QT tank questions.... How is everyones setup ??

[badazztealcobra]

Well, with the start of the 180 that im planning coming together, I have decided that I really want to setup a QT tank for it. I would hate to have it 6 months in and doing great and then find out I have a problem.

I was planning on using as much of the stuff that I had laying around as possible, so I needed to know what else I would need to do to get this thing up and running.

I have a 30B thats drilled and a 29g sump for it. I have a small euroreef skimmer for it, and also a good return pump. I had a 250w MH bulb to go over the tank for lighting, as I plan on using the tank for fish and corals alike....

I assume with the corals your best bet is to do a dip and some type of interceptor treatments, but how long does everyone do them for ???

Also, when you get a new fish, do you automatically do a hyposalinity treatment for them before going into the display or is there more to it than that ???

Should I setup a biowheel filter, or what other kind of filtering should you do besides the skimmer ???

Would I be better served to ditch the sump and skimmer and just go with a biowheel filter on a QT tank ???

Please help me figure this out...

[444reefkeeper]

Oh.... Too many posibilities....

I will have 1 QT for fish and 1(possibly 2) for coral.

The fish will be mainly for observation. I will only buy healthy looking fish to begin with so I will probably not dip them at all before going in. The less stress the better. IMO. If I do have to treat, most medications will kill bio on any type of filter. So I will probably do a sump with rock and a skimmer to have good flow/filtration while I am not treating. This is my narrow version of a QT tank. I used to just have a hang-on and do daily water changes to maintain good water quality while treating.

The coral QT will be set up the same. I will dip the corals before they go in though. I'll use any of your typical coral dips along with interceptor. I may also do weekly interceptor treatments.

[sellout007]

Originally posted by 444reefkeeper
Oh.... Too many posibilities....

I will have 1 QT for fish and 1(possibly 2) for coral.

The fish will be mainly for observation. I will only buy healthy looking fish to begin with so I will probably not dip them at all before going in. The less stress the better. IMO. If I do have to treat, most medications will kill bio on any type of filter. So I will probably do a sump with rock and a skimmer to have good flow/filtration while I am not treating. This is my narrow version of a QT tank. I used to just have a hang-on and do daily water changes to maintain good water quality while treating.

The coral QT will be set up the same. I will dip the corals before they go in though. I'll use any of your typical coral dips along with interceptor. I may also do weekly interceptor treatments.

Healthy looking fish may not be so healthy. I can't tell you how many *good* looking fish I see bring in diseases.

[sugartooth]

For fish, my routine is as follows:

- acclimation to your QT tank water (w/Nitrofurane Green, shipped livestock only)

- freshwater dip (5-12 min. never more than 13min.)

- goes into bare bottom tank, only PVC and loc line for 2 months min. has skimmer and chiller. Most often with cleaner shrimp.

- treat only necessary unless wrasses (most suspect internal parasites so feed prazi pro soaked food)


Coral:

- dip

- goes into QT tank w/sand and live rock, lights minimum of 3 months for observation.

- dip again before going to display

[badazztealcobra]

Originally posted by sugartooth
For fish, my routine is as follows:

- acclimation to your QT tank water (w/Nitrofurane Green, shipped livestock only)

- freshwater dip (5-12 min. never more than 13min.)

- goes into bare bottom tank, only PVC and loc line for 2 months min. has skimmer and chiller. Most often with cleaner shrimp.

- treat only necessary unless wrasses (most suspect internal parasites so feed prazi pro soaked food)


Coral:

- dip

- goes into QT tank w/sand and live rock, lights minimum of 3 months for observation.

- dip again before going to display

I assume the freshwater dip is almost like doing a hyposalinity type of thing ??? Any adverse side effects from doing this ??? I would guess the fish arent too thrilled to be dipped into FW... Do you just use RODI water that is heated to the right temp, or do you drip acclimate them to have the salinity go down slowly before putting them into straight FW ???

For the coral, I read a post once by Sara B that looked good, consisting of weekly interceptor treatments and fluke tabs for a few week that looks like if something survives that it deserves to be in the tank...

My thing is that my first tank was a biocube and I never QT'ed anything, and then after adding the flame angel, about 3 weeks later had a huge ich outbreak and lost the flame and 2 true percs... Dont really want to go through that again if you know what I mean....

[sugartooth]

Badazz- The freshwater dip is to see if anything comes off the fish. It's to give you an idea of what you may be facing, as well as make the fish feel better if there happens to be anything on it (for example, flukes) I take tap water, put some dechlorinator, get it to tank temp. After fish is acclimated to tank water in a bucket, a second bucket is used for freshwater dip, then straight to the QT tank.

The fish should be looking good during acclimation and before the dip.
Usually, the fish thinks he's dead at first, and sinks to the bottom. After a jiggle or two, they realize they are okay. If it's not looking good after 3 minutes, take them out. It's your decision if you feel the fish can't take it.

Yes, I agree that Sara B's QT procedure is very thorough. I also believe anything that survives through QT should be good to go into the display.

It's definitely well worth it to have QT, there are a number of fish that I've had to do hypo treatment and formalin dips, it would have been a nightmare to try to get them out of the display.
Good luck!

[badazztealcobra]

Where are some good places to get the dips and medications everyone uses, just the usual premiumaquatics and the like ???

How about a list of medications and dips people have had success with....

I know im going to have to hit up the vet for some interceptor, but what else is everyone using ??


Let us not forget, my stupid post for today.......

Do you QT your CUC at all ??? just wondering if theres anything bad that can come along with a CUC order that you might not want in the tank....

[sugartooth]

My first aid fish box contains:
- formalin
- methylene blue
- Nitrofuracin Green and Nitrofurazone
- copper
- Prazi-pro, praziquantal
- Parinox
- Des-Los
- Sulfa 4TMP
- Diamox
- Metronidzole
- Neomycin
- Parcide-X
- Providone Iodine
- Bio bandage
- Furan-2

You can most of the things you need at Drs. Foster and Smith

[pescadero]

just thought i'd throw this out -- when you say "interceptor", by any chance are you referring to a macrocyclic lactone like milbemycin?

[Greedo]

Yup, milbemycin is the drug they're after. Unfortunately, Novartis has it patented, and is keeping it on lock down. You cannot get it in any other form except Interceptor. I've tried to get it in pure form from several compounding pharmacies. Nobody has access to it.

You should have seen the look on our Novartis rep's face when I told her what I was using it for. Apparently Novartis is unaware of this off label use (at least the field reps are).

[pescadero]

interesting. i had no idea that other reefers used avermectins for this application. i would have expected the choice of a different avermectin for precisely the reasons you've mentioned.

WRT why drug reps feign ignorance about off-label applications for their products, they have two compelling reasons: a) its the law, b) not doing so could destroy the market for their drug.