Coral/Invert Quarantine Time Frames

[William Norman]

@Humblefish - how likely is Uronema marinum ? Do you think it is widespread infection in the invert and coral shops ? I have been purchasing coral from WWW and inverts from reefcleaners and my local lfs. (I would be suspect of my local lfs.) So far I have been following the 76 days...

 

[Humblefish]

@Humblefish - how likely is Uronema marinum ? Do you think it is widespread infection in the invert and coral shops ? I have been purchasing coral from WWW and inverts from reefcleaners and my local lfs. (I would be suspect of my local lfs.) So far I have been following the 76 days...

IME; Uronema is widespread in chromis damsels and sometimes encountered on other damsels, clownfish and anthias.

However, being uronema has a direct life cycle (meaning it lives, feeds and reproduces on the fish) there is no tomont or encysted stage to worry about. So, a simple rinse (using DT water) or coral dip should "wash away" any parasites that inadvertently may be on a coral/invert. The same applies to brook; however rinsing does not help with ich or velvet tomonts which may be encysted to a coral or invert. Only isolation in a fishless environment neutralizes that threat: https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/how-to-quarantine-coral-and-inverts.228/

 

[William Norman]

So Humble. Is Uronema the only disease that we QT for days 45-76 or are there ich and velvet strains that make us go that long ?

 

[Brew12]

So Humble. Is Uronema the only disease that we QT for days 45-76 or are there ich and velvet strains that make us go that long ?

Ich needs the 76 days. Velvet is 6 weeks.

 

[jgvergo]

Here is my situation...My DT is cycled and I have a few hardy fish in it. I started with dry live rock. Everything is proceeding nicely. I also have a QT with a bunch of corals and inverts (shrimp, snails, hermit crabs). I am a week into a 45 day quarentine period.

I want to add cheat0 to a refugium in my sump. Since I am using the same QT tank for the Chaeto, should I wait until the end of the 45 day QT period for the corals and inverts and then buy (and QT) the chaeto?

P.S. I really don't have room for a 2nd QT

 

[coweyes298]

Rinse the chaeto well to get rid of pods. Better use coral dip or bayer dip to dip it.

I used 5 gallon bucket to QT my chaeto, with a heater and a clamp light for 16 days.

 

[jgvergo]

Rinse the chaeto well to get rid of pods. Better use coral dip or bayer dip to dip it.

I used 5 gallon bucket to QT my chaeto, with a heater and a clamp light for 16 days.

A big part of the reason for getting chaeto is to get pods too

You don't have any filtration on the quarentined chaeto?

 

[coweyes298]

pods may carry ich since that is the only hard surface in chaeto that ich can be attached to. I go my chaeto from AlgaeBarn and there is not much pods in their chaeto, but I still dip them.

For the 5 gallon bucket, no there is nothing else besides heater and light. I added a tiny pump to have some circulation. I also dose nitrate to 5 ~ 10 ppm during the 16 days. Chaeto did fine during the QT.

 

[coweyes298]

An update for my coral QT progress. I finished my 76 days counting from the last coral I added. So the longest coral stayed in the small all in one QT is 174 days. I know it is ridiculous...I just cannot stop myself from buying new frags. I lost some SPS due to ALK spike from overdosing kalk, but at the end I have several acro and montis along with favia, hammer and some LPS ready to go to DT. I did a final rinse on them with Bayer + Revive dip and they went to the display. It is 12 days since I added the coral to DT and so far no sign of ich on my fish.

 

[Bthomas]

So if im just starting up a tank can i put the initial cuc straight into the display once the cycle is done and just leave it fishless for 45 or 76 days? Would that count as a quarantine

 

[Brew12]

An update for my coral QT progress. I finished my 76 days counting from the last coral I added. So the longest coral stayed in the small all in one QT is 174 days. I know it is ridiculous...I just cannot stop myself from buying new frags. I lost some SPS due to ALK spike from overdosing kalk, but at the end I have several acro and montis along with favia, hammer and some LPS ready to go to DT. I did a final rinse on them with Bayer + Revive dip and they went to the display. It is 12 days since I added the coral to DT and so far no sign of ich on my fish.

You don't have to reset the clock in a coral/invert QT. Once a piece has been added that piece can come out in 76 days. Adding more pieces later doesn't change that.

So if im just starting up a tank can i put the initial cuc straight into the display once the cycle is done and just leave it fishless for 45 or 76 days? Would that count as a quarantine

This is what I did and it worked well for me.

 

[coweyes298]

You don't have to reset the clock in a coral/invert QT. Once a piece has been added that piece can come out in 76 days. Adding more pieces later doesn't change that.


This is what I did and it worked well for me.

Yup. I was paranoid and played it extra safe that time. Now I have some nice acro in the coral QT again, will add more withing next few weeks and count them individually 76 days this time.

I did bayer dip + rinse & discard 3 time, again with Revive dip + rinse & discard 3 times. I think it should cover 99% of free swimming ich by doing this.

 

[billw]

Yup. I was paranoid and played it extra safe that time. Now I have some nice acro in the coral QT again, will add more withing next few weeks and count them individually 76 days this time.

I did bayer dip + rinse & discard 3 time, again with Revive dip + rinse & discard 3 times. I think it should cover 99% of free swimming ich by doing this.

