Quarantine Tank Processes!

d2mini

d2mini

Premium Member
Been in this hobby for years and now I'll be setting up my first ever QT.
Honestly, I'm not excited about it due to the extra work, but I'm doing it because I know it's better than the alternative.

Anyway, I've seen a bazillion threads on setting it up, what equipment to buy, etc.
What I can't seem to find solid info on is what process(es) to follow once running! All the articles I find on the subject seem to stop after the setup portion.

For example: Let's say I just went to my LFS and found a perfectly healthy looking fish with no visible signs of disease and is eating, something I would have previously brought home, acclimated and then tossed in my tank. So now I bring home the fish, acclimate it, and then toss in the QT. NOW WHAT?! :uhoh2:

Same question for coral frags.

Same question for inverts.

TIA!
 
so biggest question i think to ask first is what protocol are you planning on going with?

i personally like to keep a fully cycled QT tank, where i put everything that comes through my system. corals, fish, inverts, etc...

i do not treat prophylactically with anything, i just observe and let the fish settle in, start eating, and generally recover from their trip. if i notice any signs of disease, i would remove the animal to a dedicated hospital tank, and treat there. the hospital tank would not be cycled, and would run nearly no equipment, save a heater and powerhead for water movement. it would have some pvc pipe for hiding places, and i would manage the ammonia with large daily water changes.

now i will full admit that this is probably not the best, or most robust, QT strategy out there. Tank Transfer Method (TTM) seems to probably be one of the best in my opinion, as it combines not treating prophylactically, with enhanced chances of "beating" common parasite life cycles. it is, however, more work, and i am a lazy, lazy man in some regards.

others will use an uncycled tank, treating with various medications, and maintaining proper levels through daily water changes. similar to my hospital tank strategy.

the reason i do not treat prophylactically is because i don't think there are any benefits to treating for things that a definitive diagnosis cannot be established for. it is my opinion that this causes more stress on the animal than is necessary, when allowing time for observation for the presentation of specific symptoms can help create a targeted, and more effective, course of treatment.

your mileage may vary.

as far as inverts, i don't really do anything special. chuck the bag water, and in to QT they go.

with corals, i typically do two dips. one with an iodine based product, then follow up with RPS all out (i'm currently starting to look in to transitioning over to Bayer Insecticide and/or straight up Ivermectin). then i will place the corals in my QT system for an amount of time, depending on the type of coral, what else is in QT, etc... and then when i go to transfer them over to the DT, do the two dips again, prior to introduction to the main system.

i also like, whenever possible, to remove any frag plugs, rubble, or other things the corals are mounted on, and use clean, new ones instead. this is another strategy to hopefully help mitigate the surface area that any nasties could hide in/on.

i'm sure there are other options out there as well, but these are the primary ones that i am aware of.

i use old DT water in my QT system for water changes, and have all separate equipment, save a shared ATO container. thought being there that even if there was back siphon, the extremely low (practically 0 even if back siphon occurred) salinity in the ATO vessel should kill any potential pests before they were able to reach the DT. maybe that's a bad assumption, but it makes sense to me.

so tldr, decide which process you would like to use first, then figure out the particulars.
 
Thanks for the long response!

For the time being at least, I think the best coarse of action would be to leave it running permanently, especially since I plan to QT everything including new frags, not just fish.

Other than that, that is why I'm here. Trying to figure out the best process to use. :)
I'm basically looking for a step by step process for all three situations (fish, coral, inverts).
I even have a little all-in-one 4g tank I could use as a separate frag or invert tank if needed.
 
