This is my 10 gallon coral QT setup. It's relatively simple but has slowly evolved over the past 2 years. I originally put it together thinking that it would only be temporary however at this point it has run 12 groups of corals thru it and now that it's setup and established I don't think I'll be taking it down. It's handy to have ready if you need to treat or remove a coral from your display. The current inhabitants are exactly that, Corals that were having a rough time in my display that I removed for treatment and close observation.
Equipment list:
- Waterbox 10 gallon tank
- Aquaclear 20 HOB filter
- Aqua EL 50 watt heater
- Inkbird heater controller
- Nero 3 power head
- AI Hydra 32 Light
- Pico Aquariums Aquaclear 20 overflow box
So the equipment has evolved with the tank as I originally started out with a cheap Aqua Knight light from Amazon, and a cheap Hydor power head and cheap Jager heater. What I discovered is that cheaping out on the equipment for the QT didn't work out too well, at least for me. My thinking is that I am trying to QT for fish disease and hitchhikers, but I also want to condition the Corals for my display. This means that I need lighting and flow similar to my display. I know many people think they want to do a cheap setup, but when you consider the cost of losing Corals, the cost of the equipment seems trivial imo.
I started out with some rock and eggcrate in the tank, but I found that they were a pain because they always seemed to have algae issues. The rock provided too much hiding space for hitchhikers, and the eggcrate was a nightmare to clean. So at some point I removed the rock and replaced the eggcrate with a piece of lexan with a bunch of holes drilled in it, and pvc for legs. Super glad I did this because I have had zero issues with the lexan. For some reason it stays pretty clean.
I have a solid lexan lid that covers most of the tank and therefor I don't need an ATO. It only looses about 4-8 oz from evaporation a day.
As far as husbandry it's pretty simple really. I do weekly water changes of 2 gallons, clean the glass, and rinse out the foam in the Aquaclear hob. I dose No3, Po4, B-ionic 2 part, and top off the water daily. Being fishless I have to dose the No3 and Po4 or else they would measure 0ppm. The B-ionic varys depending on the coral load, but currently it's .5ml a day. I also examine the corals with a flashlight at night to look for hitchhikers. You'd be amazed what you find at night. I recommend that you keep checking the corals like this for the entire quarantine period as sometimes stuff doesn't show up for 6 or more weeks. Listing all of this out makes it sound like a lot, but I'm total its less than 1 hour a week.
Success rate for Corals has varied over time, but with the current maintenance regimen I would say 95%. In the beginning it was more like 50% due to a bunch of bad luck with wall hammers and bjd. Now that I know what to look for symptom wise, and with the help of the forbidden Cipro treatment I have only lost 1 hammer coral since.
Ok way more information than was asked for, so here's some more pictures. I didn't clean it for these photos, and it's been 5 days since cleaning the glass.
Current Inhabitants
Recovering Wall Hammer
Recovering Frogspawn. I thought this coral was a goner. It's proof that you should hang onto Corals for awhile even when you think they are dead. There was literally nothing left and it's grown back to what you see over the past 6 or so months.
Equipment on the back wall
Aquaclear HOB
Pico Aquariums Overflow Box
Lexan Lid
Control Board
Thanks for reading.