What is your "good enough" quarantine procedure?

[totalbiz]

Question here, My tank was setup in July (109gal Bow with 30gal sump) , cycled in 2 weeks, Diver's Den fish on Aug 6 (Midas blenny and 2 clowns) stupidly put Cheato in a couple snails/hermits from LFS on Aug 9th (but I FW dipped Cheato and put snails/hermits in without their water) Added a tiny Monster Goby and 4" Exquisite fairy Wrasse in the 16th and just put a CUC from Reef-Cleaners this Monday.

All are eating and acting normal, Ozone system is now online and my 24W "Green Killing Machine" UV was shut down.

I really am not afraid of ICH, I would rather NOT have it but I am deathly afraid of Brook and Velvet- so patiently and fearfully awaiting the next week or so to see if there is either one in my system.

Anywho, my question is I want to start adding coral, and now I see that dipping WILL NOT kill Tomonts, is there any vendors whom sell QT Corals that aren't $300+? I just want to start with some Xenia and the like, but not at the expense of my fish's health.

I also really don't want to QT coral for 76 days, potentially killing them in the process.

Was the UV not working in your opinion, or was gong to ozone system just always planned. I am comfortable with UV, but have never used ozone. I am kind of afraid of it!

 

[QuinnLee512]

I've ran 10 fish through quarantine. Ammonia is definitely a concern. All of my fish except my Tomini tang are 2" fish. I started out in the smaller shoe boxes but have since went to 2 gallon ones to add more water volume. with the Tomini I would add a few drops of prime to keep the ammonia down. I never recorded ammonia but was just a precaution

FYI apparently Prime does nothing to lower the toxic ammonia levels. Someone actually tested this. That's how this ammonia question came up.

 

[QuinnLee512]

Can’t water changes accomplish this? If you just have a ~10g coral QT, you should be able to change 2g per week pretty easily, I’d think.

Yeah that's what he ended up saying. He doesn't actually check it. Just does water changes. I understand about doing water changes. I just don't want to do it on 3 tanks every week for 76 days.

 

[QuinnLee512]

My simple and effective Qurantine protocal

Fish > TTM (with prazipro on certain fish) only takes 12 days. Has never failed me.

Corals > 30 day qurantine

Inverts > 30 day qurantine ...and some depending on Humblefish's invert chart recommendation may be shorter

Ich Free Tank ever since 2019 when I started my tank.

I am switching to TTM going forward. I believe for corals and inverts, temps have to be 80 in order to do 30 days.

 

[LPS Bum]

I dip all new corals in an iodine based solution for 15-20 min, and gently turkey baste them a few times while they're in the dip. I feel like that takes care of bacterial and fungal infections. I mostly have LPS and softies though, so I'm not as concerned with AEFs and other bugs as many SPS reefers would be.

As for fish, I had an almost complete tank wipeout due to velvet years ago. It was heartbreaking. Since then, every single new fish I've received has gone through a 1 month quarantine with a full course of Cupramine. It's worked great, and I'm never letting velvet wipe out my FOWLR aquarium again.

 

[Neffly4u]

FYI apparently Prime does nothing to lower the toxic ammonia levels. Someone actually tested this. That's how this ammonia question came up.

This definitely sparked an interesting read on the affect of prime on ammonia. If ammonia is truly a concern or a larger fish is being quarantined then you can always just up the water volume and change every 2 days (this covers velvet) and not worry about it. I tested my ammonia when I had two 2" fish in one 6 quart tub TTM and on the third day I was under .25ppm on the API test kit. I upped my tub to 12 quarts once I ran my tang through.

 

[ctopherl]

Yeah that's what he ended up saying. He doesn't actually check it. Just does water changes. I understand about doing water changes. I just don't want to do it on 3 tanks every week for 76 days.

Definitely fair, but I think the idea is that the coral/invert QT tank is usually small enough where it isn't a big deal. A 5g bucket of fresh saltwater should last 2-3 weeks!

 

[Wyvern]

Was the UV not working in your opinion, or was gong to ozone system just always planned. I am comfortable with UV, but have never used ozone. I am kind of afraid of it!

I always wanted to use ozone, the UV did help cure post-cycle bacteria bloom, but since using Ozone, my skimmer is skimming better and the water is super clear and colorless and the copepods exploded.

ORP was 220 before, now at 320 using only 20mg/hr.

I use ozone in my home, used improperly it can smell like bleach and torch your sinuses, ignoring symptoms can make you sick, but used correctly, it is impressive what good it can do- it is unfortunately demonized into some cloud of radioactive fallout.

Obviously used wrong in an aquarium can kill every living thing.

If I ever face fish disease, I will run UV and ozone together, but shut down ozone during any medication dosing (Ozone can break-down chemicals and could make new harmful ones.)