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Quarantine Tank


AquaKey

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Hi everyone!

New to the forum and just getting back into saltwater. My 20G is cycled and ready to go. I'm thinking of setting up a 10G quarantine to put 2 clownfish in and dose prazipro and cupramine and monitor for 3wks before putting into the display tank.

Is that the right approach?

Nothing but live sand and live rock in the display tank.

Thanks!

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You shouldn't dose both copper and Prazi at the same time.  They both suck Oxygen out of the water and will suffocate your fish.  Your best bet is to run:

1 week PraziPro.  5ml / 20gal, second dose on day 4.

(Increase PraziPro slowly for sensitive fish)

100% water change on day 8, slowly introduce copper power up to 2.5ppm or copper safe up to 2.0ppm.  Keep the fish at therapeutic levels for 14+ days. 

During the copper treatment, I also run Metroplex, Kanaplex and Furan-2 (dosed as listed on the packaging).

 

If you want more top knotch information on fish qt/treatment, check out http://humble.fish

 

 

Edited by Micah
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Knock on wood, but I’ve never lost a fish to a disease other than ich in 25+ years of reefing. And even with ich, it’s only been one off single susceptible fish at that. Clown fish are about as resilient as they come, but if you’re into quarantine and plan to run two systems all the time (unless these are the only fish you’re going to buy), you’re on the right track following Micah’s guidance. Just be careful not to kill your fish in the process of trying to protect them. Some think quarantine causes more stress than it’s worth sometimes. Hmmm, interesting to think about in the middle of our pandemic…

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Water quality is the biggest thing to take into account with quarantine/hospitalization. 

Most fish die of bad water quality or shock to the meds.  The only fish I've lost in quarantine (with my current method) were either because of fish aggression or jumping.   I lost some about 7 years ago to brooklynella in QT, but that was due to inexperience and far fewer internet resources on the matter.

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Now I'm second guessing myself on whether to QT or add in display tank and monitor. Worried about killing them with meds or such a sterile environment in QT. But it sounds like I should really go the QT route and just be careful rather than risk messing up the DT right off the bat.

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Agreed.  If you are worried about one post with (Sorry Bill) outdated warnings, imagine how concerned you'll be when you get ONE fish with a horrible disease that infects your whole tank.  It's WAY easier to do a couple fish at a time the first time than ALL of your fish at once down the road with a higher risk of losses due to an actual tank wide infection.  

 

 

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Here's the proven setup I'm using:

  • 20gallon aqueon tank
  • all-glass aqueon lid with almost NO gaps
  • cheap light on timer (12 on/12 off)
  • hang on back filter with NO MEDIA
  • 100w heater
  • air stone-->airline-->air pump for extra oxygenation
  • Random PVC elbows/tees/etc for fish "habitat" and hiding areas
  • Seachem Ammonia Alert Badge (I use a new one every set of fish)
  • Hanna High Range Copper checker.  Worth its weight in gold if you're planning to do all of your fish this way.  

I DO NOT use a biological filter.  I do 100% water changes every 3-5 days or when the ammonia badge changes color at all.  

Carbon WILL remove the medication, do not use it.  I wouldn't risk re-using the biological filtration between fish batches.  Reduce the amount of area for parasites/etc to hide/become saturated in.  Medication will also bind to the media, which reduces the effective medication in the water column.

When I get a new fish, I sometimes put a fresh batch of water in the tank and immediately put the fish in.  There's no reason to wait if you're not using biological filtration.  

There IS another method of doing this with biological filtration, and http://humble.fish explains that in great detail.  I prefer to do the 100% water change every 3-5 days because it combines both medication and tank transfer method.  Reducing the risk of tank contamination.  

For instance, lets say the underside of the glass lid gets splashed here and there and there's a parasite tomont in that drop of water... then, you add copper/metro/etc and go through a full 14+ days..  Depending on what point in the lifecycle that drop of water falls into the tank, it can re-infect the tank, fish, etc.   

My cleaning process (performed in driveway/garage/utility sink) every 3-5 days is:

  • Catch fish, put them in 5-gallon bucket with a lid and a bubbler (there's still medication in the water, so you want to make sure there's a healthy supply of oxygen)
  • Empty the 20gallon tank...
  • Put as many of the water exposed things in the tank (pvc parts, hang on back lid, glass lid, heater, air stone, etc etc...
  • Fill with tap water as high as possible. 
  • Add a couple cups of regular non-special, unscented bleach.    (You can use a full gallon of distilled vinegar instead, but I would let it soak overnight and that's not really feasible with your fish in a bucket.  -- NEVER mix vinegar and bleach)
  • Run the hang on back filter with the bleach.
  • Let it run for 30 minutes or so.
  • Empty the tank again, rinse it out really good, fill again with tap water.
  • Let the tank run for another 20 minutes or so.   If you're not convinced all of the bleach is gone, add some API water conditioner/chlorine remover and let the tank run with that. (bleach is one of those things that you can't stop smelling, even when it's gone)
  • I always spray the tank out after this just to be safe.  
  • Refill with new salt water, let the heater bring it to temp, set up the pvc parts, etc.  
  • Add the full mixture of current medications to the tank and let them fully mix into the water.
  • Re-add fish.

