What is your "good enough" quarantine procedure?

[QuinnLee512]

Good enough = asking LFS to feed the fish and make sure it is eating.

Kudos to you on quarantining fish and corals. I rather enjoy my new fish and corals in the DT. 70 days of qt? You got mad patience and willpower.

Well my patience may be wearing a little thin these days. Lol I'm sure my clown is hating being in a 10 gal tank with just PVC elbows for 2 months. I may just set him free this week.

 

[Neffly4u]

After TONS of reading on forums I settled on three quarantines:
I do the Hybrid Tank Transfer Method.

Hybrid TTM to treat all parasites!

Important: Tank Transfer Method is most effective when water temperature and salinity are kept within this range... Temp: 24C/76F - 28C/82F Salinity: 27ppt / 1.020 SG - 35ppt / 1.026 SG Tank Transfer Method is an effective (non-chemical) treatment for Marine Ich. However, it's weakness has...

humble.fish

This covers most problems and if your lfs is sourcing fish from a quality vendor you may experience less issues.

with TTM the fish is in quarantine for 13 days.

I have a cheap light that i have set on a timer, the tub has RODI water, a heater and a pump to circulate water. I have an air pump and an air stone that is replaced every 3 days. Super easy to setup and maintain. the tubs the fish are in are 2 gallons. Enough to keep ammonia down for 3 days and if its a bigger or more fish i have prime just incase. i feed sparingly. after the three days i transfer the fish, rinse the tub and throw it in the dishwasher on a sanitize cycle

snails and crabs have a 10 gallon tank i kind of neglect. they stay in there for 6 weeks and corals I just dip.

 

[OneSockERock]

Never used to quarantine anything on my first tank over 6 years and never (knowingly) got burned.

Then earlier this year when I set up a new tank I did the same as I always had and brought in some fish/inverts straight to the new DT from an LFS that were infested with some kind of neobenedenia flatworm. About 10 days after the last arrival I noticed multiple white elongated lumps on my firefish. They were big, like 1mm long, easily visible to the naked eye, and moved around the fish's body through out the day. It was gross and I felt bad. FW dipped to confirm and treated with 2 weeks of Prazipro targeting the next generation of flatworms. Got lucky - lesson learned - I set up QT systems and stocked up on treatments the following weekend after the discovery.

Now I do:

Inverts and coral 6 weeks in a 10g fishless fully functioning (rocks, sand, macro) QT tank.

All incoming fish go into a 29g bare bottom QT with 2 resident mollies. Heavy feeding and observation only for the first 3 weeks and if all looks good I'll treat with General Cure following the instructions on the box and then observation for 2 more weeks before releasing into the DTs. About 6 weeks total. I have a bunch of macroalgae rubberbanded to the PVC elbows to try and make it less sterile feeling. The mollies really seem to help comfort new fish into eating and being social besides just being there as disease magnets.

I know it's not the full 72-76 days often recommended but since life is all bell curves I hedge my bets in the right direction and should catch wipe out infections. I also have Copper Power/Cu Hanna Checker, Reef Rally Pro, the whole spectrum of antibiotics, and an additional 10g full set up that stays dry in case I need it for a hospital tank.

 

[QuinnLee512]

After TONS of reading on forums I settled on three quarantines:
I do the Hybrid Tank Transfer Method.

Hybrid TTM to treat all parasites!

Important: Tank Transfer Method is most effective when water temperature and salinity are kept within this range... Temp: 24C/76F - 28C/82F Salinity: 27ppt / 1.020 SG - 35ppt / 1.026 SG Tank Transfer Method is an effective (non-chemical) treatment for Marine Ich. However, it's weakness has...

humble.fish

This covers most problems and if your lfs is sourcing fish from a quality vendor you may experience less issues.

with TTM the fish is in quarantine for 13 days.

I have a cheap light that i have set on a timer, the tub has RODI water, a heater and a pump to circulate water. I have an air pump and an air stone that is replaced every 3 days. Super easy to setup and maintain. the tubs the fish are in are 2 gallons. Enough to keep ammonia down for 3 days and if its a bigger or more fish i have prime just incase. i feed sparingly. after the three days i transfer the fish, rinse the tub and throw it in the dishwasher on a sanitize cycle

snails and crabs have a 10 gallon tank i kind of neglect. they stay in there for 6 weeks and corals I just dip.

Are you only able to quarantine 1 fish at a time? I'm looking to get 2 fishes this weekend.

 

[Neffly4u]

Are you only able to quarantine 1 fish at a time? I'm looking to get 2 fishes this weekend.

I was successful with more than one fish. The wrapping paper tub is large enough to fit 2 containers and I bought an air pump that ran 2 air lines so I could do 2 containers at once. Every 3 days I would just fill up two more tubs with pre-heated salt water and would swap the fish and place the new tubs in the bath. I ran both my clowns in one and both Cardinals in another without issue. (I had to quarantine 8 fish because of ich so I did them in batches) With anything larger or aggressive they get their own tub. So my tomini tang got his own tub. You just have to be cautious because there is no biological filter you will produce ammonia if you feed heavy or have too many fish.

I've heard of people just placing the fish in the 20 gallon tote or using two 10 gallon tanks but this required sterilizing the heater and pump as well as the tub/aquarium and I though that was more work than it's worth. It was way easier to throw away the air stone and a bit of air tubing and throw the 2 gallon tub in the dishwasher on sanitize lol.

Although this is probably not 100% it gives me some good 1 on 1 time with each fish making sure they are eating and happy in my care before entering the DT.

 

[adittam]

Salinity, temp, and ammonia should be the only things you have to check in the fish QT tank. Get an $8 ammonia badge to put in there and you don’t have to worry about testing ammonia either.

