How necessary is quarantining corals/inverts from DIVER'S DEN

[Aspiring Tank Guru]

I know the importance of quarantining fish as I have learned the hard way. But I am not familiar with many of the pests/parasites/other problems that can come with inverts and corals. Based on what I have read, Diver's Den is much better than the regular Liveaquaria site. Due to having limited quarantine space and lights, quarantining corals would be difficult. If I was to purchase corals from the Diver's Den and do some type of dip, would I be alright putting them right in the display tank? What about inverts from Diver's Den or the regular Liveaquaria site?

 

[Mike_J]

Important to still QT no matter the source, IMO. Dipping is good for coral, but won't remove everything. Inverts can be carriers of cysts of external fish parasites too. Best to be safe than sorry.

 

[drawman]

While they do a better job then a lot of places I would never trust anyone else's quarantine. You could easily bring in aiptasia and nusiance algae to start.

 

[Aspiring Tank Guru]

The biggest issue is quarantining the corals because I do not have a strong enough light to use on a QT for them. I am at the point where I am willing to not get any corals if there is a good chance I could introduce anything into the DT. Is there any type of intense dipping, picking, inspecting process I could do instead?

I found this article, I know nothing is a good as a full QT, but would this suffice?
https://reefbuilders.com/2015/08/15/quarantine-corals/#

 

[drawman]

The biggest issue is quarantining the corals because I do not have a strong enough light to use on a QT for them. I am at the point where I am willing to not get any corals if there is a good chance I could introduce anything into the DT. Is there any type of intense dipping, picking, inspecting process I could do instead?

I found this article, I know nothing is a good as a full QT, but would this suffice?
https://reefbuilders.com/2015/08/15/quarantine-corals/#

Bayer is pretty effective as a dip and it's always nice to remove coral from any frag plugs. You could also use hydrogen peroxide for nuisance algae and just monitor them as you may need to do more dips. The big thing you wouldn't be able to control is aiptasia and bringing in any encysted fish parasites. Maybe not best practice but that said you wouldn't be the only one doing it this way it's by far the norm.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

The biggest issue is quarantining the corals because I do not have a strong enough light to use on a QT for them. I am at the point where I am willing to not get any corals if there is a good chance I could introduce anything into the DT. Is there any type of intense dipping, picking, inspecting process I could do instead?

I found this article, I know nothing is a good as a full QT, but would this suffice?
https://reefbuilders.com/2015/08/15/quarantine-corals/#

in a 10 gal you can use a par 38, a used finnex reef led or any stupid cheap light you find really. just measure the intensity. small t5s are so unpopular theyre dime a dozen. so are compact fluorescents.
dips like two little fishies are actually very efficient. they kill hitchers and alges. It was once understood we need to qt and re dip corals from time to time while in qt to be effective, thats why they are formulated that way Bayer use is a bit short sighted at times imo(not a bash it does work but), as it's believed to be so effective you can just drop it it in the tank if you rinse well to avoid the qt .. clearly not the case esp with eggs and cysts not to mention algaes.. you need to re dip with any product.
the prob comes esp from nice colonies on rocks. and boy do I love those.

 

[Griff]

I introduced aiptasia on accident by not using a quarentine on some corals that I purchased from a highly respected vendor on this site. I don't blame him as I inspected the corals very carefully before putting them in the display. I also used coral rx on them. I know it was from this specific vendor because nothing was introduced 3 months before or since these were introduced. That and the aiptasia is growing from the underside of 3 different plugs. My only complaint would be that if he informed me I would have removed the plugs rather than just cut off the stems.

Live and learn I guess. Every new coral is coming off the plug in the future.

Don't bother asking who the vendor is im not sharing as I believe he took every precaution to remove it.

One final note these coral were purchased in mid September the aiptasia just recently showed up. Nothing has been added to the tank since these corals and the most recent thing before that was in June or July.

 

[Aspiring Tank Guru]

in a 10 gal you can use a par 38, a used finnex reef led or any stupid cheap light you find really. just measure the intensity. small t5s are so unpopular theyre dime a dozen. so are compact fluorescents.
dips like two little fishies are actually very efficient. they kill hitchers and alges. It was once understood we need to qt and re dip corals from time to time while in qt to be effective, thats why they are formulated that way Bayer use is a bit short sighted at times imo(not a bash it does work but), as it's believed to be so effective you can just drop it it in the tank if you rinse well to avoid the qt .. clearly not the case esp with eggs and cysts not to mention algaes.. you need to re dip with any product.
the prob comes esp from nice colonies on rocks. and boy do I love those.

If I managed to get rid of all the pests through dipping, is there any way to manually remove eggs or cysts?

