Against all advice and better judgment

[tiggs]

I have a couple of practices/beliefs that don't necessary coincide with what most consider current best practices.

1. I never QT the first fish that goes into any of my systems. Post acclimation, he goes right into my DT. At this point, I observe for 2 months. If he does show signs of disease, he comes out and goes into a HT for treatment, then my tank goes fallow for 3 months. If he doesn't show disease by that point, he's clear. After the first fish, everything goes through QT.

2. I never proactively treat fish for disease. My QT is mostly a close observation period for 6 weeks. If at any point he shows symptoms, treatment begins. My rationale on this is that using strong medications without knowing what treatments a fish has recently had is unnecessarily stressful IMO. For example, many wholesalers run copper and/or super low SG prior to shipping to retailers. Once they arrive there, many retailers run copper and other meds in their fish holding systems. There's a solid chance a fish that we just bought could have been through multiple rounds of copper treatment and a recent fast SG swing, so I don't want to add-on to that unless it's necessary. Additionally, I think most folks don't do a good enough job of matching SG in their QT with the bag water and bringing it slowly, but that's another conversation.

3. I will never own a system without actual LR and I will never rinse an established sand bed. Plenty of people have had success using dry rock and rinsing, so I'm not knocking it, but I firmly believe in doing things as naturally as possible. While it's nice to avoid certain pest hitchhikers and have a clean and nitrate free substrate, you're also missing out on some biodiversity. IMO, a reef shouldn't be sterile. The rock bit is more of a preference, but the sand stuff I actually feel pretty strongly about. Folks that are having algae blooms on their sand beds and rinsing to solve it typically have other issues that lead to that, like not enough flow in those areas, overfeeding, issues with their light spectrum, lack of microfauna, and insufficient CUC. To me, it's more of a bandaid to make things look pretty faster instead of trying to correct the problem in a more natural and sustainable way. As others have said, there's more than one way to skin a cat, so to each their own.

 

[Sarah24!]

Hello,

So I have been doing this for maybe five years give or take. For those who have done it since the 80s wow I feel like so young lol, but I think back in the 80s was the way to do it. Of all the threads I have read on ick, not once has it been mentioned how the fish deal with it naturally, aka when they are in the ocean.

The lfs that I buy from, keeps their fish separate from their coral. All fish get the copper qt as soon as they come in. Now I have not had ick in my tank or mv. I do not have a qt tank set up at home either. With this I don’t but fish online, and I know to some that’s their only option. The reason is I don’t trust them at all. I would rather go with out a certain fish, then buy one and kill my other fish. Sometimes leaving our tanks alone is the best.

As some have stated, there are sooooo many ways to do this hobby it’s crazy. None of them are wrong, you just have to figure out which method works for you. I would never say do not qt, for those who have the means I encourage them. For those who don’t, we have to improvise adapt and overcome. An example is in my line of work there are several ways to close a wound, staples, sewtures, sticky sewtures, glue etc. Regardless of how we close this would the bottom line is we close it as fast as possible, so there is limited blood loss and limited scar tissue. Are all of them good ways yes, do all of them work for me, nope. I have seen others use super glue to close major sever lacerations, I would never trust that. To me I would sew the extremely deep sections then staple over the top for added support.

We all have ways we love, and ways that make us go eek. What one must do is be okay with what he/.she does because ultimately it comes down to their decision in what happens. I truly hope your new tang thrives like no other, and I don’t see why it wouldn’t. But I know tangs get ick more than most fish. I have had two super healthy powder blues and one day they were doing amazing, the next I couldn’t even find them again. Did anything happen to my other fish, nope but did make me panic a tad.

 

[Kactai]

This has been a great discussion as I’m still on a very steep learning curve and listening to accounts from hobbyists who have very differing methods is very beneficial to me and everyone else following along.

I’m considering my most recent set up as a total wipe and I’m still in a fallow period. I’ve made several questionable purchases (coral frag from a tank with a tang that had visible ich and no coral qt) and I’ve qt mistakes (raising copper levels to quickly with sensitive fish, not testing copper frequently, ammonia build up and improper qt cycling) that have led to the loss of all but one clownfish. I’m now transitioning to a rigid QT protocol that I haven’t quite ironed out yet. I have not successfully treated a single fish but with the help of the people of this forum (who are very generous with their time and advice) I have been able to pin point my many mistakes and formulate a good plan going forward.

This is my second tank. My first one has been running for almost 4
years now with no qt, no issues and no fish losses in the past two years. The first tank is at a local business and has actually spurred several acquaintances and friends to start up their own tanks. I am consistently asked for advice which I am now hesitant to give. But I’m very honest about my experiences.

One of my best friends has had 4 total tank wipes in the past 3 years due to various diseases. He also does not qt or treat any fish, corals or inverts. I actually set up my qt system to treat my affected fish but with the secondary goal of helping us both qt our fish, corals and inverts with the objective of having two long term stable systems. After witnessing my qt failure he has gone back to his old ways. I don’t blame him and I have some fears for his system but...This actually provides me with a great opportunity as to help him and compare the long term successes, issues and failures of our systems. I’m eager to keep going and look forward to success with qt and my new system in the near future.

Thanks to everyone for sharing in this discussion.