Quarentine Tanks

[CynFromOregon]

How many of you have a way to quarentine your new fish corals, etc?

If you get new inverts do you put them in quarentine too?

If you don't quarantine ...have you had lot of problems?

Does a quarentine tank have to have a bunch of special lighting, or can it
be just one of these small tanks I keep seeing in the classifieds?

Thanks!

[ron popeil]

the only thing ive ever quarantined is clownfish. and only the expensive, prone to brooklynella types.

everything else i give a thorough once over at the store, acclimate and put in. inverts get the same treatment. never had a problem. only time anything bad happened was when i got sloppy with my extra sensitive clownfish and gave them more credit than i should have, and added non quarantined clownfish to my refugium. that caused problems, but only with that species.

i use a 29 gallon, a aquaclear mini and formalin. no light. i taped cardboard around all sides. i have a few tall fake plants. i use lowered salinity. an airstone.

i change about 10 - 20% every day, for about two weeks.

and thats about it. im lazy and dont want to quarantine my fish, and disregarding my lessons learned with chrysopterus clowns, ill still continue to just put fish in my main tank based on my visual judgement and only quarantine certain clownfish.

[Kevin1000]

I QT all fish ... you don't need special lighting - use a nearby desk lamp ... inexpensive $10 Petco ten gallon tank, barebottom, $10 powerfilter, inexpensive heater and some PVC pipes for fish to find shelter - small investment last forever.

[aciddroppa]

I know what u dont use. i.e.(a 55gal aggresive reef u r watching 4 a friend until he moves.) Ha ha

[liquidfunk]

Ive lost every fish Ive tried to QT. If QT-ed 5 clowns, and 2 leopard wrasses, and lost everyone of them.

I use the fuge now, then if they get sick I can pull them and then QT them in a med tank if necissary, or dip them etc.

No more QT for me, I think sticking them in a tiny tank without many places to hide etc is more stressful than an established tank.

When I acclimated the leopard wrasses I even added sand, and lots of cheato that was full of pods for them to munch. No luck at all.

[CynFromOregon]

if they go in the fuge, isn't that the same water from the tank - and couldn't they potential contaminate a tank?

[upcfault]

QT is the way to go. I didn't use one at first, then my brand new Regal Tang that looked good at the shop, developed Ich. Long story short, 3 other fish got it and 2 died along with my new tang.

Cost me 25 bucks to set up, alot cheaper than the 3 fish I lost.

[NeilsReef]

Originally Posted by upcfault

QT is the way to go. I didn't use one at first, then my brand new Regal Tang that looked good at the shop, developed Ich. Long story short, 3 other fish got it and 2 died along with my new tang.

Cost me 25 bucks to set up, alot cheaper than the 3 fish I lost.

Sounds about right!

[liquidfunk]

Yes it could (if put new fish in fuge) contaminate the whole tank, but the fish IN the tank are healthy, they can usually beat just about anything when they arent stressed (like adding a new fish). This way you can wait until everyone is stressfree and healthy, then simply move the fish into the tank. This is obviously add some stress, but the new fish wont be new to the water etc so it wont be as stressed (no shipping or anything).

its just a theory obviously, but whats the point in QT if the fish die in it all the time?

[DonJasper]

I QT all fish. I should probably do corals to (avoid pest hitchhikers). I'm currently aptasia free - and would like to stay that way.

[Krux]

i quarantine fish and corals, i try to time my trips to the fish store with a waterchange, so that i can fill the 10 gallon tank with system water when i get home if i picked anything new up. all corals get a dose of reefdip and interceptor, all fish go into a formaline bath and then into the qt.

the only fish i didn't quarantine was a regal angel as they are very delicate, but he ended up not making it through the night, most likely stress related as there wasn't a mark on him.... guess in hindsight it could have gone either way in a qt.

for water movement i use a couple of airstones and a powerhead, and then do water changes every other day so filtration isn't an issue for me.

be sure to have a small heater, temp swings can be devistating.

[suzstephens]

Last week I took some small tanks, heaters and HOB filters to Woody at Seahorse to sell for me. They would be great for setting up a QT tank on the cheap.