 

[Rick.45cal]

The problem with locating eggs (even if you know exactly what you are looking for) is even if you find them, you cannot easily tell via the naked eye if they are hatched or not.

Some pests you may not notice, or will even be affected by any dip. Black bugs for instance will hide inside the coral polyp so they are completely protected from anything short of killing the coral.

You can use peroxide to get rid of nuissance algae on frag plugs, but again, it isn't a cure all for everything. Some corals don't like it eitherso you can't go crazy with it. Clipping frag plugs off is always an excellent option, until you get something that is just a chip or a smear of something on one, then you really can't.

I'm interested in this thread as I am trying to decide an effective pest/nuisance algae QT protocol for my personal needs. So I will be following along.

 

[Aspiring Tank Guru]

The problem with locating eggs (even if you know exactly what you are looking for) is even if you find them, you cannot easily tell via the naked eye if they are hatched or not.

Some pests you may not notice, or will even be affected by any dip. Black bugs for instance will hide inside the coral polyp so they are completely protected from anything short of killing the coral.

You can use peroxide to get rid of nuissance algae on frag plugs, but again, it isn't a cure all for everything. Some corals don't like it eitherso you can't go crazy with it. Clipping frag plugs off is always an excellent option, until you get something that is just a chip or a smear of something on one, then you really can't.

I'm interested in this thread as I am trying to decide an effective pest/nuisance algae QT protocol for my personal needs. So I will be following along.

Those are some really good points. I never thought of those. I will continue to do some research to find if there are any possible methods other than extensive QT. That being said, it appears that full QT may be the best option. I would love to hear others' experiences with this and if they have tried anything out of the ordinary and had success.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

It's very much like treating ick. Your waiting for the organisim to cycle through it's life cycle. One it's born you kill it. A zoa nudi I know takes 8 to 12 days. To get rid of them in the dt you have to wait them out and watch them. And look for eggs.
Some of the other eggs and cycst we can't even see.
I've had rocks pop coral after 6 months. So who knows what else could pop out. So naturally there's still no guarantee.
But if one were to do a 5 or 10 g the advantage is you could fwe or other wise nuke the whole thing for the price of 2 buckets of water.
Hard thing for all of us is we would need 2 qt's.

 

[LBReefer]

I introduced aiptasia on accident by not using a quarentine on some corals that I purchased from a highly respected vendor on this site. I don't blame him as I inspected the corals very carefully before putting them in the display. I also used coral rx on them. I know it was from this specific vendor because nothing was introduced 3 months before or since these were introduced. That and the aiptasia is growing from the underside of 3 different plugs. My only complaint would be that if he informed me I would have removed the plugs rather than just cut off the stems.

Live and learn I guess. Every new coral is coming off the plug in the future.

Don't bother asking who the vendor is im not sharing as I believe he took every precaution to remove it.

One final note these coral were purchased in mid September the aiptasia just recently showed up. Nothing has been added to the tank since these corals and the most recent thing before that was in June or July.

How do you cut off the plug without damaging the coral?

 

[Griff]

How do you cut off the plug without damaging the coral?

Very carefully! I've used a scalpel in the past on sps that hasn't grown over the plug. Ive been successful in that. Most of the time the damage to the coral is minimal. It does take some time to do it though. My coral order where I introduced the aiptasia was huge. I removed the first few and then decided to cut the knob off the plug as it was taking forever.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

How do you cut off the plug without damaging the coral?

Ive used a standard carpet razor or razor blade and basically scraped across the plug. wear gloves and glasses with zoas.

 

[Empress]

Or use a dremel with a saw blade attachment.

 

[Cali-Saltwater-1st-Timer]

I introduced aiptasia on accident by not using a quarentine on some corals that I purchased from a highly respected vendor on this site. I don't blame him as I inspected the corals very carefully before putting them in the display. I also used coral rx on them. I know it was from this specific vendor because nothing was introduced 3 months before or since these were introduced. That and the aiptasia is growing from the underside of 3 different plugs. My only complaint would be that if he informed me I would have removed the plugs rather than just cut off the stems.

Live and learn I guess. Every new coral is coming off the plug in the future.

Don't bother asking who the vendor is im not sharing as I believe he took every precaution to remove it.

One final note these coral were purchased in mid September the aiptasia just recently showed up. Nothing has been added to the tank since these corals and the most recent thing before that was in June or July.

It happens. I don't think you can do anything to prevent Aiptasia short of quarantining for a lengthy amount of time. I have a similar story, dipped a hammer in Coral Rx and Seachem Reef Dip, scrubbed the skeleton of a hammer and into the tank it went. About 3 to 4 months later Aiptasia is growing from the Hammer (what the heck). It's hard to keep that stuff out of a tank I've learned.