I just started a Qt for the first time as well. I have fish in there from my display tank that were covered in ick. Ive introduce copper right away because they looked so bad and no all signs of ick are gone after 2 weeks. Im keeping in QT for another 6 weeks so all ick in DT dies off. After that any new fish are going to go into Qt. Once they are eating i will dose copper for 2-4 weeks. Then i will introduce to DT. Most people recomend QT 8-12 weeks but i dont have the patience for that. lol. Here is a thread i started in another section about quarintines. Notice Ca1ore's Qt process. http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2469470 If your will to do that much work and have the patience that seems like it would be a great QT practice. I plan on assuming all new fish have parasites and treating them for it for the recommended time then add to DT. Im going to look into Prazipro as well. To set up QT i just used Hang on back filter with sponge that has been in my sump for a month building bacteria, a heater, small powerhead and a few pieces of PVC. Also dosed Bacteria. Just keep an eye on ammonia and salinity. I put a water level line right on they tank with a sharpieand top off daily when i feed. Now that its going its not as big a pain as i thought it was going to be.
 
d2mini said:
For the time being at least, I think the best coarse of action would be to leave it running permanently, especially since I plan to QT everything including new frags, not just fish.
Click to expand...

this has been the easiest solution for me as well. i even put stuff like macro in QT. my only issue with it is that i have trouble maintaining stable enough parameters for some of the more delicate stuff like acropora. as i build out the QT system (before it didn't even have ato, i was doing it by hand) i think this will become less of an issue, but i have had a few fatalities and near fatalities from sensitive SPS being in the QT system too long.

i started the QT with a 20 long i got off craigs list. used the HOB waterfall style filter that came with it, and the standard light and hood. tossed in a cheap powerhead and heater, and let it cycle as i normally would.

this worked pretty well for a while, and did well especially for hardier things like fish.

i decided i wanted to QT coral as well, so i got myself a cheap zoo med T5 HO light to replace the regular hood and light. this also let me QT clams, if they were close enough to the light source.

fast forward a little further and it turns out i "accidentally" ordered a second HOB overflow, ato, additional skimmer, and small mag drive return pump. long story, but the equipment didn't end up getting used for its intended purpose, so i decided to get an old 10 gallon i had laying around, and give my QT a sump and skimmer.

this has helped water quality immensely. i think the only other thing right now would be to add some kind of alkalinity stability to it for things like acros.

so you can evolve it over time for sure. starting with a cheap tank, HOB filter, and cheap powerhead/heater worked great for fish, inverts, various CUC, and some hardier corals.

on a related note, here is a good article comparing some of the coral dips:
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2010/3/corals

a little out of date, but still has some very good information.

cheers. :beer:
 
I think Petco is having a dollar a gallon sale going right now. I picked up a 20g long 2 weeks ago for $20
 
My question for those running a cycled QT 24/7, say you bring home fish from wherever, drop them into the QT and a week later find out they have a bad case of ICH. My understanding is you will have to disassemble the tank and let everything dry out for 24 hrs to remove the ICH in the tank/filter, ect. I can see that as a real PITA, draining, cleaning, refilling and cycling all over again. How do you guys get around that?
 
KSU_WILDCAT said:
My question for those running a cycled QT 24/7, say you bring home fish from wherever, drop them into the QT and a week later find out they have a bad case of ICH. My understanding is you will have to disassemble the tank and let everything dry out for 24 hrs to remove the ICH in the tank/filter, ect. I can see that as a real PITA, draining, cleaning, refilling and cycling all over again. How do you guys get around that?
Click to expand...

you can beat the ich life cycle with a fallow period. it doesn't require drying things out, just removing any potential hosts for the parasite (read as fish).

i've heard varying amount of time from 8 - 12 weeks tossed around for the length of the fallow period, but it seems like consensus is weighted towards a length of 72 days fallow to give a significantly high probability of defeating the parasite.

during different stages of the parasites life, it can survive without a host for a period of time, however during the trophont stage, if it fails to find a host, it will eventually die off, since it cannot feed.

