That makes sense. So just some background about my setup and plans.. I am just now getting my tank put together and will hopefully have water in the next few weeks. In the meantime I wanted to go ahead and get a plan together for the fish. My stock list is very simple and is comprised of mostly a pair of clowns and a few tangs. I am here for the corals mostly, so I am one of those all fish need a job type people! As I mentioned above, I was anti QT when I was in the hobby back a few years ago, but stumbled across Jay's very straightforward guide and thought it was doable.
Now here is where it gets interesting.. I stumbled across the TTM method this week and I think it was designed for a person just like me. I understand that it does not kill all diseases, but my main concerns are ich and velvet with my stock list. So I believe that is the route I am going to go first. Hopefully I don't regret it!!!
TTM has its uses, but the most benefit is seen if you have fish with marine ich, that you need to move quickly into a clean tank. TTM is designed to take advantage if the ich life cycle to "break the chain". Regular TTM does NOT work against velvet. For that, you need to include a 100 ppm hydrogen peroxide dip between tank changes.
Trouble is, TTM does not work at all for flukes. Here is a write-up that I did on the topic:
“Tank chasing” method (Tank Transfer Method - TTM)
A mostly theoretical method for treating Cryptocaryon infections takes advantage of the life cycle of the organism—moving the infected fish to a new aquarium at the point where the tomonts are produced, potentially breaking the life cycle. In real-world applications, multiple tank moves are required because, as mentioned above, the ich parasites are rarely in perfect synchronicity. This process can be physically damaging to fish, and ammonia levels can build up too high in the containers between transfers. In addition, the method does not control flukes, and may not control Amyloodinium (velvet). “Hybrid TTM”, using the addition of hydrogen peroxide at two points in the process has been touted as a way around this deficiency. The trouble with that is that “dips” in general are rarely 100% effective for parasites, and fluke eggs will not be controlled at all.
There are also diseases that simply do not manifest themselves within the shortened timeline of TTM. You then risk introducing those diseases into your DT (display tank) due to the shortened time for the TTM over that of the more typical 40+ day quarantine methods. Some of those diseases are not treatable, but you definitely don't want them getting into your main aquarium.... Myxosporidians, viruses, etc. Remember, part of the reason to run a full quarantine on new fish is to protect your existing fish from any diseases they may be carrying.
Avoid using opaque buckets or bins for TTM. You need to have clear lateral viewing of new fish to screen them for other issues, like not eating well, fighting, etc. Remember that TTM is rather stressful, moving the fish like that, and with newly acquired fish, stress reduction is vital.
Another drawback to TTM is that it really only works for newly acquired fish. If you have an existing aquarium, and the fish develop ich, you can't remove them and use TTM because at the end of the run, you need a clean tank to house them and your DT will have been recently infected and will still be in its fallow period. Copper and hyposalinity require longer treatment periods, so you can't run them unless you have a stable treatment tank - and therefore, the fish can be housed in that tank until your display has run fallow long enough.
Jay
Jay
