quarantine tank

So I watched this video and the guy doing the fraging brought up a good point that if we all Quarantined are stock we would stop passing bad things around. So the big question is what kind of quarantine tanks do you have? How simple can you go? What do you do with them when not needed and is it safe to leave something in the quarantine tank when you are not using it as such? I guess that way you could use it as a hospital tank if need be. Thanks in advance. Almost forgot how long should you quarantine something coral and such.

 

Bump

 

The problem is that you can get RB ,FW and nudibranchs from distributors on-line, so do not assume just because you got your corals on-line that they come pest free.

A QT for corals is going to have to have good lighting, a lot of people would say a skimmer, heater, power heads. Some pests are not going to show up for weeks if not longer. Seeing RB (red bugs) is difficult and I bet a lot of people have them and do not know they do. To be effective you would have to do multiple repeat dips of interceptor and other products, to cover all your bases.

 

Ok but what about the rest of the time and what do you do to the water you put meds in them add something else to the QT tank?

 

I run two qt tanks. One is a 20 gallon that is currently holding a (on edge) yellow tang. I use an air pump, a heater, and a sponge filter. Thats it. I try to quarantine everything including live rock. I will not argue that I do NOT have diseases or pests in my dt but I will argue that I have less than I would if I didnt qt.

 

No....not for a coral QT tank. You just do a coral dip for the specified amount of time based on which brand of dip your are using. Then you dip them in fresh saltwater to rinse the remaining dip off the coral prior to putting them in your QT tank. The salinity, temperature, pH, Calcium, Alk etc should match the conditions in your DT. The reason for QT is because most coral dips don't affect the eggs of pest species so you want some time to look at them with a magnifying glass and also watch for tissue disappearing and such. If that happens, some eggs that you missed even with a magnifying glass have hatched and you have to dip again. Only after you are sure there are no pest species on the coral do you move it to the display tank.

If you are QT fish/hospitalizing fish, you might have meds in the system such as copper, praziquantel, etc.