[quote=sphelps;751359]Been lots of discussion on quarantine tanks lately so I wanted to start a thread to allow people that quarantine their livestock to explain their quarantine procedures.
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Originally Posted by sphelps
What size quarantine?
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40 gallon breeder and 5 gallon pico
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Originally Posted by sphelps
What equipment do you use?
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small internal canister in the pico, heater, and over-powered LED lights
External Marineland canister and a dinky little HOB filter in the 40, an overpowered heater (tank is in a cold garage), and basic lights on a timer
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Originally Posted by sphelps
What parameters do you monitor?
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In the pico, only temp and salinity
In the 40, ammonia, nitrite, copper levels, salinity, and temperature
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Originally Posted by sphelps
What treatments/chemicals/procedures do you use?
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Well I didn't have a rigorous QT process, and so now my 40 is filled with all of my fish being treated for the inevitable ich outbreak that took out half my tank. So I'll mention what I'm going to do in the future to prevent it from happening again:
All new fish - FW dip, then a 2 week prophylactic treatment with cupramine if they're eating well enough to handle it right away. Then a minimum 2 weeks of observation, and treatment with further medications as required. No one will go in to my tank without getting a round of prohpylactic treatment, then demonstrating themselves to be pathogen free for at least 2 weeks
Corals and inverts - All future corals will be dipped (I'm looking in to the best method going forward), then broken off their base rock, trimmed, then re-attached to new, never been wet bases. If I can get all the exposed rock off a coral (ie, dead skeleton sections, base rock, frag plugs, etc) It will stay in the 5 gallon pico for 3 weeks. If I can't get all the rock off (LPS skeletons, for example), they'll stay in QT for a full 9 weeks. I used to run the pico as an actual stand alone tank following the 'ecoreef one' philosophy from reef-builders, and had great success (even with SPS), so I'll basically just do that again. Too keep the water quality up, it will receive 100% weekly water changes using the water from my DT to replace what I drain.
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Originally Posted by sphelps
What do you quarantine? Fish, inverts, coral
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Everything.
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Originally Posted by sphelps
How long do you quarantine?
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3-9 weeks depending on what it is.
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Originally Posted by sphelps
Interested to see what people suggest when adding corals and inverts, how do you insure you don't introduce any parasites?
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I know coral tissues aren't supposed to be vectors for ich, but any rock or dead skeletion lengths can hypothetically be a substrate for the encysted tomonts to attach to, and any water that clings to them from their last tank can harbour the free swimming stages. If I have another outbreak like I did this time, I'm gonna throw in the towel, so this is going to be rigorous.