QT of inhabitants from establish reef

[Staplesofficewar]

So I was presented with a unique (challenging) opportunity yesterday. A local 40 gallon reef was being taken down and sold as a set. My buddy wanted the tank but the rock was in bad shape and needs to be cooked. I am at the stage to start adding fish to my tank, So he gave me all the included livestock:

3 clowns, 2 yellow watchman and pistol shrimp, hippo tang (maybe 1.5"), pearl jawfish, some sort of black blenny, a firefish, a yellow/purple wrasse, and a leopard wrasse, 2 cleaner shrimp also a bunch of inverts and some rock Anemone. I have the rock anemone with some live rock along with snails and crabs in a 10 gallon with prime light and those are the least of my concerns.

Everything else is in a 15 tall with HOB filter (filter pad has been in my display for 3 weeks), new caribsea live sand, and about 100 or so of the ceramic bio rings from the tank that was dismantled.

I have a 25 IM lagoon and plan on keeping all except the leopard wrasse, and hippo tang.

I know this is too many fish in a 15 long term and will likely take a beating on this, but looking for advice. These all came from an established tank thats been up > year. what are the chances of them having something bad (ick, parasites', etc. ).. I think no matter what, I need setup another 10 gallon and start moving them through the treatment process.

I am using Erase-CL to keep ammonia in check and adding Micobacter 7 daily. water looks good and everyone seems OK (besides cramped) except the Jawfish is being really reclusive and hiding a lot. Not coming out for food that I have seen (its been about 24 hours). How concerned should I be and can i continue with the protocol until the biofilter is built back up?

I am considering moving the pistol and cleaners to the invert tank - the watchman wont like it, and there is no sand in the invert tank. Then moving the two watchman and jaw fish into QT for copper and prazi, etc. Then just cycle them all through until complete. This will take me a while, I know, but any other ideas?

Any advice from experienced reefers appreciated.

 

[fishguy242]

hi, reread this ,too late ,just put fish you are keeping in display, adding the bio material from tank fish were in
if contaminated ,is in display already .

 

[Staplesofficewar]

hi, reread this ,too late ,just put fish you are keeping in display, adding the bio material from tank fish were in
if contaminated ,is in display already .

To be clear, there has been no cross contamination to my display thank. I’m keeping very strict QT.

 

[fishguy242]

gotcha, bio in 15 , display 25, IMO , just observe in 15 with added airstone , if from 1yr old tank,
would not start a treatment ,watch ammonia give them a day or two to see any signs of disease ,JMO

 

[Staplesofficewar]

Alright. Ill keep observing for now since the pearl jawfish and yellow/purple wrasse not 100% sure I have seen them eat. Everyone else is eating frozen spirulina brine shrimp. I was a little hasty so let me paint a better picture:
- 10 gallon with AI prime LED, HOB penguin 150 with reg filter, and heater with - 2 rocks from old established reef ( 6" across each), a few small zoa frags, and hermits/ snails - zero amm test, zero nit. 1 rock has 1 RFA, and other has 2. got PVC pipe over them to try to get them off the rock.
- 15 tall with the whole gang in it - cheap amazon light, heater and another HOB Penguin 150 - 100-150 ceramic bio-rings and 2 small chucks of rock from the old established reef. Amm .5ppm, 0 nit. Dosing Erase-CL for amm. Dosing Microbacter 7 daily. The interesting thing is after I dose the Erase-CL, I still read amm with my API test kit where from my understanding should not be able to.
My plan - once I have one of the rocks clear of the RFA, I will move one large rock chunk to the 15 gallon with the fish. Then move the 3 clowns, blue hippo, and 1 more I can catch easily to the small 10 gallon tank with the other rock. This should split the bioload much better vs current.

​

 

[SaracensRugby]

My LFS was burned by taking a fish from an established system recently, added it to their big display in store, ich broke out and wiped out 80% of the fish in that tank. Aggression maybe brought it out, who knows. Just depends on how safe you want to be, for 6 years I didn't get burned by fish diseases, then I did and lost $1300 in fish.