Worth or a Waste of Time

[HardyG]

After many years of not believing in QTing fish, and many battles with ich and other nasty illnesses, I decided that it was worth taking a look at QTing now that I am starting a new tank after a few years out of the hobby and do things the right way.

My question now is how useful is a fish QT tank if you don’t do a proper 30 day QT on your corals and inverts as well? I have always been a believer in dipping new corals, but it seems almost impossible to get every critter before it enters the tank from pre-entry dips. This means that all of those fish diseases can make their way into your tank anyway sooner or later, right? At that point is it more about trying your best to eliminate things you can see, but knowing the risk exists and could happen eventually? A full QT regiment is a large task in itself with the amount of testing, medicine, and WC required. I would hate to spend so much time on fish husbandry and a $5 brings some of those bugs to my tank!!

It just seems like a lot to run a full DT, a fish QT system, and a coral QT system with a half decent light, timer, etc.. Anyone have any solutions or tricks to help with this?

Would love to hear everyone’s thoughts!

 

[Reefer Matt]

After many years of not believing in QTing fish, and many battles with ich and other nasty illnesses, I decided that it was worth taking a look at QTing now that I am starting a new tank after a few years out of the hobby and do things the right way.

My question now is how useful is a fish QT tank if you don’t do a proper 30 day QT on your corals and inverts as well? I have always been a believer in dipping new corals, but it seems almost impossible to get every critter before it enters the tank from pre-entry dips. This means that all of those fish diseases can make their way into your tank anyway sooner or later, right? At that point is it more about trying your best to eliminate things you can see, but knowing the risk exists and could happen eventually? A full QT regiment is a large task in itself with the amount of testing, medicine, and WC required. I would hate to spend so much time on fish husbandry and a $5 brings some of those bugs to my tank!!

It just seems like a lot to run a full DT, a fish QT system, and a coral QT system with a half decent light, timer, etc.. Anyone have any solutions or tricks to help with this?

Would love to hear everyone’s thoughts!

I used to qt everything. I still have two qt tanks. Now I only qt fish that require it. I source my inverts from fishless systems now. With coral, I dip them and monitor. Some people swear by qt'ing everything, and they are not wrong either. It is all about your comfort level about dealing with pests.

 

[KrisReef]

After many years of not believing in QTing fish, and many battles with ich and other nasty illnesses, I decided that it was worth taking a look at QTing now that I am starting a new tank after a few years out of the hobby and do things the right way.

My question now is how useful is a fish QT tank if you don’t do a proper 30 day QT on your corals and inverts as well? I have always been a believer in dipping new corals, but it seems almost impossible to get every critter before it enters the tank from pre-entry dips. This means that all of those fish diseases can make their way into your tank anyway sooner or later, right? At that point is it more about trying your best to eliminate things you can see, but knowing the risk exists and could happen eventually? A full QT regiment is a large task in itself with the amount of testing, medicine, and WC required. I would hate to spend so much time on fish husbandry and a $5 brings some of those bugs to my tank!!

It just seems like a lot to run a full DT, a fish QT system, and a coral QT system with a half decent light, timer, etc.. Anyone have any solutions or tricks to help with this?

Would love to hear everyone’s thoughts!

A good thing I’ve learned from the local community is that healthy established fish from a local Reefer are worth more than a new fish from the lfs. Established fish are adapted to captivity and are not as likely to bring disease into the home aquarium.