Frag/Fish Quarantine Combo....is my design flawed.

[Afrashz]

**See my drawing below..sorry for my poor artistic skills**
My plan is an 8 gallon frag tank which drains into a 20 gallon quarantine tank that doubles as a sump. I would insert a baffle to maintain proper water level for fish and room for drainage in the return pump section in case of a power outage. I would additionaly add some Type of screen to keep fish from jumping into the return pump section. I should mention, this quarantine tank will be strictly for observation and feeding (no medication or any other additives for fish). Please tell me if this will work or if my idea is completely flawed. Also if it will work what do you guys suggest for a return pump? I don’t want anything too powerful but powerful enough that I won’t need to add powerheads in the frag tank. Thanks!!

 

[Radman73]

Yeah, prob a bad idea. You'll almost certainly want to use a copper product in QT, so no corals. I just use a temp setup for fish QT. I used to use my 60 cube for coral QT and/or long term post-QT fish observation, but never both at the same time.

 

[Afrashz]

Bump...sorry just want some more opinions

 

[W1ngz]

What radman said.
I keep marinepure balls in my refugium for a quick fish QT setup, and throw the ones I've used away when I shut down the QT.

 

[Cell]

A bit confused here. You plan on putting fish in the frag tank? Or just fish in the QT/sump and only corals in the frag tank? If healthy fish are in the frag, you cannot use the 20G as a combo QT/sump for the frag. They would be sharing water.

 

[Afrashz]

A bit confused here. You plan on putting fish in the frag tank? Or just fish in the QT/sump and only corals in the frag tank? If healthy fish are in the frag, you cannot use the 20G as a combo QT/sump for the frag. They would be sharing water.

Only fish in the sump only corals in the frag tank

 

[kput]

The setup itself seems like it would work. The problem with QT'ing corals and fish together is that ich can attach to the hard parts of the coral, thus continuing their life cycle for extended periods of time. Appropriate coral QT is 76 days with no fish. If a fish is present, and ich attaches itself, your 76 day clock can start over.

It's unfortunate, but if you are going to QT, do it right.
The good news, is that your coral QT can also double as an invert QT!

 

[TheShrimpNibbler]

The setup itself seems like it would work. The problem with QT'ing corals and fish together is that ich can attach to the hard parts of the coral, thus continuing their life cycle for extended periods of time. Appropriate coral QT is 76 days with no fish. If a fish is present, and ich attaches itself, your 76 day clock can start over.

To add on to this, not only will ich be reattaching to the hard surfaces of corals restarting the 76 day countdown, but fish that were just treated for ich could be reinfecting by the hatching tomonts that were attached to the corals.

 

[DaprDon]

While I have been doing a 20 gal DIY all in one. I've been watching and reading about quarantining, and basically most reef keepers do not quarantine corals. They do however acclimate temperature and do a coral pest dip for 5-10 minutes and Turkey baster squirt to cleanse pests off. Rinse with tank water disposing of that water and place coral in your tank.
I would quarantine fish for sure.

 

[Afrashz]

While I have been doing a 20 gal DIY all in one. I've been watching and reading about quarantining, and basically most reef keepers do not quarantine corals. They do however acclimate temperature and do a coral pest dip for 5-10 minutes and Turkey baster squirt to cleanse pests off. Rinse with tank water disposing of that water and place coral in your tank.
I would quarantine fish for sure.

I’m not doing this to quarantine corals but to frag and grow out corals