45 Day Fallow periods

[ScottB]

A question on cross-contamination. Obviously water, rock, fish, inverts, even tools are vectors of risk.

What about live SPS coral flesh that is fragged off, dipped and rinsed?

I ask because my Display has had ich and can't be fallowed without ripping all the coral out. But my separate frag system has never shown ich fish.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

A question on cross-contamination. Obviously water, rock, fish, inverts, even tools are vectors of risk.

What about live SPS coral flesh that is fragged off, dipped and rinsed?

I ask because my Display has had ich and can't be fallowed without ripping all the coral out. But my separate frag system has never shown ich fish.

In my opinion, any dip that is mild enough not to harm SPS is also not going to reduce the possibility of some tomonts carrying over as well. It may help reduce, but may not eliminate the chance of carry over.
Jay

 

[ClownWrangler]

I saw a chart somewhere that indicates macro algae needs on even shorter period for some reason, like 2 weeks I think. Is this accurate? If so, why?

 

[SMSREEF]

here is some good info on 45 day fallow

New Ich Fallow Period

First off, I must thank @victoly for bringing this recent study to my attention: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0044848617317544 It has now been peer-reviewed and the findings verified by other scientists. I'd also like to share a couple of other related studies (below)...

humble.fish

 

[OdinPrime]

Just a quick update from my last post back in April:

Just finish a second fallow on my tank after Velvet wiped out several fish almost overnight. First fallow was a failure. I only left the DT empty for 45 days, and within 24 hours of reintroducing the fish Velvet had overtaken my Kole tang.

Did a second fallow back in April and made it the 60 days. Fish have been back in the DT for several days now with zero spots or issues. Even have a new juvenile Blue Hippo Tang in there which already bounced back from a little HLLE, zero spots, and is happy as ever.

45 Days just didnt work for me. Couldnt risk raising the tank temp to 81 for the entire time due to corals. 60 days seems to be the sweet spot.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Just a quick update from my last post back in April:

Just finish a second fallow on my tank after Velvet wiped out several fish almost overnight. First fallow was a failure. I only left the DT empty for 45 days, and within 24 hours of reintroducing the fish Velvet had overtaken my Kole tang.

Did a second fallow back in April and made it the 60 days. Fish have been back in the DT for several days now with zero spots or issues. Even have a new juvenile Blue Hippo Tang in there which already bounced back from a little HLLE, zero spots, and is happy as ever.

45 Days just didnt work for me. Couldnt risk raising the tank temp to 81 for the entire time due to corals. 60 days seems to be the sweet spot.

45 days above 81 degrees would be the absolute minimum. Personally, back when I used an even shorter time, I also ran much higher temperatures (85+). That was back before reef tanks though!

Jay

 

[Marc2952]

Just finished doing a 60 day fallow period at 81 degrees ( just to be safe) and every fish is fine except my flame wrasse that died after just being 2 days in the DT, he stopped eating a couple days prior to being brought up and i thought maybe putting him in the DT would have helped but it was of no use. I wouls just buy pre QT fish from now on like TSM. And i wont buy corals again just to be safe since thats how i got ich in my tank.

 

[StPatrick89]

Just finished doing a 60 day fallow period at 81 degrees ( just to be safe) and every fish is fine except my flame wrasse that died after just being 2 days in the DT, he stopped eating a couple days prior to being brought up and i thought maybe putting him in the DT would have helped but it was of no use. I wouls just buy pre QT fish from now on like TSM. And i wont buy corals again just to be safe since thats how i got ich in my tank.

You didn’t dip your coral?

 

[Marc2952]

You didn’t dip your coral?

I haven't corals in a while but i always dip them, but dipping doesnt remove ich.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I haven't corals in a while but i always dip them, but dipping doesnt remove ich.

Dipping/rinsing corals does not seem to offer a 100% benefit, but depending on the number of disease propagules involved, it could help to some extent. IMO, it is better than just putting the corals/inverts directly into the DT. For CUC, I will hold them in a fishless system for 45 days, if I can, but in many cases, there isn't enough algae to keep them happy that long...I may weigh then the risks, and then give them a seawater rinse and hope for the best. This is similar to what they do to make shellfish safer for human consumption - called depuration.

Jay

 

[StPatrick89]

Dipping/rinsing corals does not seem to offer a 100% benefit, but depending on the number of disease propagules involved, it could help to some extent. IMO, it is better than just putting the corals/inverts directly into the DT. For CUC, I will hold them in a fishless system for 45 days, if I can, but in many cases, there isn't enough algae to keep them happy that long...I may weigh then the risks, and then give them a seawater rinse and hope for the best. This is similar to what they do to make shellfish safer for human consumption - called depuration.

Jay

Jay is a freakin guru

 

[Marc2952]

Dipping/rinsing corals does not seem to offer a 100% benefit, but depending on the number of disease propagules involved, it could help to some extent. IMO, it is better than just putting the corals/inverts directly into the DT. For CUC, I will hold them in a fishless system for 45 days, if I can, but in many cases, there isn't enough algae to keep them happy that long...I may weigh then the risks, and then give them a seawater rinse and hope for the best. This is similar to what they do to make shellfish safer for human consumption - called depuration.

