Why?
You don’t know what you got for free with your new coral. Sure the coral looks very healthy and is nicely colored but you could have gotten some unwanted hitchhikers with it. Nudibranchs, flatworms, pyramid snails and box snails just to name a few, are animals you don’t want in your reef aquarium. Even if you don’t see any of them on the first inspection of your newly acquired specimen they can still be there.
How long?
Quarantine should take a minimum of 3 weeks, although most reefers keep their newly acquired animals in quarantine for a month or even 6 weeks. You probably heard this one before: “only bad things happen fast in a reef tank” Patience is the key to success here.
What setup do I need?
A proper quarantine setup needs the same as any other tank: heating, filtering and lighting. Filtering can be done in several ways, some people have a complete quarantine system with sump and skimmer but even a canister filter will do. If you plan to have several different species in the quarantine tank at the same time, carbon filtering should be used to filter the chemicals out of the water. To maintain a good water quality in the quarantine tank frequent water changes should be done, at least 15% water should be changed twice a week. Many people even advice a 15% water change every other day.
Great even more cost…
Yes an additional tank, pump, heater and lights will cost some money. Have a good look at your show tank, how many corals do you have in there? Do you want to risk loosing them all after introducing one new coral to your system? I didn’t think so…
It all starts with good planning. If you have the urge to go out and buy an aquarium, and it doesn’t matter if you are thinking about a fresh- or saltwater aquarium, stop and think about it for a while. A good round of planning can save you from a lot of disappointment down the road.
A lot of people just starting out in the hobby decide to start with a very small tank, since it’s obviously easier and cheaper to run a small aquarium. Yes, the setup and running costs of a small tank are lower than those of a big one, but in a small tank it is much harder to keep things correctly balanced. Just think about it: a single drop of food coloring in a glass of water will tint the entire contents of the glass, put that same drop into a swimming pool and you will not notice much. Stability of your system comes with size, so you will want to get the biggest tank you can afford.
The maximum size of your aquarium will most likely be limited by two factors: available money and space. This is where the planning starts, write down your constrains and work from there. The equipment to put on your shopping list will depend on what species you want to keep in your aquarium. A fish-only tank will not require the amount of lighting that corals need. A higher overall population will call for better filtration equipment.
Find out the specific needs of the different species you want to keep in your aquarium. Each coral and fish requires things like pH and temperature to be within a certain range to be able to survive and thrive. For many species these ranges do not overlap, so they can not be kept in the same aquarium.
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