particularly didn't like a small system and ate some of the other residents. Either way, I'd suggest that. Just scrubb them in a separate container, and separate rinse container and new 2.5g with HOB filter and you should be good to go. I also used a little h202 on the toothbrush scrubs.

 

[Fish Fan]

I've used Reef Cleaners serval times in the past and they used to be my go-to for CUC critters. However, they no longer offer shipping by USPS Priority Mail for most of their animals like they used to. And, my most recent order was placed around last June or so, and was the first batch of CUC critters I purchased for my newly setup 25 gallon. I didn't notice until it was too late, but I had Vermitid snails growing on the Astrea snails I order from Reef Cleaners, and now my relatively new tank is overgrown with Vermitid snails. I'm not in a huge hurry to be ordering from Reef Cleaners again, but on the other hand now I need some Bubblebee snails

I've more recently ordered CUC critters from @coralmonsters.judy who's an R2R sponsor, and who has really large and health CUC guys. You can contact her here on R2R, or check out their website:
https://coralmonsters.com/
Hope that helps!

 

[The new fish on the block]

https://invertedreef.com/
They specialize in Quarantined inverts

 

[Kasrift]

Oh yeah, there is a place that has quarantined CUC. Humblefish has some vendors listed for quarantine that they recommend and InvertedReef is the one for CUC. I haven't tried them, but just remembered.

 

[oakcityreefer]

Inverted Reef hasn’t had stock on their website for at least a month. Anybody know what’s going on? I was going to put an order in for a CUC but they don’t have anything.

 

[coralmonsters.judy Verified Sponsor]

Hey guys,

If you need inverts, reach out. I will be posting my weekly stock list after today's dive. We are commercial divers and collect most of the inverts locally. My prices are better than most since we are the source :)

I have a very nice selection. So you have an idea as to prices, I listed some of them below.

**Crabs:**
Emeralds**: $5.00 each, or $3.50 each if you buy 30 or more
Pithos**: $5.00 each, or $3.50 each if you buy 30 or more
Astraea/Turbo Snails**: $0.50 each
XL Astraea Snails**: $0.65 each
Nerite Snails**: $0.50 each
400 XL Nerite Snails**: $0.65 each
50 Crown Conchs**: $5.00 each or $3.50 each if you buy 10 or more
500 Cerith Snails**: $0.50 each
100 Periwinkle Snails**: $0.50 each
5 Cowrie Snails** (3-6 inches): $40

Today we are diving for nassarious, horseshoe crabs, crown conchs, serpents, brittles, sea hares and cucumbers.

 

[ingchr1]

Inverted Reef hasn’t had stock on their website for at least a month. Anybody know what’s going on? I was going to put an order in for a CUC but they don’t have anything.

Looks like they recently got an order in and just need to update the site.

 

[Hnsmith88]

Inverted Reef hasn’t had stock on their website for at least a month. Anybody know what’s going on? I was going to put an order in for a CUC but they don’t have anything.

Im the owner of Inverted Reef. With the holidays we havent had a chance to do a full inventory update. My plan was to get it updated yesterday and today and this weekend but my husband just got admitted to the hospital last night for cardiac complications. I havent left the hospital. You're welcome to send me a message or shoot us an email and I promise to reply as soon as I can and we can get you squared away. I apologize for the delay in updating

 

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

I was wondering if anyone could provide me some first hand experience with reefcleaners.org’s CUCs. I’m mainly wondering if they are truly running a 100% closed system without fish that we don’t need to QT for.

Do you get a shipment and just acclimate then plop them into your display tank without any fear of fish diseases? Has this all worked out well for everyone?

I’m pretty paranoid about brook or other parasites after making the mistake of not quarantining a fish a year ago :( Never again.

I have been running without a CUC for 8 months and am in a constant battle with algae. Paramaters are good (2 nitrate and .08 phosphate), I just don’t have anyone eating the algae. I started QT for a turbo snail 3 weeks ago but would obviously like immediate results if this business is super trusted within the community.

I have purchased from John many times, and I am putting together another replenishment order now. It costs me about $500 for each replenishment order and have never had any issues. I am dragging my feet this time as I am debating about doing an Interceptor treatment.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I was wondering if anyone could provide me some first hand experience with reefcleaners.org’s CUCs. I’m mainly wondering if they are truly running a 100% closed system without fish that we don’t need to QT for.

Do you get a shipment and just acclimate then plop them into your display tank without any fear of fish diseases? Has this all worked out well for everyone?

I’m pretty paranoid about brook or other parasites after making the mistake of not quarantining a fish a year ago :( Never again.

I have been running without a CUC for 8 months and am in a constant battle with algae. Paramaters are good (2 nitrate and .08 phosphate), I just don’t have anyone eating the algae. I started QT for a turbo snail 3 weeks ago but would obviously like immediate results if this business is super trusted within the community.

I get my CUC from Reef Cleaners. I’ve never quarantined their products, but I do give everything a good rinse in tank water (which I dispose of after).

Here is the thing - I do believe they keep everything in a fishless system. However, they buy and resell a number of CUC they they don’t get locally. Those animals could very well go through mixed systems before arriving at their facility.

 

[mfinn]

I've never had a issue with reefcleaners inverts. Been ordering from them for years ( maybe a couple decades it's been so long)

 

[DexterKarin]

I just placed an order with reef Cleaners yesterday. I just temp acclimate and drop in. But I think I will add the extra tank water rinse. I have ordered several times from him.