DT Cycled, fish in QT, nothing to do but wait?

[amygetsalife]

While I wait for my 2 clown fish to finish quarantine, is there anything I can do with the DT other than wait? The hubs is having fun with gear, already upgraded the Rodi unit, made a battery back up, etc. But until the fish are out of quarantine, I guess I'm the queen of water testing, obsessive researcher and reader, and QT master. The empty tank mocks me....

 

[davidcalgary29]

Yes. This is the time to stock suitable macroalgae (halymenia), CUC, and hardy (soft) corals. You can use the period while your tank is fallow to treat it as an invert quarantine tank, which is otherwise often difficult to do (or rather, seems like it). Just be sure to have nori or sinking algae pellets on hand if they need supplemental feeding.

 

[Radman73]

You can always add CUC, dump some pods in, look for low flow areas. Always seems to be something that needs improvement.

 

[Woodyman]

Add your pods and microfauna! It will give the pods time to setup a population without worry of predation.

 

[Woodyman]

Add your pods and microfauna! It will give the pods time to setup a population without worry of predation.

Then you've got a stable sustainable food population prior to adding fish.

 

[brandon429]

Also key

decide if you want clean or dirty fallow, these steps above are for dirty fallow


clean fallow = fallow starts after the last wet thing you add from a pet store, not during. To see effects of dirty fallow read the disease forum on any post titled: new clean up crew killed my fish


dirty fallow is better than no fallow for sure, we can read the percentages comparison between no prep systems and dirty fallow systems to see some element of control is better than none.


but welcome now to the distinction that is clean vs dirty, it’s significant enough Jay writes an article about it:

Biosecurity

A short introduction to aquarium biosecurity

www.reef2reef.com

my opinion: a nano with two clowns as the end goal likely is ok with dirty fallow preps. Just not systems with tangs, anthias, mixed sensitive species, the risks climb a bit higher there for the less clean efforts. source for the claim: 20 years of post history on nano-reef.com vs the ongoing daily posts in our fish disease forum here

 

[amygetsalife]

Kudos to Brandon429 for being the first to cast shade on the rather helpful actionable responses by previous posters! I see you are quite a resource for assuming the worst about anyone with a new tank even if they have stated that they are indeed doing QT.

my opinion: a nano with two clowns as the end goal likely is ok with dirty fallow preps.

It is obvious that by wanting to "do something" with my empty but cycled tank while my fish are in quarantine that I must be ready to hop over to my algae and pox riddled LFS and wontonly toss inverts and frags into my beautiful and pristine 65 gallon tank. Dirty fallow indeed.

I suggest you work on your writing skills if you truly want to be a force for good on this forum. I can already id your posts by reading them without even noting the author before doing so.

I have indeed read Jay's posts and stickies in the disease forum. Several, multiple times. I will be adding some pods, a controlled amount of phytoplankton, and macro algae to my tank from Algae Barn as that seems to be a pretty safe activity as well as source. Feel free to give me a detailed QT procedure for them if you wish. You can practice your new encouraging writing style while doing so! I will not be adding inverts at this time as there's really nothing for them to feed on. Though I am starting to see some coloration on my aquascape.

I'm sure your assumptions are partly my fault as I have yet to post a build thread for you to analyze as I've seen you do to others.

You can catch more flies with honey than vinegar. No worries, I won't be adding any to my tank. Milk either.

To be obnoxiously clear, my 2 tiny clown fish are in a separate tank for QT with copper and Prazipro with a minimum of 3 weeks to go before I will even consider adding them to my DT. As for your dirty fallow comment, the only wet thing in it from my lfs is bottle bac and the original dose of ammonia, followed by another dose of ammonia to test if ammonia went to 0 in 24 hours. Lights are off.

What would you DO in the DT in the meantime?

Absolutely nothing? Patience is a virtue.
Play with the aquascape?
Test flow?
Add pods, macro, what?
Ghost feed to keep the bacteria thriving?
Add a few CUC while feeding...after a few dunks in saltwater for a mini Invert QT?

Thanks to all!

 

[brandon429]

Does that mean you have read the fish disease forum and can reasonably comment on clean vs dirty fallow, or the article provided





You were given some procedural choices that either reinforce your disease control attempts or lessen them, how you could possibly write that screed above after reading the article on bio security makes total sense.

I suggest you proceed with an open mind if you want to be a positive resource for this forum.

when you said the empty tank mocks me, while working quarantine externally, it didn’t seem unhinged like your follow up post to recommend handling fallow in a researched manner, choosing to begin fallow after stocking up the tank is clearly a method many resolved and balanced-thinking aquarists employ. It wasn’t discussed so far. Clearly you’re open minded and fully in control here of your tank, glad there’s ignore buttons at rtr it’s just for these instances.

let’s both use it, right now.

 

[brandon429]

I see now. After reading your posts you disliked quarantine debates, thats why you were primed to be as negative as possible if we dig deeper into procedures that shore up or compromise the effort.

my original post was simply showing you the high bar that can be attained on controlling inputs, how an article on bio security and short discussion around it can garner than type of response from you is nothing I’d ever want to be part of…thats a truly horrible attitude at work. Expect some reefing challenges shortly after beginning.

 

[Jedi1199]

Amy, I am not really sure why people are recommending adding CUC at this time. What is there for them to do? Lights are off as you said, no fish food dropping to the sand, no algae... Its like getting the keys to a brand new house that has never been lived in and then hiring the molly maids to come clean it. WHY?

I personally wouldn't add your CUC to the tank until a few weeks after you add your first fish in.

The pods idea sounds good though... I see no reason why you couldn't establish a nice pod population in the time you have before you are ready to add your fish.

