- Hey guys and girls, it's Reef Man
and I wanted to tell you about how to quarantine
fish today, specifically, how to prevent ick
from getting into your tank.
So ick is a parasite.
It is normally seen as a white powder,
white dots all over your fish.
You'll see fish like rubbing on rocks,
rubbing on sand, that kind of stuff
because it's a skin irritation to them.
You don't have to have ick in your tank
and it's really hard to get rid of it once you have it.
So do quarantine your fish, and all you have to do
is something called the tank transfer method.
The tank transfer method requires two quarantine tanks.
I use 10-gallon aquariums and you're going to need
two of everything, two tanks, two air stones
if you use them, two thermometers, two heaters,
two power heads, anything that is gonna go in that tank
because you need to have one and then you transfer the fish
to the other tank and then back and forth
for at least four transfers.
This interrupts the ick lifecycle because you transfer
every third day.
And the ick lifecycle takes approximately three days
to go from the cysts on the fish,
falling off the fish, reproducing on a hard surface
like the glass of your tank, and then back into the water.
So that period where it reproduces in
a cyst on the glass or a rock, some hard surface,
is where it's reproducing
and growing new infectious parasites.
And then they all come out and re-infect your fish.
And that whole cycle takes about three days.
Well not about, it does take at least three days.
So the idea is you are going to transfer your fish
out of one quarantine tank and into another
before those cysts have a chance to hatch.
And once you've done this at least four times,
obviously the more the better,
the chances of you getting any ick in your actual tank
is vastly reduced.
So what is a quarantine tank?
Well, it's not like your actual display, obviously.
If you get a parasite or something in your display,
then you know bad times, you're gonna have to take
a bunch of stuff out and it's going to be annoying.
So quarantine tank can be as simple as a 10 gallon tank.
Instead of my 280-gallon aquarium, I just use
two 10-gallon tanks.
I'm currently using this one, and the next three days
we'll transfer to this one.
And all you have to do is, I like to use the
sea life, or the sea cam ammonia alert badges,
it makes it super simple to see if there's going to be
any ammonia trouble, and then you'll want a thermometer
and a heater, and then just some PVC
for your fish to hide in.
Right now there's a Starcki Damsel in here,
it's a very skittish fish, it hasn't quite warmed up
to me just yet, so probably won't be able to see him,
but I'll try to get some video for you.
And then in the next three days he or she
will be in this tank instead.
And then back and forth.
So you just need to do that four times
and that's what tank transfer method is all about.
So if that was interesting, let me know what you thought.
Like, subscribe, I've never said that in my videos before,
but I appreciate every single one of my subscribers
and I love getting comments and responding back to you
so if you have any questions about quarantining,
any questions about getting rid of ick
or hopefully not getting rid of it
but preventing it in the first place,
I'd be happy to help you out with that.
All right, till next time, bye.