- All right, so today's the first episode
of the actual process where we're gonna show you guys
how to actually quarantine the fish.
80% of the work, 20% of the effort.
- Why 80/20?
Because we want 80% of the results of quarantine,
but just 20% of the effort.
So if this is your very first time quarantining your fish,
we're speaking directly to you.
- [Elliott] So this is gonna be a 3 Phase Approach.
Today's day one, it's gonna cover Ich and Velvet,
specifically Velvet.
It's gonna have the largest amount of reward
for the least amount of effort.
- Velvet is the thing that will take over the tank,
the most verily kill the most things.
And it's also one of the easiest to beat.
Phase two addresses, Uronema and Brook,
which can actually be much harder to deal with,
has a little bit more variables and stuff in it.
What about phase three?
- [Elliott] Phase three, we're gonna be looking at flukes,
both body and gill flukes.
We're gonna show you how to treat it.
And it'll actually be very, very easy.
- Okay, if you get all three of these done together, really,
we will solve 80%, or probably greater than 80%,
of all the types of parasites
that the average reefer would run into,
which is 20% of the effort.
- So there's obviously a million ways to QT successfully.
The protocols we're gonna show you today,
or at least in this series,
are actually based off of the ones
that we do at MarineCollectors.
These fundamentals we've been using for years now,
we know them to work really, really well.
We've also made it as simple as possible,
so you can do it at home.
- Yeah, note the subtle difference in there.
The MarineCollectors protocol is a little bit more advanced
to this, in what they do at MarineCollectors.
We've actually honed it down, based on those fundamentals,
for the 80/20 QT, built around these priorities.
Number one, it needs to be easy and effective,
'cause easy means that you'll actually do it.
And easy and effective is actually number two,
might sound redundant, but easy also means
that there's very few ways that this can go wrong.
And number three, most important, is it's all based around,
not just the fish that you're putting in there,
but actually protecting all the fish that you already have.
There are two caveats to this that everybody should know,
they're just real, starting with...
- Yeah, so, you know, not every fish
is gonna make it through QT.
Not every fish is gonna be in the same condition
when it comes in.
You know, a couple fish might not make it,
but the vast majority of them,
if they're healthy to begin with,
they're probably, 99% of the time, gonna make it through.
If they're unhealthy and they have existing symptoms,
you probably still have better
than 50% shot of saving that fish.
- That's one of those things that it's like a misconception.
"If I QT'd and my fish died in QT,
was it QT that killed it?"
No, it's probably unhealthy to begin with.
And so you actually increase the odds,
but still lost, right?
And to be honest, sometimes a lot of people
who have that experience actually QT'd improperly,
did it in a really complex way
that isn't going to be as easy and as successful as this.
But you do need to have reasonable expectations.
Most fish will make it through, but not all.
And the second one is, the second caveat,
is this doesn't apply to every last fish out there.
You do need to do a quick Google,
and make sure that the fish you're doing
will tolerate meds like copper.
- Definitely do your research,
some fish are a lot more sensitive than others,
like Fairy Wrasses, Flasher Wrasses, for example,
you're gonna wanna ramp the medications up in most cases,
specifically for those.
So definitely do a little bit of research, you know,
before you start doing the actual QT to that fish.
- [Ryan] You'll actually get some of those tips
on that today.
All right, getting right to it.
First thing you need is a tank to do this in.
And it's probably between 10 and a 40-gallon breeder.
- Yeah, so obviously, you know,
you're gonna wanna size the QT tank
depending on what you're putting in there.
If you've got one fish, you know,
two fish that are on the smaller side,
3 inches or under maybe,
10 gallons should be more than adequate.
If you're doing like a Tang Gang, for example,
you're probably gonna want something a little bit larger.
Or if you're doing larger fish,
you want to definitely have a bigger tank size,
just so you're getting that water dilution
so that they're not making it overly polluted
before you actually get 'em out of QT.
- This is a case where 10-gallon
is a lot easier to maintain.
And you're gonna see that actually,
when you see how we're gonna do the water changes,
that a 10 gallon's actually perfect for this
if the fish actually fit in it.
But a 40-gallon breeder, you could go all the way
up to that for those Tang Gangs.
But note that the maintenance
in this whole thing is gonna go up.
All right, so what goes into a QT tank?
- All right, so we kept it really, really simple.
If you'll notice we have an airstone, we have a PVC hide,
there's a heater and a thermometer.
That's really gonna be it.
We have an ammonia badge just in case.
We're gonna be changing a lot of water very frequently,
so we're not too worried about it,
but if you're doing a lot of fish together,
if you're doing larger fish that maybe you're feeding a lot,
it's a good backup tool just to keep an eye on it.
