how to prevent catastrophe?

[nemofish2217]

okay, well i will be setting up my 10 gallon QT tank soon to QT my sps corals for about a week to 10 days. One frag has red bugs, so i am just going to go ahead and take all of them out, treat them in a container with interceptor, and then move them to my QT tank, and let any remaining die out in the tank....heres where things might get hairy...

okay, what do i need to do to make sure that i will not bleach out or RTN all of my corals for the week or so they are in QT? or while they are in treatment for that matter. I will be treating them for an interval of 12hours.

I will treat them in a 10 gallon tank half way filled with water straight from the tank. I will have a powerhead or two to give excellent current to blow the little bastards off. I will have a heater in the tank to keep things comfortable. All corals will be placed on eggcrate which will be on top of pvc fittings.

After i treat them, i will move them to another 10 gallon, completely filled with tank water. I will just be using a HOB filter (aquaclear 30), and a couple of powerheads for circulation. heater is a given... My lighting will be a coralife 150 watt pendant, the one that is currently over my tank.

Does this sound like a procedure that will decrease my chances of massive bleaching? is there anything else you guys would suggest or reccommend i do to help myself and corals out? I was considering running a small air pump and diffuser in the QT to add some oxygen. I need some suggestions from people who have "been there" because i am new to this and i really would like to keep all of my corals alive....sorry for the long post, and thanks guys!

 

[twon8]

one problem is see is evaporation, which will cause major shifts in water stability on such a small volume of water. an auto top off would help.

 

[nemofish2217]

thanks,
what is an easy way to set up an auto top-off system? since i will be home on and off everyday, couldn't i just add RO water maybe 2x daily?

 

[Wiskey]

I think topping it off twice a day will be fine.

You might want to think about a fan though, monitor the temp of that 10, I bet it will get really hot with the powerheads and MH over it.

HTH,
Whiskey

 

[nemofish2217]

yeah, i was thinking that....i will have the halide pretty far off the tank because all i am trying to do is just keep them alive for that week or so, but yeah, i will definitely keep an eye on the temp...thanks whickey....any other suggestions?

 

[SaraB]

You most likely will need a fan blowing across the water. I had a 250W above my 10 gallon QT and it heated it up quite a bit. Keep watching the temp on the first day so that you can raise the light if needed. I moved mine up 2 inches and added a fan and dropped the temp 4 degrees on the first day.