quaratine setup for sps/lps softies question

[apollothesun]

ive just setup my 20 gallon quaratine setup up from pieces around the house. good thing i didnt get rid of this stuff. it has about 15 pounds of live rock, that has been cooked in the dark for 3 months due to bryopsis.

my setup is pretty simple, it has a berlin protein skimmer, the live rock sits on the eggcrate which is raised with powerheads underneath , 250mh magnetic lighting, a aquaclear 40 where a put cheato inside, a incadescent light over the cheato, and a 100 watt heater.

i have some supplements like liquid carbonate alkalinty and calcium that ive been dosing.
oh yeah, sg is around 1.023
nitrates 0
ammonia 0
ph 8.0 gonna setup a drip kalwasser tonight
calcium 340 (gonna bump this)
alk 7dkh (gonna make it hover around 8dkh)
temp swings though, from 78 to 82 tank is in the garage
hooking up a fan with timer tonight

mh lights are on for 6 hrs from 10pm to 4 am at night to help with temp

i got 7 frags in there right now and are various lps and sps and softies.
im feeding them cyclopeze, is that enought for right now?
i dosed flatworm control and inceptor last night.
will do it again tonight.

question is how long do i quaratine? anything you see in my setup i need to change? after the quaratine can i take the mh offline to save energy?

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Bump up the sg to 1.026
Your kalk dripwill take care of Ca and dkh
Perhaps a longer lighting cycle.

Many opinions, but most treat corals from 4 to 72 hours. If they stay happy, the longer period is better.
Try to keep your fan and heater from running concurently at night to save some watts.

 

[apollothesun]

thanks for the reply mike. i will bump the salt to 1.026, how long the light cycle? its a reeflux 10k bulb by the way

 

[apollothesun]

i was thinking, do i need to feed anything since the mh will give them the light source food?

 

[Herefishyfishy]

My current light cycle is 10 hours using reeflux 10k plus more with VHOs, controller tracks the sun's dusk to dawn hours (appx 8AM to 7PM)
Don't really need to feed a QT tank. After they are in the display, it's a personal choice.
I own many coral foods yet rarely use.

 

[kevinpo]

I would recommend 30 days for the total quarantine period and a halide photo period of 7-9 hours. Be sure to provide adequate flow for the different coral types.

Regards,
Kevin

 

[Herefishyfishy]

I would recommend 30 days for the total quarantine period and a halide photo period of 7-9 hours. Be sure to provide adequate flow for the different coral types.

Regards,
Kevin

Kevin, do you also practice this yourself?

 

[kevinpo]

I run my halides 9 hours a day at 9"-12" off the water. In my tanks all the corals were obtained years ago (4-12) and none of them were quarantined. I do not add any new corals. If I did I would likely wait 30 days to see if they had Acropora eating flatworms. They are the only thing that I fear because they are so hard to see and can cause so much damage. They also seem to be very resilient to treatments. Nudibranch slugs can also be trouble but they are easier to see and are less common in SPS and LPS corals.

With the new pests today it is much more important to quarantine and treat than in years past.

Regards,
Kevin

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Great info on your display thanks, and in the store?

(p.s. agree that AEFW are the only current real scourge to fear)

 

[apollothesun]

yeah, i agree, the tiny invisible flatworms are hard to see. hooked up a wavemaker in the quaratine tank. my halide is about 9 inches away from the water.

hey kevin, do you do any feeding in the quaratine tank?

 

[kevinpo]

At the store more than 95% of the corals come from my home tank. The ones I do order are Yellow Fiji Leather (S. elegans), Platygyra, Trachyphyllia, etc. that I can't propagate fast enough. Once or twice year or so I order a dozen Bali aquacultured Acropora colonies from Quality Marine. I dip these in Tropic Marin coral dip to see if any flatworms come off and after careful inspection they go into the holding tanks. I have never had a problem with these corals from Quality.
I've only had one incident in over 12 years of keeping SPS corals of flatworms and I disposed of the corals quickly. Fortunately their eggs are pretty easy to see if you just have frags stuck in the sand.

I use a 10X large (6") magnifying glass from the fabric store for inspection as my eyesight is getting pretty bad for closeup work.

Regards,
Kevin

 

[kevinpo]

I would not feed SPS corals in quarantine. If LPS corals have their feeding tentacles extended I would target feed them very small amounts once or twice a week.

Regards,
Kevin

 

[apollothesun]

thanks mike and kevin for the insight.