Acclimation idea

[FishWife]

Scott has an idea to acclimate corals and fish by using a small holding tank that is tied into our system. Basically, in our "engine room"... pictured below...

 

he wants to put a small holding tank where that blue bucket is on the floor, that is high enough to have a water level even with the sump.

 

Then, he wants to siphon water into the small holding tank and move the UV pump to it such that all the water that's come into the holding tank flows out thru the UV sterilizer you see on the wall, and back into our system. Our UV is rated to kill bugs at a 1200 gph flow, and our pump is only putting it thru at 800gph, so we think there's plenty of killing power. It's an easy mod to our system, since we just turn the UV on the wall and put its pump into the holding tank, while adding a short, 2" PVC siphon.

 

He figures we could put all new animals in this kind of a holding tank (QT) since we'd be killing parasites with the UV and also able to observe the new creatures and catch anything like flatworms or other pests.

 

Question: would we kill what's needed by doing this, while still giving new animals the benefit of our reef environment--dissolved foods, copepods, temperature steady and good, and salinity--or would we endanger our system? What do you guys and gals think?

Edited November 5, 2007 by FishWife

[steveoutlaw]

Well, first off that would be more of a QT idea than acclimating. You would still want to acclimate them by dripping them for 1-2 hours before adding them to the QT tank.

[stevil]

Well, first off that would be more of a QT idea than acclimating. You would still want to acclimate them by dripping them for 1-2 hours before adding them to the QT tank.

Yes. Steve's agree, that sounds like a remote QT vs. acclimation.

 

In my opinion you don't want ANY of the water that your livestock came with in your tank, UV or not. Pump and dump.

[lancer99]

I wouldn't do it.

 

It's certainly a winner in terms of stability for any new arrivals, and convenience for the tank owners

but all it takes in one ich cyst or acro flatworm to survive the UV, and you would regret it.

 

Okay, I might do it if I got a written guarantee from the UV maker that it's 100% effective against all known & unknown parasites, and they posted a $20,000 bond just in case they were wrong.

 

Nope, still wouldn't

 

-R

[davelin315]

I had floated this idea before as well and also was shot down. Seems like too many think that it would open up the tank to disease (at least for a QT). Also, I agree, you don't want to add bag or shipping water to your system if you can avoid it.