Quarantin

[dsfdbutterfly]

My question is long and a little complex. Trying to understand quarantin of corals. Really didn't realize until reading something on the internet that I should QT my corals before adding them to the tank. The problem is this. If you plan on QT'ing your corals that means you need to sink a lot more money into your tank set up so that you don't lose them in the process. Most corals need better lighting and better flow that what I have set up for my simple QT tank for my fish. My question then is this. Does anyone practice this or is this in theory only. Great to do but yeah right kind of thing.

The reason I came across this is because my husband picked up a rock with some zoo's and feathers on it from the LFS. Since the levels are stable now and we are trying to add stuff to the tank they were a good addition. During acclimation I discoved a fish had come along for the ride. None too happy about this because I know exactly what I want in my tank and it only being a 30 gal I don't want to go over on my stocking levels. At this point only having the clown in the tank he wont hurt anything until I can return him. After getting the rock in the tank however I found a few other additions including bristle worms and a few sea hares. I pulled the rock and started picking off the bristle worms and thought that I had got them all. That is never the case though. I know there is at least one more if not more.

Do I chance killing this rock by dropping it in my QT tank which doesn't have good enough lighting (just a 40 watt bulb) and lower salinity or as some sites say believe that bristle worms can be controled and are not all that bad? There certainly isn't much for it to feed off of being that I sparingly feed my clown and I watch to make sure he gets most of the food. None falls to the bottom of the tank. I know that this is no simple solution but everything in the tank is doing so well that I don't want to have a problem at this point. Thanks in advance for your help.

Angie

[at]

What kind of fish? I agree with you about the quarantining of corals. Every book I read says to do it ,in a 20 gallon tank with a 40 watt tube, and the next paragraph says they will die without 6 watts of metal halide per gallon.I am sorry I am not much help but I did see your point about quarantining corals. Who knows the fish could be the best freebie you ever received. Good luck.

[dakar]

Bristle worms are actually good for your tank... though they can grow to some rediculous sizes (biggest one we've had was almost a foot long. But they eat detritus and junk, and help stir the top layers of your sand bed. They do have some natural predators.

QT'ing coral is a good practice, in theory the tank conditions should match your display as closely as possible. Though the costs can make it prohibitive to match things perfectly... high wattage PC lamps or T5's may be a good substitute for halides during QT. But salinity, temp, and pH should be as close as possible.

Particularly with the number of pests that are being circulated through the hobbyist channels lately. SPS (red bugs, and flatworms) escpecially, though not many softies will carry unwanted pests (though possible), like the zoanthid spiders that were making the rounds last summer.

All sounds good in theory, but certain 'dips' can be a good preventive measure. Iodine dips for zoa's, Interceptor dips for SPS red bugs....etc, other more specific dips for other corals can help.

BTW what was the hitchhiker fish?

[dsfdbutterfly]

The hitchhiker was a lizard blenny. The only thing I'm worried about him going after is the pistol shrimp that came in on my LR. But I haven't seen him since the one night I found him. My thing is this. If I set up my QT tank close enough to my other tank then I don't have the money. The cost would be almost what I have spent on my other tank and I just don't have it. Not if I ever want to get this tank up and running if you know what I mean. I'm already freaking to the point that I've got back up bulbs on order just in case even though the light is just 2 months old. Plus don't you have to worry about algae over taking your tank and stuff because of higher lights and you don't want to put LR in a QT tank. That also leads to I would need two QT's one for my fish and one for my corals. The fish I have QT'd have sometimes needed medicine like copper for ich which cannot be given to corals. I better stop here cuz I'm just freakin myself out thinking about it. How would anyone possible do this in a home setting without totally taking over everything? That's why I think that for most of us this is in thoery only we just don't want to say it cuz we all wish we could do it.

Angie

[KG]

zoos and feathers don't require much or no light, respectively, so I wouldn't be worried about that. The hitchiker fish I'd be worried about especially since you already have a fish and ich is easy to spread. The others you mentioned are no big deal but sea hares will only live for about a year so I really wouldn't want one in my tank unless it's very small and then I'd write an estimated expiration date on the tank so I didn't forget to tank him out and let it die in a separate tank.

KG