For the coral QT tank, as long as you do bi-weekly 25% water changes, I personally wouldn’t worry about testing anything except salinity and temp. Keep it at 82 degrees and they’ll be good to go into the DT after 45 days.

 

[Wyvern]

Question here, My tank was setup in July (109gal Bow with 30gal sump) , cycled in 2 weeks, Diver's Den fish on Aug 6 (Midas blenny and 2 clowns) stupidly put Cheato in a couple snails/hermits from LFS on Aug 9th (but I FW dipped Cheato and put snails/hermits in without their water) Added a tiny Monster Goby and 4" Exquisite fairy Wrasse in the 16th and just put a CUC from Reef-Cleaners this Monday.

All are eating and acting normal, Ozone system is now online and my 24W "Green Killing Machine" UV was shut down.

I really am not afraid of ICH, I would rather NOT have it but I am deathly afraid of Brook and Velvet- so patiently and fearfully awaiting the next week or so to see if there is either one in my system.

Anywho, my question is I want to start adding coral, and now I see that dipping WILL NOT kill Tomonts, is there any vendors whom sell QT Corals that aren't $300+? I just want to start with some Xenia and the like, but not at the expense of my fish's health.

I also really don't want to QT coral for 76 days, potentially killing them in the process.

 

[Scdell]

Nope. Acclimate for about 20- 30 minutes. Into the tank they go.
Too many people running too sterile tanks. Along with living too sterile themselves.
Not good.

 

[Dbichler]

My personal qt is no qt. Important to have tank setup with lots of rock hiding space sleeping spots and not overstocking and feeding a ton. I do however use prazi pro with each new addition.

 

[QuinnLee512]

I was successful with more than one fish. The wrapping paper tub is large enough to fit 2 containers and I bought an air pump that ran 2 air lines so I could do 2 containers at once. Every 3 days I would just fill up two more tubs with pre-heated salt water and would swap the fish and place the new tubs in the bath. I ran both my clowns in one and both Cardinals in another without issue. (I had to quarantine 8 fish because of ich so I did them in batches) With anything larger or aggressive they get their own tub. So my tomini tang got his own tub. You just have to be cautious because there is no biological filter you will produce ammonia if you feed heavy or have too many fish.

I've heard of people just placing the fish in the 20 gallon tote or using two 10 gallon tanks but this required sterilizing the heater and pump as well as the tub/aquarium and I though that was more work than it's worth. It was way easier to throw away the air stone and a bit of air tubing and throw the 2 gallon tub in the dishwasher on sanitize lol.

Although this is probably not 100% it gives me some good 1 on 1 time with each fish making sure they are eating and happy in my care before entering the DT.

Not sure how many times you've done TTM but did you ever have to deal with ammonia? I have another thread where it's being discussed so curious what your experience is.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Note: THIS IS JUST A JOKE . . . . . . . . .

 

[Neffly4u]

I've ran 10 fish through quarantine. Ammonia is definitely a concern. All of my fish except my Tomini tang are 2" fish. I started out in the smaller shoe boxes but have since went to 2 gallon ones to add more water volume. with the Tomini I would add a few drops of prime to keep the ammonia down. I never recorded ammonia but was just a precaution

 

[DJ Lone1]

How do you make sure that your alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium are in check? That's the maintenance that I'm mostly referring to.

Interested also.

 

[ahopki1]

I have a active running frag tank that I use for QT coral and/or fish. No medication unless it's needed. The exception is medication used during fish acclimation process and coral dips. Everything stays in tank for observations for weeks/months before moving to display.

 

[ctopherl]

How do you make sure that your alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium are in check? That's the maintenance that I'm mostly referring to.

Can’t water changes accomplish this? If you just have a ~10g coral QT, you should be able to change 2g per week pretty easily, I’d think.

 

[Squidward]

My simple and effective Qurantine protocal

Fish > TTM (with prazipro on certain fish) only takes 12 days. Has never failed me.

Corals > 30 day qurantine

Inverts > 30 day qurantine ...and some depending on Humblefish's invert chart recommendation may be shorter

Ich Free Tank ever since 2019 when I started my tank.

 

[ReefRxSWFL]

“Good enough” quarantine is like being “kind of” pregnant. Either you are , or you aren't. You either quarantine or you don’t . If youre gonna half-butt it, dont bother.

 

[Tamberav]

Salinity, temp, and ammonia should be the only things you have to check in the fish QT tank. Get an $8 ammonia badge to put in there and you don’t have to worry about testing ammonia either.

For the coral QT tank, as long as you do bi-weekly 25% water changes, I personally wouldn’t worry about testing anything except salinity and temp. Keep it at 82 degrees and they’ll be good to go into the DT after 45 days.

This can not be emphasized enough.

 

[alton]

All fish go into a freshwater dip for 5 to 10 minutes. Then into prazipro for hours before going into a 29 gallon for small fish and 100 gallon rubbermaid tub for large fish with liverock for observation only. I have never lost a fish doing a freshwater dip, I have lost fish only doing the prazi bath, so I added FW back in. I actually had a Redsea Regal Angelfish onetime seemed to love the FW bath so I didn't take him out till the 20 minute mark. It was funny because he kept spitting water at me while in the FW? While in isolation they seem to associate me with food so much faster and are less scared when they go into the display tank. On corals if I buy any they come from one vendor who is local to me. I think there are many ways that work with QT, find something that works and if need be tweak it to make it better. It took me losing $2,000+ in fish before I realized I was not invincible.

 

[Poof No Eyebrows]

I don’t quarantine…