Buying coral at different LFS's

Well, I am planning in the future (after my tank is completely stable), to buy some corals. I am looking at simple ones. Toadstools, devil's hands, polyps, and xenia.
The lfs i currently buy my things from is great but pretty expensive. I found a nearby reef store that specializes only in corals and coral inhabitants. The place is really nice and the prices are pretty cheap compared to the other. What should I do to ensure that the corals i may buy from this new store wont introduce harmful things into my tank? I have had a wonderful success with my primary lfs but would like to get better deals at the other store on coral.
The reason I ask is because I have heard that mixing water products such as fish, corals, rock and other from different stores is risky..
Is this true?

Thanks,
Yuri

 

It's only risky if one of the stores has pests in their tanks. One LFS here in St. Louis has flatworms big time. Another one has aiptasia all over their tanks. Another one constantly seems to have Ich outbreaks.

That's the reason I do a QT for all corals and fish.

 

Yep. A QT tank is really the only way to ensure it. If you want to do a QT tank for corals, your gonna need the lights too.

 

What is in your opinions' the best way to make a simple QT tank? What would i need?
I have only a 20g tall so i will not be buying anything big. All fragments mostly.
With such a small tank, i have to be very careful of all para. levels..

Thanks btw. K++ all around

 

I was in Lucerne Valley (Apple Valley) area for an MDR race. Another hobby of mine haha.
The only reason I am considering another store was that out of all of the frags I wanted to buy the other day, the one he pointed out to me was covered in Red hair algae. Luckily, my hermits terminated it within an hour or two. Then the turbo snail calvary came in and with three of them on the frag, almost knocked it over while cleaning it. The prices are twice as high at this store. The selection is okay. A QT tank sounds like a good idea regardless though. Any suggestions on making a very simple one?

 

BTW, here is my recent solution to the high temp problem I have been having. The pic is attached.
What i did was find a way to concentrate the air flow over a pressurized surface area of the water, then release it in the front opening of the tank. It works amazing!!!!
My temp is never above 78.7 now. When normally it was around 84 or so.
The evaporation levels suck, but its doing great otherwise.

 

Just the same as any other reef tank, just smaller

 

Yeah. I requent three fish stores. The most reasonably priced store has an aiptasia problem. So that is the chance I take. But as long as the corals are healthy and you take the right precautions before introducing them in your DT, there shouldn't be a problem.

 

Yeah, it doesn't sound like a QT will work well in your sitation. However, if you have to go straight into the DT, a preventative dip for the corals is a good idea.

There are many store bought dips that are good like Seachem Reef Dip. I also use Salifert flatworm exit on my dips. This will minimize the chances of pests getting into the system.

I got soooo sick of this junk from my LFS's that when I was running a reef store, I set up a complete QT system in the warehouse. There were 3 separate 3000 gallon ponds, a separate 500 gallon clam QT, and about 500 gallons worth of hospital tanks. I dipped all corals prior to putting them into QT which made for some very late nights (mornings) whenever a shipment came in.