General QT topics

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

With new build underway, I am also going to utilize part of my mixing room, which is no where near my new display, for a QT area. I’ve got the basic understanding on how things should be set up and maintained while a fish is in the QT process. I would rate myself as a junior novice today. Which is better then the dump and prey approach I have formally embraced. I just read something, and it really caught my attention. This being Velvet coming in on frags? For me reefing changed when I had the correct balance and species of utilitarian fish.

I put WAY more coral in my tank than fish. I really had not thought about long term QT’ing for coral. Are the risks equally as high with coral for being disease into a tank? Also, what about snails and hermits, etc? If you were to put snails and hermits into a QT for 80ish days, would you just leave the light on the promote algae growth for the snails? Dumb questions, but, we (my family and I) like caves for our fish. But we know, we would never get one out if something happened. Our new display is 400g going from 100g, so, we are trying to follow as many best practices as we reasonably and responsibly can.

 

[EricR]

The safest answer is quarantine everything wet.

Personally, I don't QT corals -- just dip and get rid of the frag plug, but I only keep soft corals.
*I feel like the risk is less but there is still obviously some risk there

I do QT inverts (non-medicated for 45+ days) and use HTTM for fish (which isn't popular on this site).

Best source of reference is probably here:
Current Quarantine Protocol

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Are the risks equally as high with coral for being disease into a tank? Also, what about snails and hermits, etc? If you were to put snails and hermits into a QT for 80ish days, would you just leave the light on the promote algae growth for the snails?

The odds of corals and inverts bringing in disease are very low, but not zero - you would want to either leave the lights on to promote algae, feed algae pellets, or both; for hermits and other omnivores/carnivores, you would also feed meaty foods. For both inverts and corals (and macroalgae, live rock/sand, and anything else wet that isn't a fish), you just need to keep them in a fishless system for 60-76 days to ensure any parasites have died off (you can technically go 45 days if kept at 81F or above, but some inverts may not appreciate the high temps, so lower and slower is recommended):

Parasites can come in on anything "wet," including corals, live rock, inverts, macroalgae, etc. - so to be safe, the fallow countdown would have to reset with any new additions.

That said, the chances of things other than fish bringing in disease are really, really small, but not zero (IIRC, I've seen 4 or 5 instances where it happened - see below for some examples). To be safe, you can QT any new "wet" additions for 45 days at 27.3C (81F), or you can go longer (with or without lower temps) to be safe - 60-76 days is generally recommended as the safest. The good news is that this gives you time to observe anything you're putting into your system for unwanted hitchhikers like invasive algae, "Aiptasia," predatory worms/flatworms, coral-eating nudibranchs, etc.

Coral frags:

Ich or velvet from a coral frag.

I have been running my tank for almots 3 years 220 gallon dispaly . recently I added few coral frags to my system. Normally I QT all new fishes . I overlooked coral frags . I just rinsed it in tank water and put them in . Now couple of weeks later I see suspicious white sp eating and no othre...

www.reef2reef.com

Worth it to QT inverts?

I have a FOWLR tank and was thinking to boost the clean up crew. Does it make sense to QT inverts? Or is that unnecessary? Ditto does it make sense to QT live rock?

www.reef2reef.com

Urchin:

Adding corals and inverts during fallow period

Hey all, I recently had a devastating outbreak of velvet that killed ALL of my fish, including the clownfish. I believe the strain came in on a sea urchin I purchased from my LFS. Needless to say - I'm going through a fallow period to rid of diseases. At the moment all I have in the tank are...

www.reef2reef.com

Snails:

Keeping CuC Alive in Quarantine.

So it’s coming time for me to restock the crew. While the exact composition and numbers are TBA, thinking it will be around 15 blue leg hermits, 5 nassarius, 1 mexican turbo and a skunk shrimp. Ultimately they’re going in my 260gal, which currently has a tuxedo urchin, 1 hermit crab, 1...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[vetteguy53081]

With new build underway, I am also going to utilize part of my mixing room, which is no where near my new display, for a QT area. I’ve got the basic understanding on how things should be set up and maintained while a fish is in the QT process. I would rate myself as a junior novice today. Which is better then the dump and prey approach I have formally embraced. I just read something, and it really caught my attention. This being Velvet coming in on frags? For me reefing changed when I had the correct balance and species of utilitarian fish.

I put WAY more coral in my tank than fish. I really had not thought about long term QT’ing for coral. Are the risks equally as high with coral for being disease into a tank? Also, what about snails and hermits, etc? If you were to put snails and hermits into a QT for 80ish days, would you just leave the light on the promote algae growth for the snails? Dumb questions, but, we (my family and I) like caves for our fish. But we know, we would never get one out if something happened. Our new display is 400g going from 100g, so, we are trying to follow as many best practices as we reasonably and responsibly can.

I add coral all the time and cannot say they caused issues not have I had disease with 37 fish in the tank. You want to be selective as to where you get coral observing the health of the specimens within tanks and also healthy coral. Obviously if you are buying a half dead coral or one with flesh issues, you are inviting problems.
There is of course risk whenever introducing any specimen but quarantine fish and inverts if you feel a need to.
Its 45-60 days for fallow period and 81 degrees is an old rule and was more aimed at velvet opposed to ich. While it may speed up the life cycle of protozoan, its no assurance