Clown QT for Dummies

[WDLV]

Clown QT for Dummies

This subject comes up a lot on all the forums I frequent, and when it doesn't, there's usually an unhappy reefer somewhere and at least one fewer clown in the world. In an attempt to do my part to promote the hobby, I'm posting this everywhere I frequent....

Materials:
10 gallon tank.
Air Pump and Air Stone - OR - a HOB filter.
Appropriately sized heater
PVC fittings big enough to hide in
El Cheapo glass thermometer.
Bottle of Amquel
Bottle of Formalin III
Egg crate or other plastic screen to cover the top
Hydrometer
½ Pint deli container.

Day one:
Install the heater, HOB filter and thermometer. Do not use any carbon in the filter. Fill the tank half way with tank water (1.023-1.025). Catch the fish with the plastic deli container (think slow moving like a jellyfish.) not using a net will help reduce the chance of scratching off the immune aiding slime coat and scales of the fish. Add the fish to the QT tank. Slowly add fresh water until you reach a SG of 1.009 taking care to maintain temperature. An hour for this process is plenty slow. When you reach 1.009.
Your tank should be about full. Fudge the difference to reach the water mark on the heater. Adjust your heater so the water is at a constant 76F-78F.
Add 1mL/Gallon Formalin III to the tank and 0.5mL/Gallon Amquel.

Day two:
Change 50% of the tank water with pre-mixed, pre heated water at 1.009 SG and be sure to add the appropriate dosage of Formalin III and Amquel before adding it to the tank. You should be using freshly made salt water at this point to avoid adding pathogens to the QT. Do this for the first week and twice a week thereafter. Be sure to scrape and syphon off everything from the bottom and sides of the tank to keep cysts at bay. Another option is to swap tanks and clean them out with tap water daily. After the first week you can cut back to twice a week water changes as long as the water continues to look clear. You can clean the filter pads with a heavy jet of tap water or change it out daily if you prefer. I would keep the newcomers in this treatment for at least a month.

Your primary concern is Brooklynella hostilis (brook), your secondary concern is Amyloodinium (velvet), your third concern is Cryptocarion irritans (ick.) I make no claims to my spelling accuracy. 
The hyposalinity is to make the paracites expand so fast trying to reach osmotic balance that they explode. The Formalin III is the best known treatment for brook, which will kill your fish the fastest of the three mentioned. It is a mediocre treatment for velvet and is about the same with ick but it is effective for a long term treatment. If you insist, you can switch over to the copper treatment of your choice a week or so after starting this regamin. Be sure to get all the formalin out before doing this. I would also recommend ramping up the copper treatment rather than reaching the full dose all at once.
The three paracites mentioned above all attack the gills first. That's why you see the fish breathing fast and "flashing" before you see any other symptoms. It is also why fish often die while the aquariest is busy looking up the weird skin lesions they just noticed.

This will not save every fish but it has about a 90% or better success rate with new arrivals and about a 75% success rate with mildly sick fish. I exclude the outliars (A. nigripes.) They ship like water in a burlap bag.
This is my version of a treatment recommended to me by a fellow reefer while my leucs were sick and laying on their side with brook. I still have them a year later.
Good luck and feed them flake or pellet food like you're starving them to keep down Ammonia. If they get a bite or two each, they're fine.

I am not responsible if your fish dies. This is a wonderful and sometimes tough hobby. You assume your own financial and emotional risks by indulging in it. My hope is that some of you will use this as a means of finding your own method that works best for you.

Good luck and happy reefing!

[Corrie]

Walt, 1 ml per 1 gal, is 1 cc per 1 gal.
That's way to strong for a 24 hour formalin bath.
I think you meant 1 cc per 10 gals.

[WDLV]

This is what I've been using for QT with no known ill effects. I do realize that this is not consistant with the directions indicated on the bottle. I will post this elsewhere.
I think it's important that people know this. Thanks for pointing that out!

So to revise that....

