So my situation has sparked a huge discussion on the use of QT on The Reef Tank. Basically is seems to come down to two issues: resources and the belief about the disease trajectory.
Disease Process
On the QT side of the debate, the assumptive belief is that ich (and other things) are death sentences. Once a fish (or a tank) has ich or some other disease, all other fish within that system are now tainted until cured through some active method on the part of the aquarist. Unless that action is taken, then tainted fish become dead fish. This makes a degree of sense because the disease organism is trapped in a box with a host and that the life cycle is assured and therefore will reproduce en mass until the fish succumb. They believe that by doing QT for 6 weeks, treating anything that shows up, and waiting again for 6 weeks following whatever treatment ended will mean that they have pristine ich free tanks (and they are probably right, or functionally right anyway).
On the other side of the debate is that the living conditions of the fish are paramount. Just like dysentery isn’t an issue with plumbing, air conditioning, Gatorade (or some equivalent), and soap for hand washing. On the other hand, get dysentery when it is 100 degrees, you’re sweating out fluids, there isn’t soap to wash your hands and you continue to drink contaminated water and you’re dead. This side believes that providing good conditions with ready food, protection from bullying and terrific water conditions fish will get better. Additionally they believe that at the stocking levels tolerated in reef tanks (much less than in FOWLR or store tanks) that the disease organism isn’t assured of finding a host anyway, much less being successful at reproducing there. In summary – provide the best environment you can and if the fish doesn’t make it, it was probably too weak to survive treatment too.
Resources
On the QT side, the apparent requirements are to have an entire mirror system to the one you are setting up. EXCEPT that you won’t have a good bio-filter system because you can’t use live rock. Additionally any sponge you use will be “killed” once you use hypo or medications, so you’ll have to have another sponge after each treatment cycle (suddenly your sump is full of nitrate factory sponges). You’ll have to feed your fish well during this time of stress and they may be erratic in eating because they are stressed and sick (more water quality issues). So you will have to test daily, siphon often, and do large 20-50% water changes on that system, probably daily. Supposing you only had a small QT system, you’d have to QT one fish at a time, 6 weeks plus treatment (if needed) plus 6 more weeks. This means that after a year of doing daily water changes (yikes on the cost of salt mix!!) you’re looking at having successfully added a MAX of eight fish, and presuming some you had to treat – more likely 4-6 fish.
On the “other” side – there is a recognition that being the reefing equivalent of a crazy cat lady isn’t practical for everyone. For example. I have a 75 gallon tank. In order to stock 8 small fish, I would have to have a QT that is at least 55 gallons. If any got sick I would have to either treat that whole tank, or move the sick one to ANOTHER tank (Hospital Tank =HT). On top of that, fish and corals can’t QT in the same tank if there is any treatment to be done for the fish. One could (as I was planning before I dropped one) have two QT tanks at the ready at all times. One for fish and one for coral, but then you’re looking at two tanks, two sets of daily water changes and of course you still have maintenance to do on the DT. Suddenly every evening is being spent doing water changes, mixing new water, studying fish behavior, inspecting fish for “spots” and assuming you can diagnose correctly (I’m actually wondering now if my clownfish also had brooklynella as well as ich since my firefish is fine and was started on hypo at the same time) scoop out the sick fish, do dips, drops, hyposalinity and other treatments.
Sanity – a better way forward.
I’m now of the belief that it makes far more sense to set up a small, fully functional with live rock and all tank (i.e., my 14 gallon biocube). This tank will be used to provide a safe haven for the fish to be added to the DT. I will only buy young, small fish (regardless of adult size) that will be OK in the – what I’ll call, the observation tank (thanks Nate_bro). The observation tank will essentially be an extra BB “nano” reef tank – a grow out tank for fish and corals. The live rock will provide the water quality needed to make water changes manageable and have it’s own CUC to handle the generous feeding portions.
The observation tank will be a sink or swim situation for fish. Either they make it the 6 weeks and go swimming into the deep blue DT, or they get sick. If they get sick they will either recuperate through convalescence or FW dips (the only treatment it can have since you can’t introduce a copper dipped fish to the LR and CUC). If this is insufficient, then they won’t live – they were probably too sick to start with. If it appears there is a heavy infestation of something in the observation tank, then the CUC can be removed, the LR rinsed in a bucket of water from a water change and the tank “reset” fairly quickly. After a “reset” I can switch to “QT” a coral or it can sit empty for 6-8 weeks until the life cycle of the disease is likely to have passed. In this way I can “QT” both corals and fish simultaneously, and, with the biofilter of the LR, I can QT multiple fish (two, maybe three) at once – just like in a nano-reef.
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