- [Ryan] One of the things that's notably absent here
is a biological filtration, or that type of filter.
- Yeah, so the way that we're gonna be running this QT,
we're gonna be doing a lot of water changes,
so biological's not really necessary.
If you've got really big fish,
maybe you have a lot of fish in there,
you're doing a bigger QT, or you're feeding really heavy,
or maybe it's just a fish that's really, really sensitive,
and you wanna make sure that the water parameters
are staying optimal at all times.
You definitely can, just don't use any type of media
that will absorb medications,
i.e. that would be live sand, rock.
My personal recommendation,
use Bioballs, they're plastic, throw 'em in your overflow,
throw 'em in your sump, throw 'em, you know,
just into your actual display tank.
The idea is that you're trying to accumulate
some of that nitrifying bacteria on there
so that you can actually put them into the QT
to actually absorb and process the ammonia.
You can throw them directly into the QT
and just let them float.
You can do it in a hang on the back filter,
or if it's a larger QT and it's plumbed,
you can run 'em in a sump as well.
- So I think the important part to note here
is Bioball seems to be the winner.
If you wanted to add the biological filtration,
probably a good place to do that is go right now,
get some Bioballs, throw 'em in the little baffle area
between your sump.
They'll stay in there, and then they'll be ready
when you need to use them.
But the point here is actually that a lot of people
haven't done that before, and they bought a little fish,
and they wanna protect it.
And so how do I do this in a manner
where that isn't necessary?
And this is it.
All right, next, we're gonna set up our water mixing bin.
This is really important, because we're actually gonna try
to get the exact same water in this tank,
as in the mixing bin for our big water changes,
so that it's stable and the exact same.
So in that case, most people will use a Brute trash can.
And if you can get a 55-gallon one for...
paired to your 10-gallon tank, it's actually perfect,
because that's enough water to actually fill this thing
all the way up once, and then do 4.5 water changes as well.
And we only need to do four water changes
through this entire thing, in most cases.
So that's enough water in one bin, it's all the same,
which is inherently stable.
- [Elliott] So just like a display tank,
stability is key, temperature, salinity, copper level,
we all want those to be the same all the time.
The reason we're doing such big water changes
is not just because the fish is, you know,
building up ammonia in there,
but it's all the unmeasurables, you know,
stress, hormone, bad bacteria in the water.
When we do water changes,
we're actually gonna be scrubbing the surfaces down.
So we're gonna be removing the bad bacteria
actually growing on the surfaces, inside the tank.
It's actually gonna help the fish get through quarantine
and actually handle the medications a lot better.
- So it technically, I guess,
would be easier if I just raised up the copper level
in there and left it alone.
Maybe I had my biological filter,
but there's also a lot of people out there
that say, "I do that, and it just didn't work out for me,
and I killed some fish."
So this is about getting past many of those unknowns.
We just don't need to worry about them,
because we're exporting all that bacteria,
all the stress hormone, all that garbage,
we're just getting out of the tank,
and we're replacing it with fresh water
that has identical parameters in here.
And it might not have sounded stable at first
to do 100% water changes, but done this way, it is.
All right, salt mix, which brand, and to what level?
A sneak peek, we're gonna use Instant Ocean purple box,
'cause the levels are actually lower.
We're gonna mix it up to your normal level of 1.025,
or 35 parts per a thousand.
And a lot of this is because what's good in a reef tank,
may actually hinder some of the process in the QT.
So explain why.
- [Elliott] All right, so unlike in a reef tank,
where high parameters is actually a good thing,
in a QT, it will actually mess with some medications,
that's why we're gonna be using the purple box.
We want just as close...
just pure salt as possible.
The reason why is medications like copper.
Sometimes, I don't know if you've noticed,
but like when you mix a really high quality re-salt,
sometimes you get a lot of precipitants.
Same reason we don't use calcium carbonate
or live sand in a QT, same thing with that precipitant,
copper will actually bind to it,
which will cause the concentrations of medication
to fluctuate, which is not good for QT.
'Cause we wanna maintain a really stable therapeutic level.
- All right, so some people have heard of hypo,
which means running the salinity really low.
Why wouldn't we do that in this case?
- All right, so the lower the salinity,
the actually more toxic copper becomes.
And it's a lot of math,
and a lot of trying to figure out
if you're gonna be doing hypo with copper.
So we just don't recommend it in general.
- All right, so that leads into the fact
that we're gonna put some of that Copper Power into the bin,
and that copper is actually gonna make it
into the QT tank as well.
But what are we going to use to test for copper
and to what level?
