Coral Quarantine Protocol. Is There One?

[AKL1950]

What is the consensus on quarantining corals. Is it recommended or not? If it is, where can I find the quarantine protocol that should be used.

Jetson

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Most people don't quarantine corals, but it is good practice to do so - and pretty easy too, as it's really just fallow and observation (if you have questions on how to do a fallow period, Jay Hemdal - author of one of the two quotes below - has some great info on it you can look up here on R2R):

Yeah, the full duration fallow period QT (usually recommended as 76 days) to prevent disease is a good way of preventing ich/velvet transmission via corals, inverts, macroalgae, etc. though the odds of these spreading the disease are relatively low in the first place. Personally, out of an abundance of caution, I would recommend quarantining in batches rather than not (unlike recommended in the article above) to ensure that you don't somehow transfer the free-living stage of the parasite into your DT, but that's just me.

This is not only good disease prevention practice, but it can also help you prevent the introduction of things like aiptasia, vermetid snails, and bubble algae into your DT after you add a new coral frag or something (you just keep an eye on the frag/invert/whatever during the 76 days to see if these or similar "pests" pop up while in QT - they'll be a lot easier to see and remove in a QT in many cases than they would be in the DT).

Anything wet has the potential to transfer infectious agents from one tank to another - aerosol droplets, your hands, etc. Here is my article on the topic:

Biosecurity

A short introduction to aquarium biosecurity

www.reef2reef.com

Jay

 

[AKL1950]

Great! Thanks. Also found this one by Humblefish.

Coral/Invert Quarantine Time Frames

I was wondering if your frag tank is plumbed into your sump will this be an issue. Water from frag goes into filter sock first. Would this stop free swimmers

www.reef2reef.com

Jetson