General QT topics

WhatCouldGoWrong71

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With new build underway, I am also going to utilize part of my mixing room, which is no where near my new display, for a QT area. I’ve got the basic understanding on how things should be set up and maintained while a fish is in the QT process. I would rate myself as a junior novice today. Which is better then the dump and prey approach I have formally embraced. I just read something, and it really caught my attention. This being Velvet coming in on frags? For me reefing changed when I had the correct balance and species of utilitarian fish.

I put WAY more coral in my tank than fish. I really had not thought about long term QT’ing for coral. Are the risks equally as high with coral for being disease into a tank? Also, what about snails and hermits, etc? If you were to put snails and hermits into a QT for 80ish days, would you just leave the light on the promote algae growth for the snails? Dumb questions, but, we (my family and I) like caves for our fish. But we know, we would never get one out if something happened. Our new display is 400g going from 100g, so, we are trying to follow as many best practices as we reasonably and responsibly can.
 

EricR

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The safest answer is quarantine everything wet.

Personally, I don't QT corals -- just dip and get rid of the frag plug, but I only keep soft corals.
*I feel like the risk is less but there is still obviously some risk there

I do QT inverts (non-medicated for 45+ days) and use HTTM for fish (which isn't popular on this site).

Best source of reference is probably here:
Current Quarantine Protocol
 

ISpeakForTheSeas

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Are the risks equally as high with coral for being disease into a tank? Also, what about snails and hermits, etc? If you were to put snails and hermits into a QT for 80ish days, would you just leave the light on the promote algae growth for the snails?
The odds of corals and inverts bringing in disease are very low, but not zero - you would want to either leave the lights on to promote algae, feed algae pellets, or both; for hermits and other omnivores/carnivores, you would also feed meaty foods. For both inverts and corals (and macroalgae, live rock/sand, and anything else wet that isn't a fish), you just need to keep them in a fishless system for 60-76 days to ensure any parasites have died off (you can technically go 45 days if kept at 81F or above, but some inverts may not appreciate the high temps, so lower and slower is recommended):
Parasites can come in on anything "wet," including corals, live rock, inverts, macroalgae, etc. - so to be safe, the fallow countdown would have to reset with any new additions.

That said, the chances of things other than fish bringing in disease are really, really small, but not zero (IIRC, I've seen 4 or 5 instances where it happened - see below for some examples). To be safe, you can QT any new "wet" additions for 45 days at 27.3C (81F), or you can go longer (with or without lower temps) to be safe - 60-76 days is generally recommended as the safest. The good news is that this gives you time to observe anything you're putting into your system for unwanted hitchhikers like invasive algae, "Aiptasia," predatory worms/flatworms, coral-eating nudibranchs, etc.

Coral frags:
Urchin:
Snails:
 

vetteguy53081

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With new build underway, I am also going to utilize part of my mixing room, which is no where near my new display, for a QT area. I’ve got the basic understanding on how things should be set up and maintained while a fish is in the QT process. I would rate myself as a junior novice today. Which is better then the dump and prey approach I have formally embraced. I just read something, and it really caught my attention. This being Velvet coming in on frags? For me reefing changed when I had the correct balance and species of utilitarian fish.

I put WAY more coral in my tank than fish. I really had not thought about long term QT’ing for coral. Are the risks equally as high with coral for being disease into a tank? Also, what about snails and hermits, etc? If you were to put snails and hermits into a QT for 80ish days, would you just leave the light on the promote algae growth for the snails? Dumb questions, but, we (my family and I) like caves for our fish. But we know, we would never get one out if something happened. Our new display is 400g going from 100g, so, we are trying to follow as many best practices as we reasonably and responsibly can.
I add coral all the time and cannot say they caused issues not have I had disease with 37 fish in the tank. You want to be selective as to where you get coral observing the health of the specimens within tanks and also healthy coral. Obviously if you are buying a half dead coral or one with flesh issues, you are inviting problems.
There is of course risk whenever introducing any specimen but quarantine fish and inverts if you feel a need to.
Its 45-60 days for fallow period and 81 degrees is an old rule and was more aimed at velvet opposed to ich. While it may speed up the life cycle of protozoan, its no assurance
 
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