I've had a reef for 3 years this november, Never treated for anything other than Cyano and thats cause of crappy tap water.
I use a red filtered flashlight to look for critters I dont want, maybe once a week, but usually, unless something looks horribly out of place, I let my reef live like a reef.

The only fish I ever lost were fish I quarantined. I do NOT quarantine any more. :eek:

To be honest I have heard of more fatalities and horror stories from quarentine than I have heard from fish etc. intoduced into the display. I do know that a fish that is stressed stands a far better chance in my display that is stable and has good water quality maintained on a daily basis.
Even with that said I still know I should quarentine.

You just answered your own question. :smile:
Doing a daily 20% water change helps keep ammonia levels in check.

Cheers,

With an established bacterial culture in your filter media, an ammonia spike will never happen.
The only reason I had an ammonia spike was that I was so worried about the Ich that I forgot all about the nitrogen cycle.

I'm talkin' about a QT tank that is used only when it's needed.
In other words, it sits cleaned, empty and idle when it is not used.
Thus, when I get it going for QT I get ammonia spikes immediately.
Having said that, I would think the same thing might happen to an established QT tank, depending on its size and the number and size of specimens put in for quarantine.

many peopel keep spare sponges in there sumps which populate with bacterian then when the qt is needed u just pop one of those in the filter and u already have the backteria to help reduce these level s and no cycle .

That's exactly how I keep mine ready. I usually try to fill the QT with half new water and the other half from my tank. I like to plan my purchases and have the QT tank set up a few days or a week ahead to help avoid amonia spikes.

I had my current QT setup a week before I bought my fish. I had a bunch of live rock rubble from my sump in the QT for bacteria and even a few pods.

Heres another question which I never really have got a straight answer for: Does any one quarentine shrimps and crabs? What about snails?

If your dealer tank has aiptasia, and you buy a frag, could you potentially get aiptasia even with out any sign of them on the frag?

heres a good thread on qting fish http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...5&pagenumber=1