In need of a good QT protocol

[tassod]

My story in a nutshell, twice now my tank has gotten wiped out due to I guess not a good enough QT protocol and I admit I did not follow through with it 100% on some fish as I should have, also never QT'd corals and inverts. I would like to change that now going forward.

I've been using a 75g tank with a HOB filter and skimmer all this time and right now i have totally drained it and will let it sit dry for at least 48hrs before i refill it and start cycling it over again from scratch. The main DT is currently fallow and will remain so miminum 12 weeks if not the whole summer. I also have a 20g high tank along with 3 10g tanks. What would be a good QT protocol for fish and corals going forward? Can a temp tank for corals be setup whenenver need be without cycling it? All suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[HumbleFish]

For corals/inverts, your best bet is a fishless frag tank at least 10' away from the DT. 40 breeders work really well for this purpose. I opted to keep mine simple ... HOB filter/skimmer, a Koralia for additional circulation, and a cheap T5 lighting system. QT all corals/inverts in there for 72 days before introducing them into your DT.

For fish, there are a lot of different options. I will admit if you have the time and don't mind the extra work, TTM can't be beat. Dose Prazipro at the onset of transfers 2 & 4, and then observe (for velvet, bacterial infections, etc.) for an additional 30 days after TTM is complete. So, roughly 6 weeks QT in total.

 

[Deinonych]

For corals/inverts, your best bet is a fishless frag tank at least 10' away from the DT. 40 breeders work really well for this purpose. I opted to keep mine simple ... HOB filter/skimmer, a Koralia for additional circulation, and a cheap T5 lighting system. QT all corals/inverts in there for 72 days before introducing them into your DT.

For fish, there are a lot of different options. I will admit if you have the time and don't mind the extra work, TTM can't be beat. Dose Prazipro at the onset of transfers 2 & 4, and then observe (for velvet, bacterial infections, etc.) for an additional 30 days after TTM is complete. So, roughly 6 weeks QT in total.

+1 on both counts. I keep my QTs in completely separate areas of the house. My coral/invert QT is a 20H with HOB filter, powerhead and T5 lighting. It's a fully-cycled full-time QT with sand, LR and a few snails for cleanup. Works just fine for 72 days, even for most SPS (haven't tried Acropora yet).

For fish, I do 2 rounds of Prazipro, followed by TTM and 1-2 weeks of observation. It is extra work, but the peace of mind more than makes up for it.

 

[tassod]

How do you handle 5+" fish for TTM?

 

[HumbleFish]

How do you handle 5+" fish for TTM?

A couple of 20L would work for that. So long as you are only QT 1 or 2 at a time. I would suggest, however, a larger HT for the 1 month observation period - post TTM.

 

[Sk8r]

Number one, buy from 'clean sources', those that advertise a guarantee on their livestock being a fair guide.
Number two, don't buy one fish after another. Haste in stocking a tank may multiply the problem.
Number three, go the FULL quarantine time, or a little over.
Number four, be aware which species are ich magnets (tangs, angels, rabbits) and be extra careful.
Number five, know what the parasites look like.
Number six, constantly track your tank alkalinity: 8.3 dkh. A tank that goes off from that figure may stress out the slime coat of the fish, which lowers their physical defense against some of these problems.
Number seven, do not put your fingers in the tank and then put them in the qt, and vice versa: also goes for nets, anything wet.
Number eight, do not qt groups of fish together: examine them carefully and individually. Qt'ing a group, you may not notice a problem on fish if distracted by others.
Number nine, use ro/di.
Number ten, do not have rock or sand in your qt. You might well use the tank transfer protocol, in which case every day gets a clean tank. Also, do your transfer at the crack of dawn: ich drops off a fish as the lights go out. Hopefully it gets trapped in the floss filter: you toss the floss (see my note today on pot filters) and move the fish into new tank, new filter. And keep at it. Read the note in Fish Disease.

 

[tassod]

Thank you all for the suggestions, keep em coming.

So will drying out my QT tank for 48hrs make it ok to use or do i need to use bleach or anything else to sterilize it?

 

[tassod]

Been reading on here about Formalin dips. Would it be advisable to use this in between transfers during TTM? Also would using CP from New era be also advisable during TTM?

