quarantine soft corals?

[Cody Ray]

I know soft corals can carry diseases but is it pratical to quarantine them?

 

[graveyardworm]

It is a good practice to QT everything, you never know what kind of parasites or disease your new addition might be harboring. Better to catch it in QT than to find out its taking over your display or worse killing your display.

 

[Cody Ray]

That is what I was thinking. My only concern was that several species (singularia and GSP come to mind) take a good amount of time to acclimate and I think it would be very stressful to go to a QT and then right after they become acclimated are moved again. I guess it would be better if once it has been established that the coral is disease free to simply take water from the aquarium and use that to do some water changes on the QT tank. Is a week long enough IF nothing is wrong with the corals?

 

[graveyardworm]

Shorter QT time may be more stressful, I use water from my display for my QT water changes, that way the water parameters should be almost identical so the move isnt a big deal. If you have lighting for your QT similar to that of the display you can acclimate it to your displays lighting without moving it around in the display or forcing your other livestock to indure a shorter photoperiod. If the coral needs treatment for infection or say red flatworms, or red bugs in the case of SPS, it can be done there easily.

 

[graveyardworm]

Here's some QT reading. Just in case you havent seen it yet.

 

[Cody Ray]

It is a good article. Right now my system is in the middle of crashing (fish have brooks and I found something eating my acro and montipora). Its about to hit rock bottom

 

[Freed]

So, I take it you don't QT? Sorry everything is going downhill.

 

[graveyardworm]

Sorry, hope everything works out for you. Did all this start before you started this thread?

 

[Cody Ray]

Actually it just started yesterday. My male clown died and my female wasn't looking too good. My monti cap bleached and my acro has some sort of parasite eating it. I have also lost a good portion of my coralline algae. It is select rocks that this is occuring on too. I believe this came from an accident I had when I was introducing my acro into the system. I normally float my bags before I start drip acclimating them but something popped the bag and release the bag water into the aquarium. Im not too sure what is causing all of this but it occured after this even. My plan is to treat my clown and damsel in a formalin dip and then place them into QT for a month. I am also going to cook my liverock at this point. I will probably take my sand out as well and dry it to use when I reestablish my aquarium.

 

[graveyardworm]

Given all the problems you may be better of to ditch the rock and sand, and start fresh. I have no idea what the lifecycle might be of the nasties in your tank. Just a suggestion.

 

[Cody Ray]

Well I don't think it will hurt to cook it first and see if that solves the problem. Though that is why I am cleaning and drying the sand. If I have to I would rather dry the rock and then reseed it with new rock.

 

[graveyardworm]

If you havent done so already you should try to find out what is attacking your monti, acro, and how long brrok can survive without the presence of fish, and make sure the rock is cured long enough to eliminate those pests.

 

[Cody Ray]

So, I take it you don't QT? Sorry everything is going downhill.

Nope, and I will be QTing everything from now on.

I decided to not mess with whatever is attacking my system by simply cleaning and drying the rock. Once it is clean I will reestablish the rock with some fresh liverock from a reliable lfs.