** Note: Do not put your ammonia badge in the bleach.  It will ruin it. Just give it a good rodi rinse.  

 

.... I think I covered most of the bases here.......

 

Here's some recommended viewing: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tv7ezuL-gyM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXXPgEygc4M

 

 

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@Micah thank you for the wealth of info! I didn't get back into saltwater to take the easy way out 😉. Having gone through all the trials and tribulations a decade ago when I was younger, I want to take a planned and methodical approach.

When I was younger I'd wander the LFS and buy what looks interesting and stick it in the tank. Was fun but a spent a lot of time "fixing" things because I didn't plan ahead.

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7 minutes ago, nkaihani said:

@Micah thank you for the wealth of info! I didn't get back into saltwater to take the easy way out 😉. Having gone through all the trials and tribulations a decade ago when I was younger, I want to take a planned and methodical approach.

When I was younger I'd wander the LFS and buy what looks interesting and stick it in the tank. Was fun but a spent a lot of time "fixing" things because I didn't plan ahead.

I can empathize there.  My last foray into this was punctuated by sadness, misinformation, and unfortunately my emotions getting the best of me.  

This time, I got quality stuff, spent quality time and stocking quality life. 

 

Excited to see your journey.  

 

This reminds me that I had a tank build thread I may need to spend a month updating.

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  • 1 month later...

Just an update - QT is doing great 3wks in.

However my DT has ich before adding any SW fish, argh!!

How do I know? I acclimated a FW Molly last week to eat algae and be the canary in the coal mine. Well, it has ich.

So, I'm basically fallow before even getting a chance to add my "real" fish, kinda disheartening.

Question for everyone - my plan isn't to quarantine coral and inverts, given they can obviously bring disease into the tank, do I need to plan for an invert quarantine? Or this is all too overboard and need to stop stressing about it? TBH - I probably don't have space for an additional QT so I'm hoping there's other mitigating steps for inverts.

IMG_20210227_223216.jpg

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On 1/23/2021 at 10:11 AM, Micah said:

You shouldn't dose both copper and Prazi at the same time.  They both suck Oxygen out of the water and will suffocate your fish.  Your best bet is to run:

1 week PraziPro.  5ml / 20gal, second dose on day 4.

(Increase PraziPro slowly for sensitive fish)

100% water change on day 8, slowly introduce copper power up to 2.5ppm or copper safe up to 2.0ppm.  Keep the fish at therapeutic levels for 14+ days. 

During the copper treatment, I also run Metroplex, Kanaplex and Furan-2 (dosed as listed on the packaging).

 

If you want more top knotch information on fish qt/treatment, check out http://humble.fish

 

 

+1.  Good info

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2 hours ago, nkaihani said:

Just an update - QT is doing great 3wks in.

However my DT has ich before adding any SW fish, argh!!

How do I know? I acclimated a FW Molly last week to eat algae and be the canary in the coal mine. Well, it has ich.

So, I'm basically fallow before even getting a chance to add my "real" fish, kinda disheartening.

Question for everyone - my plan isn't to quarantine coral and inverts, given they can obviously bring disease into the tank, do I need to plan for an invert quarantine? Or this is all too overboard and need to stop stressing about it? TBH - I probably don't have space for an additional QT so I'm hoping there's other mitigating steps for inverts.

IMG_20210227_223216.jpg

Also, I'd like to correct myself with my timings.  14 days Prazi, 30 days copper/metro/kana/furan-2.  Not sure why I said 7 days...  Derp moment.

 

I linked you to the humble.fish site, I highly encourage everybody to read it and become acquainted with the lifecycle of these pathogens/parasites.  

 

Also, change the batteries in your hanna copper checker OFTEN.  It will give you incorrect readings when lowish.  Ask me how I know.... 🤦‍♂️

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4 minutes ago, Micah said:

Also, I'd like to correct myself with my timings.  14 days Prazi, 30 days copper/metro/kana/furan-2.  Not sure why I said 7 days...  Derp moment.

 

I linked you to the humble.fish site, I highly encourage everybody to read it and become acquainted with the lifecycle of these pathogens/parasites.  

 

Also, change the batteries in your hanna copper checker OFTEN.  It will give you incorrect readings when lowish.  Ask me how I know.... 🤦‍♂️

You and Humble have been really helpful! Humble is also taking a look at a video of the Molly in the DT to let me know if it indeed is a parasite or something else going on. Either I have to go fallow and the main fish hang out longer in QT or false alarm. We'll see.

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19 hours ago, nkaihani said:

Update: Wasn't a disease after all! Too much flow in the tank for the Molly. I turned it down and the spots disappeared! 

This is really interesting.  Didn't know that was a potential response to high flow... then again, never tried Mollies in a SW system.  Thanks for sharing!

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