Coral qt

[lokii_37]

I'm working on getting a QT set up so I will be able to quarantine any new corals I get. I was wondering now much bio-load do coral frags generate? In terms of how often a WC is needed for a coral only QT.
I have about 20lbs of live rock in my sump. Could I use some of my LR to keep the QT stable for the duration of the quarantine?
Nick

 

[Reef Bass]

IMHO, the amount of water to change depends on whether the qt tank is an established and fully cycled environment or not.

In my case, when I last qt'd shrimps and crabs when I interceptered, I used a 10g tank to hold a few small rocks and the arthropods and did a 50% water change daily from the display tank. The tank had a small hob mechanical filter to keep water circulating.

If your qt tank is like Grant's established frag system, then I would probably go more like weekly small changes. A few small frags is not much of a bioload, but it depend also on your total water volume.

Some LR could only help, again imho.

 

[coralfarmer]

Nick,I use a three stage tank system, seperate 10 gallons each with daily water changes bare bottom and nothing but a frag rack and a sponge filter
demo'd the system when i gave a talk about QT to the club I should share it again

 

[lokii_37]

Thanks guys. The only extra tank I have is 30g so it will still have a decent water volume for a QT, plus with the LR out of my sump I think it will do well. I like the idea of doing WC's from he display I hadn't thought of that.

Assuming at the end of the quarantine period I did not have anything bad show up the LR should be ok to put back in he sump right?

 

[coralfarmer]

I would recommend against having live rock in your QT keep it as simple as possible small back filter or power head just to move water with water from your tank and water changes should be enough
Normally i run a dose of interceptor when I have SPS in the QT no matter where they came from
Check this out I hope it helps
http://coralfarmer.blogspot.com/2010/05/quarantine-quarantine-did-i-mention.html