Did I already ruin the chance of good QT practice?

[bo0sted2g]

So my current tank is about half way through its cycle. I started with bags of live sand, and one medium live rock to get it going.

I was just browsing through the Quarantine guide sticky and found out that ICH can live in rocks and in the sandbed. I plan on QT'ing all fish before adding them to the DT. Did I just ruin the point of quarantining my fist fish by putting the live rock in there?

There is no real way of telling if I may have introduced the parasite to my tank since it is fishless...

 

[Ajae]

Not yet since you haven't added any fish but most will tell you that bare bottom is the way to go. If you get a fish that has ich and you treat it they will fall into the sandbed. And they may find their way onto another fish if you add soon after. Ich will die if it doesn't have any fish to feed off of. having a bare bottom will stop this from even happening.

 

[ericarenee]

For my QT Tank i have bare bottom and pieces of live rock from my sump.. i use a marine-land filter with bio wheel. When i tear down the qt because i have nothing for it i put the bio wheels in my sump..
when i put it back into service it has bacteria instantly...

I would not use sand. To me this is a tank to not be running all the time... but i keep mine up more then it is down. each time i run marine life thru qt i tear it down clean it well then have it ready for water for next use..

 

[ca1ore]

I QT all fish, but not rocks or inverts. I have never had a verified case of ich hitchhiking in on a rock in 30 years of reefing. Doesn't mean it couldn't happen of course, but I'd judge it to be unlikely. Since you are early in the process, and haven't begun QT'ing fish, the safest approach would be to wait 72 days before adding any fish. Depends on how patient you are.

 

[ca1ore]

Not yet since you haven't added any fish but most will tell you that bare bottom is the way to go. If you get a fish that has ich and you treat it they will fall into the sandbed. And they may find their way onto another fish if you add soon after. Ich will die if it doesn't have any fish to feed off of. having a bare bottom will stop this from even happening.

If you mean the QT tank then true; if you mean the display then false.

 

[CarrieB]

All you need to do is leave your display tank fallow for 76 days. Any ich will die. Then QT anything you put in.

Since ich cysts (or whatever they are called) can adhere to any solid object, I don't see how having a bare bottom makes any difference at all. They can stick to the bottom glass just fine.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[neiltus]

When I added live rock, cheato, cuc etc when starting the tank, I let it run fish less for about 4 months before running a 2 month QT on the first fish and adding.

This simulated a fallow period and also let the tank mature through ugly phases and get consistent. It was like a fallow period + trouble shooting.

Just get your tank through it's cycle for a few months before buying fish and QT'ing them.

 

[Ajae]

If you mean the QT tank then true; if you mean the display then false.

That's QT is I'm talking about

 

[albano]

i would not use sand. To me this is a tank to not be running all the time... But i keep mine up more then it is down. Each time i run marine life thru qt i tear it down clean it well then have it ready for water for next use..

+1

 

[Sk8r]

Chance of ich coming in on live rock, particularly if shipped, is really quite small. This stuff is not super-villain. REASONABLE precaution is a pretty good guarantee in most things.