A 35 year old lesson learned

[shellsea]

In the hobby 35+ years. Have always relied on quality LFS and luck when it came to quarantining. Had a few problems over the years but finally see the light!
About 5 months ago, after losing fish to heater malfunction, I introduced Purple Tang. As expected it broke with ich, maybe velvet. Treated it with Polylab medic and it cleared up. Then introduced a Pyramid Butterfly, Blue Throat Trigger along with longnose hawk, leopard wrasse. Lost both the trigger and butterfly to same disease. So I now have 3 fish. Purple tang, hawk and wrasse.
I am setting up a permanent 35 gallon quarantine tank, yes, finally!
I also have a small GHA problem in display.
My Questions for those who have an educated opinion
1. Will the 35 be ok to put the tang w/ his 2 tankmates in while I allow DT to go fallow? 8 weeks?
2. can I temporarily use quarantine tank as a holding tank for some of the rock and coral while I clean up the GHA without contaminating it? No chemicals in QT until after coral returned to DT.
Thanks for any helpful advise.

 

[HumbleFish]

Answers:

1. Yes, but you'll need a good HOB (Seachem Tidal, Aquaclear, Bio-wheel) on the QT for filtration. And bacteria in a bottle to seed it!

2. If you put rock/coral from an infected tank into your QT, there might be tomonts encysted which will release free swimmers into the water. Meaning, your fish could be getting attacked as soon as they enter the QT. Not an ideal QT scenario.

P.S. I see you live in Destin. I'm in Navarre!

 

[shellsea]

Answers:

1. Yes, but you'll need a good HOB (Seachem Tidal, Aquaclear, Bio-wheel) on the QT for filtration. And bacteria in a bottle to seed it!

2. If you put rock/coral from an infected tank into your QT, there might be tomonts encysted which will release free swimmers into the water. Meaning, your fish could be getting attacked as soon as they enter the QT. Not an ideal QT scenario.

P.S. I see you live in Destin. I'm in Navarre!

Thanks HF. To clarify my thoughts. I'd place the coral/rock along with 3 remaining fish in QT while I get the display back in line. Then I was thinking I would return coral/rock to display, do a major water change and add copper or whatever to "œclean" my 3 fish while they remain in QT for the 8 week fallow period for DT. No new fish in QT until 3 veterans are returned to DT.
Since we're neighbors, Local LFS In Ft Walton Elite Aquatics having a birthday bash Saturday. Check out their FB page. Be there or b square. Tell them Jack from Destin sent you.


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[HumbleFish]

Thanks HF. To clarify my thoughts. I'd place the coral/rock along with 3 remaining fish in QT while I get the display back in line. Then I was thinking I would return coral/rock to display, do a major water change and add copper or whatever to "œclean" my 3 fish while they remain in QT for the 8 week fallow period for DT. No new fish in QT until 3 veterans are returned to DT.

That will work, but I wouldn't wait too long before removing coral/rock from QT and beginning chemical treatment. My concern is this: Right now they are in a larger volume of water which is diluting the concentration of parasites. Once you put them in a (relatively) small QT, there's no way to escape free swimmers which are actively seeking out fish to infect. So, putting known infected fish in a QT without copper to break the life cycle can actually make things worse for the fish.

 

[shellsea]

That will work, but I wouldn't wait too long before removing coral/rock from QT and beginning chemical treatment. My concern is this: Right now they are in a larger volume of water which is diluting the concentration of parasites. Once you put them in a (relatively) small QT, there's no way to escape free swimmers which are actively seeking out fish to infect. So, putting known infected fish in a QT without copper to break the life cycle can actually make things worse for the fish.

Good point! Thanks.