I thought I should point out that the dosages that I've been using are not consistant with the recommendations on the bottles of Formalin III and Amquel. I have not witnessed any ill effects from using it this way, but if you want to use as directed on the bottle I would go for the max dose recommended. Which are:
Formalin III - 2mL/10 gallons.
Amquel - 0.5mL/10 gallons.

Thanks again Corrie.

[Corrie]

A little info on formalin.

Formalin works by de-naturing proteins. It's one of those odd things that we use for meds in the sense that stronger does not make it work faster or better. And then that's not true all the time either.
If you have a dirty system, or are using some sort of filtration like you would use to try and reduce nitrates. Where you are letting crud sit and rot. Formalin will burn out of solution pretty fast. So you would need a high dose if you are trying to maintain it over time.
In a clean system, like a quarantine system, a standard dose would be more like 1 1/2 cc's per 10 gal, for a long duration bath. That's figuring the 1/2 cc will burn off by the end of day two.

I like this way.
Day one, 1 1/2 cc per 10 gal.
Day two, nothing
Day three, large water change and siphon, 1 1/2 cc per 10 gal.
etc etc
for a total of three treatments with formalin. For a total of 6 days that the fish is treated.

Reason being, you would hit most parasites reproductive stage that way, and you will get rid of flukes.

Don't forget, saltwater fish drink a lot of water. I would not dose it too strong for too long for that reason, and also gill burn. I've never seen one of my fish react badly from the 1 1/2 cc per 10 gal dose.

[WDLV]

Walt, 1 ml per 1 gal, is 1 cc per 1 gal.
That's way to strong for a 24 hour formalin bath.
I think you meant 1 cc per 10 gals.

Hey, wait a minute.... After reexamination.... it says on the bottle that you should use 1 teaspoon (5ml) per 10 gallons of tank water. It also says that it can be used at twice the usual dosage. 5ml x 2 =10ml. Which is exactly what I recommended. 1ml/gallon of tank water is the same as 10cc/ten gallons of tank water.
So, I was not incorrect or out of tolerance with the recommendations of the manufacturer. You got me!

[Corrie]

They are all over the place with it.

From their website: Novalek - Kordon - Formalin-3

First they say for a long bath:
"the dosage should be varied from 1 to 2 teaspoons per 10 gallons (10 to 20 ppm.) "

In the next paragraph they say for a short dip:
"Add 1 to 2 teaspoons of Formalin·3. This produces a concentration of 100 to 200 ppm. formaldehyde."

Then they go on to quote Merck:
"Formalin eliminates protozoan parasites and monogenean trematodes from the external surface of fish. It can be used as a prolonged bath at concentrations of 15-25 mg/L. A concentration of 25 mg/L is equal to 2 drops/gal."

I've tried it all, even treated fish while they were spawning or tending eggs.
You're safe with 1cc/10gal, and because of the nature of formalin, it works just as well.

[WDLV]

I'm just glad I wasn't wrong. For a while I thought I was wrong but clearly I was mistaken. :D

[Corrie]

Walt, 1cc/gal is what you would use for a short dip. 15mins to maybe an hour.

1-1 1/2cc/10gal is what you would use for a week long bath like you are doing.

[WDLV]

I hear you but I choose to follow the label because it's working for me. My label states what I mentioned above. 1-2 teaspoons/10 gallons.
As far as I can tell the only thing wrong with doing it that way is that it costs me more money because I use more of it.
I mean you no disrespect, I'm just doing it differently. If at some point I see some harm in it, I can always modify the way I use it.

I think we've beat this horse to death. Moving on....

Are there any medications that you'd recommend for internal paracites? I haven't detected any, but I'd like to know what the better treatments are. I have no experience with these types of meds... unless you count the garlic enhanced pellet food that Spectra makes.
Also, are there any symptoms that would indicate the presence of them other than stringy poop?

[Corrie]

You probably won't see any thing wrong.
You do want to breed this fish later, don't you?

I have not seen anything available to hobbyists that would work on all different internal parasites.
Most of the time when fish have white or stringy poop, it's not parasites anyway.