- All right, so Hanna Checker is gonna be the tool,
it's digital, super easy to use,
just like any of the other test kits
that you might have used.
Same thing, little powder packets.
MarineCollectors, we actually do test three times
before we use the medicated water,
just to make sure that the level is where we want it to be.
There's gonna be mild amounts of variances,
but if we do wanna make sure that it's above therapeutic,
therapeutic does start at 1.5.
A lot of people will recommend two,
but we're actually gonna be recommending
2.5 for most fish.
Reason why is that we wanna get these fish in,
we want to get 'em treated, we want to get 'em out.
We don't want have any chance of reinfection.
- Yeah, and so do you actually run a little higher
at MarineCollectors sometimes?
- Yes, so... (chuckles)
(indistinct) copper sulfate, it's actually very forgiving,
it's a lot safer to use than ionic copper
at MarineCollectors.
We'll run it 2.65, sometimes even a little bit higher
than that, depending on what we have in the systems.
Also sometimes a little bit lower than that,
just depending on, you know, what type of fish we have.
- So safe for you guys is 2.5,
and note that this type of copper for this is not optional,
it is called Copper Power.
You use that one, and that one only, for this QT,
because the other ones can be different,
and you would harm the fish at those levels.
All right, so we got all the water mixed up,
everything ready to go, we got in the tank.
But before we put the first fish in,
what we need to do is actually
a three-minute freshwater fluke bath.
And we're gonna try to get some of those flukes off
for a pretty good reason.
- All right, so what we're doing here
is we're basically trying to check to see
if the fish has flukes.
Most fish do, not always detrimental to the fish,
but if you're gonna decide to treat for 'em,
you should definitely know, at least,
if you have to or not.
Basically what this looks like is we're gonna do
a three-minute freshwater bath, our GI water's usually fine.
We're gonna put the fish in there for three minutes.
If the fish has body flukes,
you'll actually see these little oval-shaped flakes,
pure white on the fish.
You can actually use a turkey baster to blast them off.
That's actually a really good tool to do anyways,
while you're dipping fish.
If it's got gill flukes, or flukes around the mouth,
what you'll see is the fish
is actually gonna start coughing,
or twitching his head a lot.
That's a good indication that that fish does have, you know,
flukes in the gills or around the mouth.
And then what we're gonna do after this
is actually an interim bath.
What I like to do is do like half fresh,
half salt water for another three to five minutes.
What this is gonna do is allow that fish
a little bit of a jumping off period,
instead of going from fresh water
directly back to salt water,
we're gonna do it a little halfway in between
so it's not as stressful.
- So it's important to know we're not actually treating
for flukes in this case.
What we're doing is this is just the best time
to see them actually fall off,
so that we know that we should treat for them in the future.
It also isn't 100% definitive,
just 'cause you don't see any
doesn't mean they're not in there,
but if you do see them,
you should probably do something about it.
It's a three-minute heated, freshwater dip,
followed by 50/50 fresh water and tank water
for another three or so minutes,
and then put 'em back in the tank.
Look at what's in the bin and you'll know.
All right, one step left
before we add the fish to the QT tank,
we're actually gonna turn the water yellow.
- Yeah, so what we're gonna do
is we're actually gonna be medicating the bin
that we're mixing all the water in with copper,
but we're gonna be dosing the actual QT tank after that
with Nitrofurazone or Furan-2,
that's the over-the-counter product, it's made by API,
you can find it at most fish stores, Petcos.
But basically what we're doing here is Nitrofurazone,
it's an anti-microbial, and what we're looking to do
is prevent bacterial gill infections, copper,
it's a gill irritant.
And if you can imagine a fish that is sitting
in a box of water that is exposed to, you know, bacteria,
that's constantly building up,
and it's got gills that are being, you know,
mildly affected by the copper,
we just wanna put that in there
so that they're not getting infected as well.
- So that's a big point here is that copper is looked at
as something that stresses the fish, right?
And can cause mortalities.
But what we're gonna do is counter that
by using the Furan-2, or the Nitrofurazone.
What you're looking for is, with the Furan-2,
I would just follow the directions that are on the package,
but with Nitrofurazone, how much did you use?
- So we're gonna be looking at
10 to 30 milligrams per gallon of water.
Nitrofurazone, it's actually really hard to overdose it,
but that doesn't mean just blindly dump it in there.
Definitely get yourself like a little gram scale
just to make sure that you're doing the right amount.
Typically speaking, you know, in the industry,
it's common that we want to do it every 48 hours,
and do a 50% water change before.