Marine-ich.jpg


the length of time recommended takes in to account the fact that you can't be 100% where in the life cycle any or all of the parasites currently are, so you take the longest possible amount of time for a complete life cycle, and pad it out a bit just to be sure. (-ninja edit- a lot of common fish diseases aside from ich are also caused by similar ciliated protozoa, so it is possible this length of time has been chosen to accommodate different types of parasites in addition to the commonly cited ich, or Cryptocaryon irritans, including brooklynella and Amyloodinium ocellatum - aka marine velvet. velvet is caused by a dinoflagellate, i'm not sure if that is different from a ciliated protozoa or not)

this is why, if i were to see a fish with an active infection, i would remove them to a dedicate hospital tank for treatment, and allow the QT to remain fallow (fishless) for 72 days.

consequently, this varied stage life cycle is why people will often report the appearance of the ich "just going away". when, in fact, it doesn't go away, it has just entered a different stage of life where it is not actively parasitic.
 
v10king said:
Hey there, I recently setup two 20Gallon QT tanks, one for corals and one for fish. I too had same issue in finding what everyone does for normal looking fish. Eventually I came to the conclusion that below is my best bet.

For the fish, I run them in cupramine for 4 weeks and do one or two prazipro treatments while they are in there as well. The prazipro and cupramine dont have any issues.

For the corals, I just bayer dip them, inspect for eggs, and put them in QT, inspect a week later, do a dip again and if everything looks good after 2 weeks, in the display they go.
Click to expand...

Cool, this is exactly the info I'm looking for. :)
So for the fish, as long as they went in looking healthy and stay that way, 4 weeks should suffice?

But if I treat with cupramine, then I can't ever use that tank for inverts, correct?
 
v10king said:
QT runs copper and copper will kill ich regardless of when you put in. No need to take out and clean, etc. If anything I just leave it fully cycled with copper in it, then when fish go in, I recheck my copper level (which does go down) and adjust as necessary. Been working for me.
Click to expand...

Problem is I dont plan on running copper for ICH prevention. I'm in the TTM camp. My DT is in the fallow period right now so I'm going through all of this. Fish can go back in on the 26th so I'm getting near the end. Good information in this thread
 
KSU_WILDCAT said:
My question for those running a cycled QT 24/7, say you bring home fish from wherever, drop them into the QT and a week later find out they have a bad case of ICH. My understanding is you will have to disassemble the tank and let everything dry out for 24 hrs to remove the ICH in the tank/filter, ect. I can see that as a real PITA, draining, cleaning, refilling and cycling all over again. How do you guys get around that?
Click to expand...

I do TT then put into the cycled QT.
 
Honestly if you really want to get rid of it, I think the best is preventative s copper or tank transfer on all fish. Never done transfer, but copper seems easier and is probably more effective, and apparently fairly new research shows that hypo isn't 100% effective. Corals and inverts have their own tank. They are dipped then they go in and wait 12 weeks. If you get a new coral or shrimp to throw in there in the mean time, the clock starts over. That is honestly the only way to ensure that you kill the ICH. Its a pain and requires two extra tank setups. Granted they don't have to be elaborate, but if they are in your house you want them to look nice. It's a pain, but it's the only way to do it right, that's why 99% of hobbyist don't.
 
The AZA guidelines, last time I looked, has a minimum quarantine of 30 days complete isolation from all other specimens. If a new specimen is added to the quarantine with specimens that have are part way through their quarantine then the clock is reset to zero for all the specimens in quarantine.

After some of my experiences if I have any issues including if I think a fish just doesn't look "right" I'll extend the quarantine period and if I have several fish together at the same time and a fish dies I'll reset the clock to zero for everything else in that system. After as long as 23 years my display tanks are too valuable to risk being impatient.
 
When I finally starting QT after dealing with fluke in my tank I started qting and treating copramine and prazi pro even if I didn't see anything. Corals diped and qt'ed. Everything else QT'ed fallow and observed for pests. Now I'm stocking fish again I'm trying out the TTT method with a few buckets and air stones and a final 20long stage where I still treat with prazi on fish. Dips with what can be dipped.
 
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