inktomi
Aviator
Hi -
I've read lots and lots about quarantine tanks for fish. We all know the recommendations - length of time (weeks to months) - tank transfer for ich, or copper - some proactive treatment or not depending on personal preference. All it takes is a tank with some PVC joints thrown in and a hang on back filter.
I doubt any of us would toss an expensive SPS frag, or mariculture colony, into the same tank, or even the same setup. We worry about light, flow rates, chemistry down to the smallest levels - but the problems introduced without quarantining coral can be just as devastating as introducing a sick fish. I've been following the thread about mariculture coral with quite a lot of interest - the current recommendation seems to be to break the colony off the mariculture host rock and glue it to your own plugs and then hope for the best.
I would love to have a discussion of QT methods centering around SPS frags or colonies bought online. What do you do? How do you ensure nothing bad gets into your main system?
Here are only a few things I can think of that might come in with corals..
We can use dips like Coral RX/etc - but without knowing exactly what is in them it's hard to know how effective they'll be. We can proactively use things like Interceptor or other medications - but should we be treating things we have not confirmed are present?
Some of these things - Ich, other fish diseases - can simply be waited out (3 month QT, etc). Some won't go away on their own but can be managed once you discover them (starfish, snails, etc).
The problem is that we're setting up a tank which is likely to be more complex than a standard fish QT tank - right? Because of disease concerns you can't really even use your frag tank for this - it needs to be an entirely separate system. Am I overthinking this?
How do you QT frags or colonies for disease and algae without going crazy with a whole separate reef tank?
I've read lots and lots about quarantine tanks for fish. We all know the recommendations - length of time (weeks to months) - tank transfer for ich, or copper - some proactive treatment or not depending on personal preference. All it takes is a tank with some PVC joints thrown in and a hang on back filter.
I doubt any of us would toss an expensive SPS frag, or mariculture colony, into the same tank, or even the same setup. We worry about light, flow rates, chemistry down to the smallest levels - but the problems introduced without quarantining coral can be just as devastating as introducing a sick fish. I've been following the thread about mariculture coral with quite a lot of interest - the current recommendation seems to be to break the colony off the mariculture host rock and glue it to your own plugs and then hope for the best.
I would love to have a discussion of QT methods centering around SPS frags or colonies bought online. What do you do? How do you ensure nothing bad gets into your main system?
Here are only a few things I can think of that might come in with corals..
- Ich (on rock/plugs or in water)
- Red bugs
- Flatworms, acropora eating or otherwise
- Starfish
- Algae on plugs
- Dinos (in water)
- A whole host of other things
We can use dips like Coral RX/etc - but without knowing exactly what is in them it's hard to know how effective they'll be. We can proactively use things like Interceptor or other medications - but should we be treating things we have not confirmed are present?
Some of these things - Ich, other fish diseases - can simply be waited out (3 month QT, etc). Some won't go away on their own but can be managed once you discover them (starfish, snails, etc).
The problem is that we're setting up a tank which is likely to be more complex than a standard fish QT tank - right? Because of disease concerns you can't really even use your frag tank for this - it needs to be an entirely separate system. Am I overthinking this?
How do you QT frags or colonies for disease and algae without going crazy with a whole separate reef tank?
If you inspect the frag, then you can see most of the issues.