 

[Newsmyrna80]

For corals/inverts, your best bet is a fishless frag tank at least 10' away from the DT. 40 breeders work really well for this purpose. I opted to keep mine simple ... HOB filter/skimmer, a Koralia for additional circulation, and a cheap T5 lighting system. QT all corals/inverts in there for 72 days before introducing them into your DT.

For fish, there are a lot of different options. I will admit if you have the time and don't mind the extra work, TTM can't be beat. Dose Prazipro at the onset of transfers 2 & 4, and then observe (for velvet, bacterial infections, etc.) for an additional 30 days after TTM is complete. So, roughly 6 weeks QT in total.

Agree with Humble Although I must admit I did just upgrade my qt lighting to LED for corals.
As far as the formalin I do not prophylactically treat my fish with it for 2 reasons. 1. It's highly toxic to humans and fish and I don't needlessly expose fish to meds 2. Formalin will work for Brook but not velvet so you would need to add another treatment for that.
IME the quarantine protocol Humble laid out will allow velvet and Brook to present. In my 10+ years in this hobby I have yet to have Brook come in on a fish...now inverts are a different story.
Btw Hey Humble..good to "see" you:wave:

 

[HumbleFish]

Agree with Humble Although I must admit I did just upgrade my qt lighting to LED for corals.
As far as the formalin I do not prophylactically treat my fish with it for 2 reasons. 1. It's highly toxic to humans and fish and I don't needlessly expose fish to meds 2. Formalin will work for Brook but not velvet so you would need to add another treatment for that.
IME the quarantine protocol Humble laid out will allow velvet and Brook to present. In my 10+ years in this hobby I have yet to have Brook come in on a fish...now inverts are a different story.
Btw Hey Humble..good to "see" you:wave:

Good to see you too. And I agree with you about formalin; it's nasty stuff and shouldn't be used on a fish unless absolutely necessary.

 

[m0nkie]

great info in here. just finishing up my fallow period. a true pain for bigger tanks. now I'm debating if i want to QT all corals and inverts.

the problem I see is.. every time you buy a new coral, you have to restart the coral tank QT. so unless you buy in batch, you will never end QT if you buy corals often

for the folks with coral QT, how often do you guys change your that QT water? I assume with almost no feeding, it should last awhile right?

 

[CHSUB]

For corals/inverts, your best bet is a fishless frag tank at least 10' away from the DT. 40 breeders work really well for this purpose. I opted to keep mine simple ... HOB filter/skimmer, a Koralia for additional circulation, and a cheap T5 lighting system. QT all corals/inverts in there for 72 days before introducing them into your DT.

.

I can understand your thoughts about qt corals and I know the risks of not doing so; however, would you qt this coral for 72 days in the system you described. Even under the best of conditions keeping this coral is 50/50. imo, qt corals is not only cost prohibitive it's unnecessary.

 

[HumbleFish]

the problem I see is.. every time you buy a new coral, you have to restart the coral tank QT. so unless you buy in batch, you will never end QT if you buy corals often

Not necessarily. Worst case scenario is you buy a coral/invert with ich tomonts that will take up to 72 days to release theronts. So long as there are no fish present in your coral QT, there is no danger of tomonts encysting again on a coral that has passed the 72 day mark. The only danger is theronts that may be free swimming in the water, which can inadvertently hitchhike their way onto your coral in a droplet of water. However, this threat can be neutralized by pouring DT water over said coral before placing in your tank. Since theronts cannot "stick" like tomonts do, they can be "washed away." Again, this only applies to corals/inverts which have already passed the 72 day isolation period.

for the folks with coral QT, how often do you guys change your that QT water? I assume with almost no feeding, it should last awhile right?

I almost never change water in my frag tank. I might throw in a pinch of flake every few days and also target feed my corals in there periodically.

 

[HumbleFish]

I can understand your thoughts about qt corals and I know the risks of not doing so; however, would you qt this coral for 72 days in the system you described. Even under the best of conditions keeping this coral is 50/50. imo, qt corals is not only cost prohibitive it's unnecessary.




