To QT or Not...

I wouldn't think so. Diseases that affect fish won't affect other life forms in your tank. At least no diseases that I know. The key is to treat the heavy hitters like marine velvet, ich or other parasites that can ravage the livestock in your system. Here is my plan.

33 gallon QT tank, rimless glass, for easy viewing and observation. After three days of the fish eating and not stressed I will begin treating with cupramine for 14 days. After 14 days you can use carbon to remove the cupramine completely from your QT tank. Give them a few days to rest then begin a 3 day fresh water dip treatment. No more than once a day and for no longer than 10 minutes. After the three days, they spend the rest of the time, sut being fish and being observed. If after 30 days of treatment and observation they are happy and healthy, they go into the dt. After that you can drain your qt and put it away until you need it. You can't really stop everything with a qt, but you can improve your odds and wipe out some of the heavy hitters before they attack your system. I don't plan on qt'ing anything other than fish.

 

I dont know if I would make it through that kind of QT!!! If I was eating I wont be by the end with all that stress lol.
Treating that aggressivly IMO can cause more problems than it may prevent. Stress from collection, shipping, and acclimating to multiple tanks over a period of a couple weeks is enough to starve some fish to a point of no return. If they show disease than you shoudlnt buy them in the first place but things do pop up and then you need to treat the disease heavily but 3 days of FW dips seems like a lot and copper will work for some fish but others are very sensative such as angels. Also you need to test copper levels and watch closely to keep it from getting toxic but maintain therapuetic levels. The only other thing about copper is it WILL NOT be removed by carbon you would need to use a product such as cuprisorb by seachem.

 

I didn't QT at very first, lost several fish, and saved a few by setting up a HT=hospital tank.

After that I QT, usually with PriziPro for a tleast 2 weeks, and if things look perfiect, in they go. It's worked for me, and yes I KNOW 2 weeks isn't long enough.

I haven't lost a fish since then to Dz.

My QT is a 5g bucket, with a 4" pisce of PVC pip in there for hiding, a sponge/airstone filter and an air pump for it, a small heater and thermometer.
Cost next to nothing, and works great.
You can fill it with newly made SW, let it aerate a bit, and change a little every few days- doesn't need to cylcle as there is no ammonia/detritus in there anyway.

 

I will only begin treatment after they begin eating. Copper treatment won't cause them much stress at all. I'll be using cupramine which can be removed via carbon filtration. I will dose and check levels every day to maintain theraputic levels. I realize a FWD can be stressful, but what I find stressful is losing a tank full of fish because I didn't know what I was putting in there. I don't want to run the risk, but I understand my methods may not be right for everyone.

 

Running the copper if done right will help. Many LFS run copper in there tanks to keep ICH out. But the freshwater dips for a proactive approach is way to aggressive IMO, it will do more harm than good.

As to the main post. You should probably QT, but I never have.

 

Are there some good research articles, that objectivley support fresh water dipping?

I honestly never looked, 'cause I personally never thought about it.

A fresh water dip actually killing things?

Suprised no one said to add garlic to the QT! ;-) flame suit engaged!

 

FW dips help because parasites with literally jump off of the host. It does not effectivly kill 100% of them and will not effect ones that are internal.

 

Many parasites take root in the gils, so fresh water passing through the gils can get them to abandon ship. FWD's can help with Ich, Velvet, Flukes and black ich. Do your fresh water dips in a bucket of RO/DI heated and agitated with a small powerhead. 3 days of 10 minute treatments once per day should be plenty to kill or remove just about all parasites. After you are done, dispose of the bucket water and clean throroughly. If the parasites are too deep into the fish, they may be shielded from treatment, but then again the fish may not survive QT anyway. So a fish too sick to be successfully treated is unlikely to end up in your DT.

While garlic can help with immune system, there is no evidence (other than anecdotal) that it actually kills parasites, that I am aware of.

The reason for the 30 day QT period and treatment is to give you a long enough time to determine if the fish is healthy. Any signs of disease, no matter how minute, should extend the QT time. QT as long as you need to consider the fish healthy. There really is no maximum QT time as long as you stay up on your filtration, WC's (after copper is done) and removing detritus from the bottom of the tank daily.

 

The only problem with QT is it is usually done wrong. In order for it to be effective and worth the effort you need to QT EVERYTHING that goes into the tank. That includes flish, corals, and all inverts. Most people only QT fish and not inverts or coral which leads to unwanted thigns getting into the water.

I should note I do not QT but really plan on doing it when I start my next larger build.

 

You are absolutely correct that everything should be QT'd. There are levels of militancy for QT'ing though. If I can help it I will QT everything, but I do know that fish will be QT'd 100%.