But since we're changing so much water,
and this is not for the treatment
of any type of bacterial infection,
it's just preventative for gill infections.
Every three days should be more than adequate.
- [Ryan] So at this point you can actually add your fish.
I would maybe double check the salinity,
the copper level, and the temperature, but put the fish in,
and then we wait three days until the next step.
All right, so it's been three days, what's next?
- All right, so now we're gonna do our first
100% water change.
The idea is gonna be that we wanna make this tank
as clean as possible, almost like it's new again.
We're gonna take that fish out,
little specimen container works just fine,
it's not gonna take very long.
You know, once you get the tricks down,
maybe 10 minutes to do this entire thing.
I like to take a sponge, just wipe down the inside,
I will wipe down the PVC hides, the heaters, the airline.
Drain it down.
You can take a paper towel, you can wipe down the inside.
Or if you really wanna be thorough about it,
you can even rinse it out like,
in your laundry-sink type of thing.
Fill it back up, put the fish back in,
we'll re-dose the Nitrofurazone, call it a day.
- [Ryan] All right, so that's the actual process,
takes about 10 minutes.
And the good news is you only have to do it
three more times, which means if you can do
four, 10-minute processes over the course of 15 days,
you can actually be Ick and Velvet free,
or that fish can, anyway.
However, there is one little step right at the end day 15.
- All right, so this is more just a personal trick
that I like to do, once that fish is done, you know,
you've pretty much done the work, the fish is clean.
Before you put that fish into your display tank,
what I like to do is just put that fish into clean water.
Basically, we're gonna rinse the fish
so that we can get all that medicated quarantine water off.
What that's gonna do is one, you know,
you're not gonna put potentially medicated water
into your reef tank, but also any potential parasites
that are still free, swimming in that water,
that have been prevented by the medications
from actually reattaching to the fish,
you're pretty much gonna rinse those off the fish
before they go into the display tank.
- All right, there are stipulations,
or caveats, to everything,
and this one has a couple that are pretty obvious.
So when isn't it 14 days, when is it more?
- Yeah, so just like what we do at MarineCollectors,
we call it 14-day clean.
We want consecutive 14 days of the fish being symptom free.
So let's just say you put a fish into the QT tank, right?
It's day eight, and you're like,
"Oh my God, look at that fish, it's got spots on it,
you know, it's got Ick," restart the clock.
And that 14-day clock will start from the last day
that you saw symptoms,
and then it's been clean for a consecutive 14 days.
- So there are some caveats to it,
and there's a little difference between seeing the fish
in here, they're showing no signs of it, which is 14 days.
And if it's actually visibly sick, a little bit longer.
All right, the second stipulation,
remember some of those fish that we said
actually appreciate being ramped up slowly
to the copper level, and that they might actually appreciate
a lower copper level.
In this case, we're gonna recommend a 2.0 for them,
and you can explain how we're gonna get there.
- All right, so fish that we're gonna do this with,
they're gonna be Flasher Wrasses, Fairy Wrasses,
actually most Wrasses in general,
sometimes Halichoeres is a good one to do.
Anthias, Angelfish, sometimes don't handle copper that well,
but what we're gonna do is we're gonna start
the actual QT water at 1.0.
Before you put the fish in there, you know,
start off with maybe 1/4 dose, 1/2 dose,
to see what it'll come to.
Then progressively, every day,
you're gonna move it about 0.25.
If the fish is really expensive,
or you know specifically that fish might be
a little more on the sensitive side,
you can take up to a week to do it.
You know, you're not gonna hurt the fish by doing it longer,
just as long as it's not actively
having an outbreak of something.
But basically what we're trying to do
is we're trying to ramp up that concentration of medications
to a therapeutic level that we can be sure
is gonna actually eradicate what's on there.
- So a couple of big changes there is this guy right here,
the directions are designed to get you to 2.5.
Now, you could just try to figure that math out
to get down to 1.0, but I actually suggest, like he did,
going down to 1/4 of the dose
just to see where that gets you.
'Cause it'll give you an idea of how I would...
how much I need to go up, 1/4 of a point,
every single time.
And the other change here is normally we would've done that
first water change on day three.
In this case, we're gonna do it on day four.
So we're gonna start off with one, 1.25, 1.5, 1.75.
And then on that final day, when we do the water change,
we're actually gonna have our bin at 2.0,
and that will be the final increase.
Again, giving you time to watch how they actually behave,
with some of these more sensitive fish.
All right, so we could stop here, Velvet, Ick,
handled, no problem.
But we're actually gonna go into phase two,
which is Uronema and Brook.
And then after that phase three,
which is those flukes we talked about,
all found in the playlist right here.