What you are worried about is cryptocaryon cysts carried in on exposed skeleton or frag plugs of the corals. The next stage of the lifecycle is that sometime in the next 76 days those cysts burst and the individual free swimmers seek out a fish dinner. If they don't find one they can't re-encyst back onto the corals. They simply die.

 

[Kyl]

Here's one thing I've thought about. I have a 76 day timer on all coral / inverts in a dedicated QT tank. I buy an anemone, keep it in that tank for 18 days along with existing corals. I am still mindful for occurring ich free swimmers from the other corals in the tank, so I transfer the anemone to another, clean qt tank for 2 days. It should then be 100% free of any water-borne sources for ich /velvet at that point.

Does that sound right? 18 days in the frag tank for velvet dinospores, 2 days after that in a sterile QT tank to nuke any free swimming theronts, profit?

 

[Humblefish]

@Kyl Velvet dinospores only remain infective for up to 15 days, without a fish host present. So, for your plan to work no new corals/inverts could have been added to the first QT for 20 days prior (in extreme cases it can take 20+ days for dinospores to be released from their tomonts). After 15 days, transfer the nem to QT#2 and just wait 48 hrs to ensure no ich or velvet free swimmers have survived.

 

[Kyl]

Okay, that's the part I was overlooking. So if they're all added at the same time it's 20 + 15 + 2. Basically a bit over a month if all at the same time.

Thanks HF, would hate to sabotage things with a step miss like that!

 

[Brad Montgomery]

I have QT and treated every fish and let the DT to be fishless for 83 days. Now fish are in DT for 70 days after the fallow period and I haven't seen any sign of ich or fluke. Occasionally Hippo Tang and Midas Blenny will flash to rock/sand one or two times a day, but I think their skin are just irritated by the way they sleep inside tight rock space. I have a small coral QT and I am playing it safe to count 76 days after the last coral added. It is hard to do this way since you need to stop buying coral and start counting 76 days. I am at 37 days mark, still 40 days to go without buying any coral!

I recently introduced Berghia Nudibranch from Salty Underground to My DT due to Aptiasia outbreak. This is the only invert I didn't QT. I couldn't find a way to feed these nudi Aptiasia while in a separate QT for 76 days, so I took the chance. My procedure was to rinse nudi for 3 times, with discarding the rinsed water every single time. I also tried to introduced as lees water after rinse as possible into my DT. Now it's been 9 days since nudi added and I haven't noticed any ich to be introduced. Knock on wood.

I recently was in St Louis and stopped by the salty underground. Thw said they were the largest supplier of berghia in the states. From what I observed is that the breeding and culturing of berghia nudis is they are 100% in their own system and they feed them Aiptasia that are 100% in their own system. Iv'e never seen so much Aiptasia in one place. They had tanks upon tanks of nothing but rock and aiptasia. They had thousands of berghia in different lifeforms from eggs to 1/2 inch nudis. So my thoughts are that these guys are so small they have to be kept in a system of their own to even see them much less catch them. That these shoukd be free of pests but that is just an assumption. I do know if I ever need them I will make a trip to the salty underground. The owners name is Kevin but that is all they said

 

[coweyes298]

I recently was in St Louis and stopped by the salty underground. Thw said they were the largest supplier of berghia in the states. From what I observed is that the breeding and culturing of berghia nudis is they are 100% in their own system and they feed them Aiptasia that are 100% in their own system. Iv'e never seen so much Aiptasia in one place. They had tanks upon tanks of nothing but rock and aiptasia. They had thousands of berghia in different lifeforms from eggs to 1/2 inch nudis. So my thoughts are that these guys are so small they have to be kept in a system of their own to even see them much less catch them. That these shoukd be free of pests but that is just an assumption. I do know if I ever need them I will make a trip to the salty underground. The owners name is Kevin but that is all they said

Glad to hear the inside of SaltyUnderground from someone else. Well as the one who introduced their Nudi at 37 days mark of fallow period, I would say I am happy with it. It is 4 months since I introduced my fish back to DT after fallow on DT. I also QT everything wet ( 15 days for chaeto, 77 days for coral). So far no ich or any sign of parasite I can find.

 

[Steve1500]

I am looking at purchasing a refugium starter kit from LA and it has a few macroalgaes (incl chaeto and Ulva sea lettuce) and some pods. According to the chart above, I need to QT the algaes for 16 days. What about the pods...are they considered crustaceans...how do I QT them?

Also, I only have a fish QT and a coral QT. The coral QT is packed w corals and so I have no room to QT the refugium items above. Short of buying a new QT tank system for the fuge, how can I QT them? I would like to start my DT refugium a few weeks prior to adding the corals from QT.

Thanks in advance,
Steve

 

[Brew12]

I am looking at purchasing a refugium starter kit from LA and it has a few macroalgaes (incl chaeto and Ulva sea lettuce) and some pods. According to the chart above, I need to QT the algaes for 16 days. What about the pods...are they considered crustaceans...how do I QT them?

Also, I only have a fish QT and a coral QT. The coral QT is packed w corals and so I have no room to QT the refugium items above. Short of buying a new QT tank system for the fuge, how can I QT them? I would like to start my DT refugium a few weeks prior to adding the corals from QT.

Thanks in advance,
Steve

I have never QT'd pods. They are crustaceans so anything is possible, but most are raised in fishless environments so fish based parasites are not an issue.