Quarantine tank for Corals

machodik

Active member
Dear All,

I wish to set up a small (20 liters) QUARANTINE TANK for corals that I will be buying.

aside from dipping first with Coral RX as precribe or instructed in the instructions stickers, what else I need to add or medication to eradicate any other forms of causative agent that may be a big head acje for fish and invertebrate in the DT?

I just lost teh last 2 only corals (torch and Hammers) with perhaps suspect of braown algae disease or whatever.....so, I want to let my DT be without any corals for the next 30 days (while I quarantine new corals at teh same time) , so that I will totally eradicated any causative agent as well in my DT that may be killing my torch and hammers.

I am also taking this period to stabilizes my Water parameters in my DT . presently my water params of DT as follows;

KH 9 to 10 dkh (api)
ca 420 ppm (api)
no3 undetected (salifert)
Po4 0.08 (Hanna)
Mg 1380 (salifert)
temp. 26 degree centrigate
PH 8.1 TO 8.2
SALINITY: did not check but it should be around 1.023 to 1.026

I am a newbie for corals and really need to gain more knowledge and help from you guys outthere.

Cheers,
 
Well, a couple of suggestions. First and foremost you might want to consider breaking off and throwing away those horrible "frag plugs" that come with maricultured corals from Indonesia. They're extremely good at harboring pests, and I'm thinking the concrete formula they use must contain a significant amount of phosphorus, because they grow algae prolifically.

Second is to QT your corals for at least 30 days. Many of the pest algae species like Bryopsis come in as microscopic spores that aren't really visible for weeks.
 
Dear All,

I am starting to set my QT on the balcony that I think will have sufficient Natrual sunlight plus my house spaces is not enough for me to set it inside.

As I am using my old DT water plus few pieces of Live Rocks inorder to have it cycled in a very short time. I will have a small skimmer , a hob filter, small powerheads , by the way, my QT will be a small 40 liters (approx. 10 US galons) volume. I am also going to set my TLF 150 reactor 1 for biopellet and another one for GFO (ROWA). I will be using simple PL 13 W lights (blue / white) in the evening, just in case, lights is not sufficient during day time outside.

as we are still on winter season although spring is quite approaching, thus the temp. outside at night and early morning will be around 15 degree centrigate but during day time, I think the most highiest will be around 22 to 25 degree centrigate. so I will be hooking up a heather bar set at 26 degree centrigate.

I can also hook up my DIY calcium reactor in case the ALK / CALCIUM are not balances. I learned from the past that with a fractuation of either one of it, the corals polyps bailed out and die, I lost my hammer heads and torch corals from that incidense before.

I think those are about my hardware , now on the water treatment, I will dip the new corals (SPS and LPS) with Coral RX. well, folks, thats all I got and I don't. know during the 30 days or so quarantine periods, what else I need to dip or adding in the QT? I am newbie here and trying to learned as much as possible on things about the corals. I hope to buys all corals (both SPS and LPS) at teh same time and Quarantine at the same time too, so that I will shut down the QT when I reached 30th day. is this a good idea? or you will suggest that I buy one at the time? please advise.

Hope you guys will give me a big support and advises for me to be able to successfully raised corals same thing as I learned about the fishes before.

By the way, the water parameter I checked on the water of my old tank as of today are as follows;

KH ---10 dkh (API)
CA ---460 ppm (API)
No3 --0.2 ppm (salifert)
Po4 --0.10 ppm (Hanna)
mg --1420 ppm (Salifert)
ph ---8.1 to 8.2
salinity -- should be between 1.023 to 1.027 (did not check)
thanks in advance.

Cheers,
 
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Dipping your new corals in Coral RX or Revive will assist you in keeping nasties like red bugs, Acropora-Eating Flatworms (AEFW), montipora-eating nudibranchs (MEN) and the like out of your system, but won't help with nuisance algae spores. Also, the dips generally won't kill the eggs of AEFW and MEN, so you have to either very carefully examine your corals and remove such eggs manually, or simply observe your corals very carefully in QT to ensure that there's no hatch-out of eggs you might've missed.
 
thanks Dkeller for a nice advise.

Further Questions:
1) if Coral Rx can not remove Nuisance Algae Spores , is there any other drugs can be use to removed this one?
2) the Coral Rx dips won't kill the eggs of AEFW and MEN, as I beleived that it can kill the larve in case after it was hatch from their eggs, if this is the case, should I say to dip the corals with CORAL RX every other week during the 30 days period duration of quarantine or is there any commercial drugs that I can added to the QT to kill any hatched larve? or perhaps I can just add the coral RX into the quarantine at diluted volume and later run with carbon to removed any further residue of coral rx?

thanks again in advance for yours or anyone one else's very valued advises .

cheers,
 
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