 

[brandon429]

Pods sound like an ideal start agreed, they’re the #1 thing a dry start reef is missing plus they’ll help the highly expected and or deserved early dinos challenges


when I’d mentioned being careful or at least giving thoughtful reading into fallow prep options it was because when I search on rtr ‘new clean up crew killed my fish’ I get ten pages of working examples

and it seemed completely amiss to add vectors into someones tank during a fallow prep run designed to starve disease components.



truly my post above to the op was a reflection of studying patterns.

when I run the same search on adding pods, that pattern doesn’t come up. People are likely selling pods from fallowed systems…so that pods aren’t eaten I guess would make sense.

 

[CookieRdReef]

Waiting and doing nothing is the hardest to learn and one of the most important parts of reefing. Adding pods or bottled bacteria is a good idea early. I like the PNS products from Algaebarn, but there are a lot of products put there. Adding biodiversity should help the early algae (ugly) stage.

 

[aggrofish]

Kudos to Brandon429 for being the first to cast shade on the rather helpful actionable responses by previous posters! I see you are quite a resource for assuming the worst about anyone with a new tank even if they have stated that they are indeed doing QT.




It is obvious that by wanting to "do something" with my empty but cycled tank while my fish are in quarantine that I must be ready to hop over to my algae and pox riddled LFS and wontonly toss inverts and frags into my beautiful and pristine 65 gallon tank. Dirty fallow indeed.

I suggest you work on your writing skills if you truly want to be a force for good on this forum. I can already id your posts by reading them without even noting the author before doing so.

I have indeed read Jay's posts and stickies in the disease forum. Several, multiple times. I will be adding some pods, a controlled amount of phytoplankton, and macro algae to my tank from Algae Barn as that seems to be a pretty safe activity as well as source. Feel free to give me a detailed QT procedure for them if you wish. You can practice your new encouraging writing style while doing so! I will not be adding inverts at this time as there's really nothing for them to feed on. Though I am starting to see some coloration on my aquascape.

I'm sure your assumptions are partly my fault as I have yet to post a build thread for you to analyze as I've seen you do to others.

You can catch more flies with honey than vinegar. No worries, I won't be adding any to my tank. Milk either.

To be obnoxiously clear, my 2 tiny clown fish are in a separate tank for QT with copper and Prazipro with a minimum of 3 weeks to go before I will even consider adding them to my DT. As for your dirty fallow comment, the only wet thing in it from my lfs is bottle bac and the original dose of ammonia, followed by another dose of ammonia to test if ammonia went to 0 in 24 hours. Lights are off.

What would you DO in the DT in the meantime?

Absolutely nothing? Patience is a virtue.
Play with the aquascape?
Test flow?
Add pods, macro, what?
Ghost feed to keep the bacteria thriving?
Add a few CUC while feeding...after a few dunks in saltwater for a mini Invert QT?

Thanks to all!

Whoa, that went from zero to over the top real quick. I don't see anything in this reply that elicits that response.

 

[brandon429]

Well truly we got rough in the disease forum posts she’s read



when people absolutely go from zero to 100 mph angry I read their thread history to find the angles at play.


qt vs no qt debates in the fish forums are usually an entire thread against what I’m writing... that’s procedure evolution in play and it gets ugly
although here upon reread I really thought I’d introduced the ideas nicely? I didn’t even have to edit the post to verify it wasn’t mean…


i wouldn’t have posted some counter thought content if I’d known she was that unopen to input.

the non quarantine crew vs me gets rough but at least she emerged from the reading with a quarantine notion, and now we can consider ideal vs half attempt fallow options

 

[amygetsalife]

I AM quarantining. ‍

 

[amygetsalife]

Amy, I am not really sure why people are recommending adding CUC at this time. What is there for them to do? Lights are off as you said, no fish food dropping to the sand, no algae... Its like getting the keys to a brand new house that has never been lived in and then hiring the molly maids to come clean it. WHY?

I personally wouldn't add your CUC to the tank until a few weeks after you add your first fish in.

The pods idea sounds good though... I see no reason why you couldn't establish a nice pod population in the time you have before you are ready to add your fish.

Thank you! This was helpful

 

[amygetsalife]

Waiting and doing nothing is the hardest to learn and one of the most important parts of reefing. Adding pods or bottled bacteria is a good idea early. I like the PNS products from Algaebarn, but there are a lot of products put there. Adding biodiversity should help the early algae (ugly) stage.

Thank you!

 

[Jedi1199]

Thank you! This was helpful

You're welcome. My pleasure.

 

[amygetsalife]

Pods sound like an ideal start agreed, they’re the #1 thing a dry start reef is missing plus they’ll help the highly expected and or deserved early dinos challenges

Maybe I was a bit harsh....but the QT threads were my starting point a few months ago, and as was said, gives a certain heated perception of the main posters.

Brandon, you are active enough that maybe part of your response is a canned one, used for common questions, and it came off, well, off. I actually try to understand both sides of an issue, even if I only subscribe to one. (Which is to QT)

Your comment that I quoted in part above in this response was much appreciated.

 

[brandon429]

If it’s canned you’ll see it repeated in my post history, it’s not, because when I take time to make a response to anyone it’s fitted to their tank and fitted to what I see as recurring challenges in newly cycled tanks.


I don’t write insincere things.

that being said, do I wish there was a redo button for 9/10 quarantine shaping posts of the year 2021

why, yes


being willing to quarantine at all puts you ahead of the common curve by a mile. When more people begin that way and then evolve quarantine setups into ideal holding conditions like what Tamberav or Paul shows on their posts (not the pvc pipe setups, mid lighting earth tone welcoming-type setups vs hospital scary bright types) that’s going to move it all next level.

currently, about 5% of new tankers even agree to start with qt so this only gets better for your setup as things progress.