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You may need a more elaborate/expensive QT for that, but it can be done. And it is absolutely necessary if you wish to keep fish diseases out of your DT. It is only a matter of time before your pickup a coral/invert with an encysted tomont. Could be ich... or something much worse like velvet or brook.

 

[Louis Z]

Been reading on here about Formalin dips. Would it be advisable to use this in between transfers during TTM? Also would using CP from New era be also advisable during TTM?

I do this with TTM . Each transfer to the new tank first gets a dip in FW . You actually have to watch if fish stresses. Each tank gets dosed with Chloroquine. Yet don't need the highest max dose as some fish do not tolerate it. After the third tank transfer I dose the prazipro. Have the formalin on hand if you need it. I don't want to dip with formalin unless I have too. . My rookie mistake was not to have meds on hand. Just order if I need to, but that backfired due to delays in shipping, finding they were out. By the time the meds come in, the fish can be too far gone. And I do not think hypo saline treatment works very well. Some fish do not tolerate. Takes too long and many mistakes with keeping SG stable for that long sets up failure. It may work but I have had hard time with it.

 

[Louis Z]

Have multiple tanks. You can do tank transfer method on corals too. So far I have 10 gal tanks set up and ready. After the last tank transfer they go into a bare tank for up to 2 months of observation. Yes each new round of purchase of new corals will start the QT clock back to zero. So I like to purchase in large groups so as to simplify the QT procedure. When I am observing in the last tank, I keep peppermint shrimp and green crab in there to clean up uneaten food and aptaisia and bubble algae. In the last tank I also have a large clump of chaetomorpha that can be tossed if any parasite is visible on the corals and also a HOB filter and a sicce nano propeller pump. All new acquisitions have to earn the right to get in my display tank. By no means have I perfected it but I now think of increasing last tank to 3 months observation. I have lost too many fish and too many corals due to being impatient. 3 months seem insignificant to all the hard work I have put in to the DT inhabitants.

 

[Louis Z]

It's not cost prohibitive? my 10 gal setups are a mere fraction of what the DT tank is. It takes a lot of monitoring water parameters and observation. It's unnecessary? Every LFS I have been to mixes new fish within established coral tanks. They don't have the space nor time to qt. they dump in any available space they can use. They run off central water filtering systems and always have some illness or dead fishes in their stores. I really don't want to argue but I see many issues with your statements CHSUB

 

[m0nkie]

Not necessarily. Worst case scenario is you buy a coral/invert with ich tomonts that will take up to 72 days to release theronts. So long as there are no fish present in your coral QT, there is no danger of tomonts encysting again on a coral that has passed the 72 day mark. The only danger is theronts that may be free swimming in the water, which can inadvertently hitchhike their way onto your coral in a droplet of water. However, this threat can be neutralized by pouring DT water over said coral before placing in your tank. Since theronts cannot "stick" like tomonts do, they can be "washed away." Again, this only applies to corals/inverts which have already passed the 72 day isolation period.



I almost never change water in my frag tank. I might throw in a pinch of flake every few days and also target feed my corals in there periodically.

Thanks! Great info. I have a 100gal as a frag tank. I was planning on adding fish to eat algae. Maybe ill keep it fishless

 

[Saltwaterwill]

Thank u all for the quarantine protocols

 

[Newsmyrna80]

Have multiple tanks. You can do tank transfer method on corals too. So far I have 10 gal tanks set up and ready. After the last tank transfer they go into a bare tank for up to 2 months of observation. Yes each new round of purchase of new corals will start the QT clock back to zero. So I like to purchase in large groups so as to simplify the QT procedure. When I am observing in the last tank, I keep peppermint shrimp and green crab in there to clean up uneaten food and aptaisia and bubble algae. In the last tank I also have a large clump of chaetomorpha that can be tossed if any parasite is visible on the corals and also a HOB filter and a sicce nano propeller pump. All new acquisitions have to earn the right to get in my display tank. By no means have I perfected it but I now think of increasing last tank to 3 months observation. I have lost too many fish and too many corals due to being impatient. 3 months seem insignificant to all the hard work I have put in to the DT inhabitants.

TT doesn't work for corals and inverts.