How long do you QT your corals/inverts for?

[Lukas75]

The 76 days doesn’t reset though, since there are no fish in the tank to complete the parasite life cycle.

You can add a new coral every week to the QT- as long as that particular one is in there for 76 days, it’s fine. You can then have a new coral in your DT every week- just have to wait 76 days for your first one to graduate then it’s a rolling process.

Just rinse real well prior to addition to DT to get rid of any potential freeswimmers that hatched or came in on other corals.

The coral invertQT timeframes thread has all the info you need

You see the issue with this is that this is me we are talking about. That one in a billion chance that I'll win the lottery? Never happen. That one in a billion chance I'll have a free swimmer hitch hike in on that little bit of the coral that even a second dip before DT doesn't get out? Near 100%.

My thought behind this is that I spent significant time and resources to quarantine my fishes that I will wait an extra few weeks in order to increase my chances of not introducing a new pathogen to my display. Fully worth it for me because tearing my system down, going fallow, and quarantining the fish over again will not happen

The above and your logic here are the reasons I'm strongly reconsidering changing my QT protocols.

 

[User]

You see the issue with this is that this is me we are talking about. That one in a billion chance that I'll win the lottery? Never happen. That one in a billion chance I'll have a free swimmer hitch hike in on that little bit of the coral that even a second dip before DT doesn't get out? Near 100%.



The above and your logic here are the reasons I'm strongly reconsidering changing my QT protocols.

Then do 3 x 1 gallon rinses by pouring water over the coral. You’ve just reduced your odds to 1 in a trillion, and since there are only 7.27 billion people on the planet, *even you* can’t be that unlucky...

 

[Lukas75]

Then do 3 x 1 gallon rinses by pouring water over the coral. You’ve just reduced your odds to 1 in a trillion, and since there are only 7.27 billion people on the planet, *even you* can’t be that unlucky...

I'd prefer one in a quintillion odds, but maybe that'll wrk.

 

[ZoWhat]

does the time in the plastic bag count?

 

[User]

does the time in the plastic bag count?

Depends.

Is it live aquaria via UPS, so it was like 6 days in transit?

 

[EmptyWallet]

does the time in the plastic bag count?

Good question! I started replying "Absolutely, unless you have fish in the bag with it", but now I wonder could the water in the transport container have tomonts in it (just fell of the fish, pre cyst) which then form a cyst in the transport container releasing theronts (free swimmers) up to 12 days later.

That said, I thought the 45 days is based on the complete lifecycle starting from when the parasite first drops off the fish, so the clock starts the moment it is separated from any fish.

 

[DxMarinefish]

I dip in every medication I can get hold of for the recorded times, currently 3 types of dip medications.
Each time I use rigorous water movement from a powerhead.

I shake vigorously and use a toothbrush and just scrap off rock and frag stick even if I can’t see anything to scrape off.

Probably will bite me in future

 

[KenO]

I use a different technique, I have 2 tanks I use to house my coral and inverts for QT. Both of those tanks also have fish in them. If there is ich or velvet or whatever on the corals or inverts, its going to show up on the fish in the same QT setup. I go at least 2 months if nothing shows up by then, they are good to go.

 

[Oliver d]

I do not QT or dip straight into tank never had any proplems .

 

[FLReef32043]

The 76 days doesn’t reset though, since there are no fish in the tank to complete the parasite life cycle.

You can add a new coral every week to the QT- as long as that particular one is in there for 76 days, it’s fine. You can then have a new coral in your DT every week- just have to wait 76 days for your first one to graduate then it’s a rolling process.

Just rinse real well prior to addition to DT to get rid of any potential freeswimmers that hatched or came in on other corals.

The coral invertQT timeframes thread has all the info you need

Newbie setting up a tank so I don't have a clue what I'm talking about. Your response seems counter intuitive to me. If the parasites are 'free swimming' would there not be a possibility that having all the Coral in the same QT bring in a live parasite (or 100's)? Does the ability to simply rinse them away seem to be counterproductive to keeping the Coral in a QT for nearly 2 and a half months in what would, at its essence, seem to be a "cesspool' of potential parasites?

 

[User]

Newbie setting up a tank so I don't have a clue what I'm talking about. Your response seems counter intuitive to me. If the parasites are 'free swimming' would there not be a possibility that having all the Coral in the same QT bring in a live parasite (or 100's)? Does the ability to simply rinse them away seem to be counterproductive to keeping the Coral in a QT for nearly 2 and a half months in what would, at its essence, seem to be a "cesspool' of potential parasites?

Sorry fir the short response- all the answers are in the other thread. Humblefish wrote a great coral and invert Quarantine timeline thread.

My wife leaves for France in 2 hours and I have 2 kids under 3 to do breakfast for. I’m sure by the time I can get back to respond more fully, the other thread will have answered all your concerns.

We qt corals for 76 days because we are dealing with FISH parasites that have a two stage life cycle, one of which is exclusively performed on fish. Ich and velvet. They can’t be killed by chemicals, so we just use time to let it partially complete the process then it starves because it can’t find a fish to feed on. 76 days was chosen because ich ‘cysts’ can last fir 72 days before they hatch, then the freeswimmers die in 3 days if they don’t feed. The extra day is to account for stragglers that are on the outside of the timing envelope and a little bit of insurance. These things are very easy to wash off.

Any actual coral parasites are dealt with by dipping the corals in insecticides. Two dips 30 days apart kills most parasites. The eggs are resistant to treatment, so the first treatment kills adults, and the second treatment kills newly hatched adolescents before they’ve laid eggs