How to Quarantine

[sphelps]

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.

What size quarantine?
What equipment do you use?
What parameters do you monitor?
What treatments/chemicals/procedures do you use?
What do you quarantine? Fish, inverts, coral
How long do you quarantine?

Interested to see what people suggest when adding corals and inverts, how do you insure you don't introduce any parasites?

[George]

Originally Posted by sphelps

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.

What size quarantine?

29 G x 2. yeah...I have 2 QT tanks because I am trying this tank transfer(TT) method of treating marine ich. Was using hypo for fish mainly before(don't try this for inverts ).

Originally Posted by sphelps

What equipment do you use?

For TT, a power head, a air pump, a heater, some pvc pipes and an ammonia indicator.

Originally Posted by sphelps

What parameters do you monitor?

only NH4 with a NH4 badge.

Originally Posted by sphelps

What treatments/chemicals/procedures do you use?

prazipro on every fish. Other meds(antibacterial, chloroquine phosphate for other parasites) case by case. prime for neutralizing NH4. dips for coral.

Originally Posted by sphelps

What do you quarantine? Fish, inverts(crab, snail, shrimp), coral

Fish and inverts in one QT system. coral in frag tank.

Originally Posted by sphelps

How long do you quarantine?

Fish, 6+ weeks. invert a couple weeks. coral no specific timeline. Whenever I feel it's safe to move the coral from the frag tank to the main tank I will do it.

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?

For coral, the best thing to do it to set up a frag tank. you can put your newly acquired corals there for observation. That eliminates a dedicated coral QT tank. of course you need to dip your coral before you put it into your frag tank. Invert (I assume you meant crab and snails and shrimp etc because coral is invert) is easy. a small QT tank with very basic equipments will do. Make sure no copper and other meds in invert QT tank though.
I understand that not everyone wants to set up a QT system like I do. But when you have a collection of rare fish (read expensive), you want to do what you can to make sure nothing bad getting into your DT.

[sphelps]

My apologies I should have said fish, coral and other inverts

Thanks for sharing George, I'm curious how you quarantine your inverts (everything except coral) as it wasn't specific. Separate from fish I'm guessing and just strictly for monitoring? No treatments? Also interesting idea regarding a frag tank, however I think most of us with frag tanks have it directly connected to the display so perhaps not a safe qt in this manor, I'm guessing yours is separate?

When I mentioned my interest in quarantining inverts I was speaking more along the lines of parasites live ich and velvet. It's my understanding that while these parasites do not effect inverts they can however be transported through their source water, how can one prevent this when coral skeleton or attached rock is porous. Is a dip sufficient? For those people who are serious about quarantine, what is your approach?

[emerald crab]

I don't add anymore fish (I'm maxed up), but I quarantine corals. I quarantine one coral/tank for six weeks, with weekly dips. I use small QTs 1.5-2 gal, heater, Red Sea Prism skimmer, ATO with float switch and aqualifter, DIY led light (10w hybrid with lens),Koralia 1 power head. If the frag is big enough I cut it off the base(plug) and remount it on a new plug. Discard the old base, dip the frag and start quarantine.

[christyf5]

Fish do 6+ Weeks in a 29 gal with a heater, powerheads and an airstone.. Waterchanges.weekly or according to the ammonia badge thingy (which never registered and I suspect is a POS). Corals get a dip in my flavor of the moment iodine based treatment (coral rx?)

[sphelps]

So in terms of preventing parasites that target strictly fish from introducing corals and other inverts I see four options

1. Use starvation approach - quarantine in separate system for 6 weeks
2. Dip corals - not really effective for parasites in question
3. Buy from known systems which have quarantine procedures or do not house fish
4. Do nothing - perhaps chances are slim to none for introducing such parasites through coral

I think a combination of 1-3 is probably the answer, using case by case bases. Using an isolated frag tank is probably the way to go for #1 as George suggested but it means you'll have to stick to a 6 week purchasing frequency if buying from questionable sources. It also means your frag tank can't have any fish which are handy for housekeeping. Emerald has an interesting approach that deserves more explanation and pictures but I can't imagine maintaining what is essentially multiple pico systems especially when it comes to more sensitive corals.

[asylumdown]

[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.

Originally Posted by sphelps

What size quarantine?

40 gallon breeder and 5 gallon pico

Originally Posted by sphelps

What equipment do you use?

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

Originally Posted by sphelps

What parameters do you monitor?

In the pico, only temp and salinity
In the 40, ammonia, nitrite, copper levels, salinity, and temperature

Originally Posted by sphelps

What treatments/chemicals/procedures do you use?

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.

Originally Posted by sphelps

What do you quarantine? Fish, inverts, coral

Everything.

Originally Posted by sphelps

How long do you quarantine?

3-9 weeks depending on what it is.

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?

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.

[Pansy-Paws]

Here is our QT routine (don't have inverts or corals):

• QT tank is a 72 gallon bowfront, QT period is 8 weeks
• proprophylactic treatment with chloroquine phosphate, followed by Prazi-Pro (sometimes I use a Prazi-Pro dip rather than treating the whole QT)
• monitoring of ammonia (test strips and badge), temperature
• addition of Amquel-Plus as required if I don't have a water change ready to lower ammonia (generally, 30% water change twice a week)
• Aquaclear HOB filter (pre-seeded sponge from DT), heater, CF lights on timer, assorted PVC tubes