How do you transfer fish from quarantine to display

Bthomas

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I always get nervous when time to transfer fish from quarantine to display.. I'm never quite sure how to go about it so that no quarantine water gets into my display. What is your method of transferring fish (and corals) to display to ensure there is no cross contamination?
 
Toward the end of my qt, I make sure my qt and display salinity and temp are the same and then fill a bucket with some dt water. Take the fish out of qt, put into the bucket and then transfer from bucket to display.
Hmm...may need to rethink my launching them by catapult method....

Do you let them sit in the DT water for any length of time or just as long as it takes to carry them?
 
Do you let them sit in the DT water for any length of time or just as long as it takes to carry them?
Just a few minutes to give them a rinse and into display they go. I also keep the lights off for a few days and only have my moon lights on and it helps keeps aggression down while they get settled in.
 
Toward the end of my qt, I make sure my qt and display salinity and temp are the same and then fill a bucket with some dt water. Take the fish out of qt, put into the bucket and then transfer from bucket to display.
Some of your quarantine water likely gets into the bucket with the fish though, do you not worry about bucket water getting into display?
 
Some of your quarantine water likely gets into the bucket with the fish though, do you not worry about bucket water getting into display?
I use a colander which helps with minimum amount of water being transferred. Also if your qt process was done properly and thoroughly and all the medication was removed then getting a few drops into your display should not pose any issues...hopefully.
 
A net into a collender, into a water change bucket, for me is 4 gallons. Sometimes I can scoop w/ the collender, it's a Joseph Joseph w/ squared corners. Plus the handle will go over the tank rim and hold it for me. The fish should be healthy without disease or medication in the water when you catch it.
20190320_233933.jpg
 
I first ensure salinity is matched QT to DT. I then scoop some QT water into a jug, put the fish in that, dry the outside of the jug and hang the jug in the DT to match temp (jug has a flat handle so I can hang it over the side). I do a short drip acclimate (15 mins or so) with DT water to allow for other parameters being different (about the same amount of DT water as the QT water in the jug), then put a net into a bowl, pour the fish into the net and bowl. Then take the net out and quickly transfer the fish to the DT.

A little QT water will transfer with them but very minimal - my DT is 244L and I’m guessing less than 1 mL will transfer, which is .004% of the DT volume. I’m not really worried about that amount of QT water. So far this process has worked very well for me.

I’m an 18 month old newbie however so bear that in mind!
 
I usually put it into a bucket of tank water first. Also, most of the time, by the end of QT, I’ve matched water to DT and run carbon to have a (mostly) med free tank so minor possible cross contamination isn’t a huge concern of mine.
 
I guess my main concern is not with transferring fish (although sometimes I do still have meds in the water when ready to transfer) but with corals.
I don't reset the 76 day clock with adding more coral to my quarantine so I'm wondering if a simple swish in tank water is enough to ensure there are no ich free swimmers hanging on to the coral
 
I guess my main concern is not with transferring fish (although sometimes I do still have meds in the water when ready to transfer) but with corals.
I don't reset the 76 day clock with adding more coral to my quarantine so I'm wondering if a simple swish in tank water is enough to ensure there are no ich free swimmers hanging on to the coral

It’s not the free swimmers you really need to worry about, it’s the encysted stage that could be on a frag plug, skeletonized base, etc that could hatch in your DT causing infection.
 
It’s not the free swimmers you really need to worry about, it’s the encysted stage that could be on a frag plug, skeletonized base, etc that could hatch in your DT causing infection.
They would be gone since all the corals stay in for 76 days each.. Long enough for any cysts on them to hatch. My worry is any that hatch off the ones added after them that could still be swimming around when I transfer the others
 
They would be gone since all the corals stay in for 76 days each.. Long enough for any cysts on them to hatch. My worry is any that hatch off the ones added after them that could still be swimming around when I transfer the others

Ok, I guess I read you post wrong about not resetting the clock when adding corals to qt. A good Rinse should work then.
 

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