Introducing Corals

[Orcrone]

I have a FOWLR system, but I'm considering adding some corals. It was suggested in the fish disease & treatment forum that anything wet that's introduced to a DT first be quarantined. Having to treat for ich last summer has me believing this is a good idea. But how to quarantine coral?

Since I just have some sponge filters in the QT I'm concerned about nitrate buildup.

I have a fluorescent strip, but I doubt that would be sufficient for corals for any period of time.

I actually assume most people don't quarantine their corals, they just dip them.

Just trying to get an idea of how everyone introduces corals to their DT.

Thanks!!!!!

 

[Luukosian]

I just float mine for 10-15min in the bag then put em in, haven't lost any yet. I ussually get my coral from local sources that I'm pretty confident are safe from bad hitchhikers though. Dipping is never a bad idea. As far as Ich, I've never known anyone that has introduced ich in a tank from a piece of coral but I suppose its not impossible.

Dipping, and closely examining any coral that goes into your tank is the best prevention to any of those types of problems. QT'ing every coral just sounds way too labor intensive for minimal benifit.

 

[BigAl07]

I "have dipped" in the past but honestly I've not in a long time. However I did have a RED BUG infestation last year and had to "Nuke the tank" because of it. I've not bought any new coral since then but since every coral in my new tank has "expired" I'll be adding some new coral soon.

I'll probably did a Lugol's dip just to help fight off some of the more common parasites (or really just to put my mind at ease LOL) but it only takes about 10 minutes total. Tupperware dish, cup of tank water, few drops of lugols and your good to go.

 

[seafansar]

I dip my new corals in Lugols and then interceptor. I used to just do the first until I got redbugs too.

 

[Exo]

I don't have any first hand knowledge, but I just watched a coral fraging video with Eric Borneman, who is very respected in the hobby. He highly recomended quarantining corals and specifically mentioned red bug like BigAl was talking about. Since it can slowly destroy a whole tank I think QTing depends on what you could potentially loose versus the cost of a setup. Eric's take on it was that corals are pretty resilinent and a flourecent lighting was enough in a QT for a few weeks so a qt could be pretty cheap. You can probably find the video if you search his name and reeftube. He talks about QT in the last five minutes.

 

[Blndbunny]

I haven't quarantined any of my corals or dipped them and I'm now fighting with zoa eating nudis, I think I have learned my lesson, I will dip from now on. And when I upgrade my smaller tank will become a quarantine for new corals

 

[Orcrone]

Thanks to all for your helpful responses.