Jay

Perhaps that would help but just to be sure i wont buy more corals sonce i dont have space for another QT lol i wish i could use the fish QT gor corals but i would imagine that a big no right? The QT is pretty mature though ive had it for over a year since ive had to do 3 fallow periods lol

 

[Tamberav]

Perhaps that would help but just to be sure i wont buy more corals sonce i dont have space for another QT lol i wish i could use the fish QT gor corals but i would imagine that a big no right? The QT is pretty mature though ive had it for over a year since ive had to do 3 fallow periods lol

You probably could if you didn’t QT the corals with the fish at the same time and you went fallow in between.

I use my frag tank as a coral QT which is normally fishless but sometimes use it to condition new fish in a more natural environment as my frag tank has live rock. I then run fallow again at 82 degrees for 45 days.

I haven’t had a coral care about the tank being 82 but my tanks run 78-79 and in summer get to 80. When the AC broke I lost acropora but only once the tank hit 93 Most LPS and softies were fine. Fish were fine but I have a reverse large fuge and a lot of surface agitation. I would have bet money that 93 would be a total tank crash and been wrong!

 

[Marc2952]

You probably could if you didn’t QT the corals with the fish at the same time and you went fallow in between.

I use my frag tank as a coral QT which is normally fishless but sometimes use it to condition new fish in a more natural environment as my frag tank has live rock. I then run fallow again at 82 degrees for 45 days.

I haven’t had a coral care about the tank being 82 but my tanks run 78-79 and in summer get to 80. When the AC broke I lost acropora but only once the tank hit 93 Most LPS and softies were fine. Fish were fine but I have a reverse large fuge and a lot of surface agitation. I would have bet money that 93 would be a total tank crash and been wrong!

Hmmm maybe but i feel like the little bit of copper thats left in the fish QT will kill off the corals. Last time i checked the copper in the QT it was .12 or something.

 

[Vyper]

So 45 days fallow did not work for me. Went through all the effort to take the fish out, set up a 40gal breeder, kept the copper dosing at therapeutic levels for 30 days, and let my 90gal reef sit empty.

Within 2 days of reintroducing my fish, Kole tang broke out in Ich. He is on his last leg of life right now, and I'm too scared to move him out to a hospital tank again as the stress might kill him. No signs of Ich on any other fish, and this is my second kole tang to die within 6 months due to Ich in my DT.

Going to go ahead and say 45 days is too short. Im going to try this again, but with a 70+ day fallow. I hate taking my fish out of their home and sticking them into a QT for so long, but Im at my wits end with Ich. Im almost ready to just dump $600+/- into a serious UV sterilizer and just switch to ich management

I run some pretty serious uv 1 40 watt and one 50 watt ho. It didnt help with my ich. It came out of the blue 4 months in and everything I bought was quarantined elsewhere. I was under the assumption with good uv that even if it got in it would manage it but I had no success with that. I think uv may help some but a lot more factors to it.

 

[Vyper]

I also assume that when I pay up for quarantined fish that they are done correctly. I will no longer assume this and attemp to quarantine everything myself. I am also looking at aquacultured fish that may have never been exposed.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I also assume that when I pay up for quarantined fish that they are done correctly. I will no longer assume this and attemp to quarantine everything myself. I am also looking at aquacultured fish that may have never been exposed.

Aquacultured fish are a great option IF you get them directly from the breeding facility. If the fish pass through a wholesaler or retail dealer, they are then no cleaner than the worst fish in that system.
Jay

 

[Marc2952]

Its been a month since i added the fish and i deff have some signs of ich in my tank ( some scratching, maybe a flash but very few) the fish are fat and dont bother too much. Im not gonna go fallow again simply because after 4 fallow periods im tired of it plus it causes havoc on my tank and the money i have spent on corals far outweighs the fish.

 

[StPatrick89]

Its been a month since i added the fish and i deff have some signs of ich in my tank ( some scratching, maybe a flash but very few) the fish are fat and dont bother too much. Im not gonna go fallow again simply because after 4 fallow periods im tired of it plus it causes havoc on my tank and the money i have spent on corals far outweighs the fish.

Another story of fallow not working. Thanks for confirming about wasted time with a fishless tank for months.

 

[Vyper]

Aquacultured fish are a great option IF you get them directly from the breeding facility. If the fish pass through a wholesaler or retail dealer, they are then no cleaner than the worst fish in that system.
Jay

Yeah, I just ordered a mandarin pair and a pair of aptasia eating file fish directly from biota. Mandarins are supposed to be very tough to use medicines on so figured I would give it a try. My tank has been fallow for some time and I have a lovely bloom of aptasia. i am at 72 day mark now and will be 81 days when they arrive. They get to be first in and after a few weeks if no signs of trouble my two tangs will get to return to their home. One is a powder brown so I will know quickly I am sure. Hopefully I can get a good restart and everything down to the snails will get 45-76 day quarantine moving forward.