Quote:
Originally Posted by Pansy-Paws
I'm one of those individuals who quarantine everything that is wet. I only have a hospital tank and use it for both quarantine and hospital treatments. It is usually up and running.
My standard quarantine period is 8 weeks for fish, and in that time I do a prophylactic treatment for ick for any tangs (3 weeks with chloroquine phosphate -- I find this much easier on fish than copper or hypo, and it is also highly effective on treating marine velvet -- however, it can be tough to obtain -- it's a human malaria prescription drug), and a 3 hour praziquantel bath for all. If any diseases show up, then other treatment regimes are applied, and the quarantine period is extended.
I have a four foot (72 gallon) tank for this purpose, and use an Aquaclear 110 power filter for biological cycling. A second Aquaclear 110 is running at all times on the display system to keep a filter block seeded. My personal belief is that the biggest killer during quarantine is ammonia spikes, whether because the medication crashed the cycle, or the feeding and defecation rates exceeded the existing cycle's strength.
To counter this, I do a 33% water change every day until I see that the tank has been recycled, and add Amquel+ as needed to detoxify ammonia and nitrite when it's measurable. Through the years, I had a few heartbreaking losses  before I established this water change regime, sometimes in as short as two days of not keeping a close eye on the ammonia level.
For snails, live rock and such, I use a 4 week quarantine period, in a 10 gallon. |
Sounds exactly like what I used to do. I actually still have some chloroquine phosphate that I obtained from my uncle. I have found it does a good job if the infection is not too bad. Very easy on the fish as you said.
I just don't have the space anymore for a permanent hospital tank and never had an ich free tank even doing what you described. I never QT'd corals though for more than a week or two.
After learning ich can live for up to three months without a host (possibly longer), I am not convinced there are many ich free tanks out there.
IMO, QT should be used to keep parasites to a minimum but you will always have them in the display. They may not show up often but I think they are in most tanks.
I had two fish in QT today but after watching them freak out and curl up in the corner together, I couldnt do it and added them to the display. They were very happy about that.
If I could go back to having a large QT set up all the time in a basement or something I would QT for a while but I just can't have another tank set up in my small condo.