Coral & Invert quarantine tank?

[Anemoneee]

Hi newbie here setting up his first coral and invert only quarantine tank. Can I put rocks and sand in it? Because I read all the parasite attach to coral and invert will die without fish host. Or can those parasite hide in rocks and sand to survive?

Thanks

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[Ruskin]

You can, but you dont really need to (or want to) because you want to be able to observe whatever you have in there. Most people will use pvc pipe or fittings to create safe hiding places. This also lets you clean everything between tank uses.

If you havent already, you should look into dips for your coral before placing them into your system. That will help eliminate most pests bfore they go in your tank.

Good job on setting up a QT. You will save yourself so much headache and money.

 

[Sk8r]

For corals, the treatment is a dip like Coral Revive, after which you can pretty well rely on them being clean. For zoas, which have a problem with nudibranchs (who can leave eggs behind, immune to dip) you need to qt and examine them with a strong magnifying glass to be sure they don't bring you a pest that will specialize in zoa predation. So for the one type, a dip, after which its safe to go into the display; for the other qt and observation for a couple of weeks. Revive could kill the nudis, I'm pretty sure, but until eggs hatch, Revive can't get at them. The worst plague you can get with stony corals is 'red bug,' which is a pest very very small and hard to see. Follow the instructions on the Revive bottle.

As for inverts, I rinse them off in a cup of discard tank water to be sure their water isn't bringing anything in and that nothing is riding in on them; then I just put them right on into the display. Never have had an incidence of parasites or bugs come in on an invert.

 

[Anemoneee]

Great
Thanks

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[Sk8r]

And never put sand or rock into a qt tank unless you're prepared to throw it out if your specimen develops a case. Sand is where the ich parasite does its preparation to attack more fish: they need a fishy meal to reproduce, and once multiplied down in the sandbed, they go back for more fish. Takes 72 days of no-available-fish to clean them out once they've gotten into a sandbed. Really bad stuff!

 

[Anemoneee]

Oh I got another tank for quarantine fish only. So would tank be bad to have sand and rock if I only house coral and inverts?
I just want it to look pretty.

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[Sk8r]

Once corals are dipped, they're good to go into the display tank. Zoas need at least a week or two observation for pests. Then they can go into display. You now have a display with sand, rock, zoas, corals. Rinse off your inverts in tank water you then discard, and then they can go in. Only your fish need to be in quarantine, and observed daily for problems.