Ick and corals

shane reef

New member
Ok so I am now a worry bug on diseases in my system. I had a tank crash completely out about a year ago, I tore it down and sold everything. Fast forward I found an awesome tank that I have always wanted. I have started from scratch and I am building. I am so worried about putting anything that comes from a pet store into my tank due to being burned by them with. So what to do with everything going into the tank, at each piece 72 days? Tank to tank? Dip corals? Needing some direction and processes to follow. Thanks
 
From my perspective, as someone now dealing with acropora eating flatworms and ick, both in a single quarantine tank (which will now need to be broken out into two tanks so I can treat the ich), your choices are two quarantine systems, one for fish and one for coral and everything else bought 'wet' to be put in your system (snails, inverts, etc.), or buy from a very reputable on-line source such as Divers Den and still take a small chance of something bad happening. To be extra safe, you can buy from someplace like Divers Den and then quarantine.

72 days seems long but, everything else being equal, longer is better than shorter. I recently bought a yellow tang locally that I quarantined for 6 weeks and then put in my display without incident. Personally, I'm on the verge of giving up buying anything live from my two LFSs. For me, at this point, the added peace of mind is worth the extra cost of Divers Den.

In terms of processes, people do anything from just watching stuff in quarantine to actively treating even in the absence of no signs of disease. I treat with Prazipro automatically and observe the fish for signs of illness that may need to be treated with something else. Corals get dipped in Coral RX with close attention paid to what comes off the corals (this is how I discovered my AEFWs that came off some acros bought at a frag swap last weekend).

As much of a pain in the *&% it is to have AEFW and ich right now, I am very thankful I'm dealing with both in quarantine rather than in my display tank.

Matt
 
I quarantine all inverts in a dedicated QT for 72 days. Yes, it's a pain, but I've been burned by crypto sneaking in on a piece of coral. Never again.
 
Haven't need to so far (knock on wood). I dip all corals in CoralRX for 15 min before placing them in the QT.
 
The most risky inverts to add are hermit crabs and snails. Most especially if they come from a system that contains fish.
 
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