Parasite Control

[Luv2scuba]

Hello
I have been searching around for a while now trying to find an answer to this question. Hopefully some can give me some advice.

I am setting up a 400 gallon (yes 400g) saltwater fish holding system, or fish display tank, like what you see in pet stores, a sectioned three level aquarium. I have no more room for any quarantine tanks for the new arrivals.

Because the water flows from one end of the tank to the other end of the tank and I can effectively keep fish in seperate sections, my plan is to put the new arrivals near the end of the tank that drains into the wet/dry filter effectively draining any parasites that fall the new fish into the filter media. I know the filter media alone will not effectively trap all the parasites.

So my question to you all would be, what can I do to effectively kill any parasites that drain into the wet/dry before they come back out to the return pump and are pumped back to the front of the tank. I have thought of micron filters and UV sterilizers but I think the flow is to high for micron bags and the UV sterilizers are not effective enough to kill everything. Id like a pretty solid way to kill 99% of the parasites before they are pumped back to the beginning of the tank.

Any suggestions would be helpful.

[reefplayground]

Just off the top, parasites are only part of risk of adding many fish. Bacterial and Fungi infections will be an issue as well.

There really isn't a way of preventing pathogens from coming out of the other side of the aquarium.

As far as parasites, an very over-sized UV sterilizer will help out a bit. Keeping your system in low salinity will help. Dipping new arrivals for the first week or so will help.

[lostanime]

UV for the most part doesn't (and isn't intended to) kill parasites. It's for sterilizing (making so they cant multiply...) and as you've mentioned, definitely is not 99% effective. Most aren't even 50% effective on the first pass which means the parasites could be loose everywhere quickly. Furthermore, UV bulbs lose effectiveness progressively over a year, plus the shield over the bulb needs to be cleaned very regularly... they don't do much of anything once the shield gets clouded up from calcium deposits, etc.

I would also steer clear of dropping your salinity... the salinity levels that truly hinder ich and other pathogens is VERY low (1.010 SG) and depending on your fish could be doing alot more harm then good. What kills ich can kill fish.

If your serious about wanting to keep multiple separate fish tanks that cannot share pathogens, I would strongly recommend looking into some heavy duty ozone (not the dinky ones sold at pet stores). This is dangerous stuff, proper monitoring and running activated carbon to prevent ozone from getting back into your tanks with critters will be a must... but it will kill pathogens, and pretty much any organics that it comes in contact with.

[Luv2scuba]

Great advice
After some further reading the ozone I think is definitely a good way to go, I am a little concerned about running it indoors but it will be in a fairly well ventilated room.
Thanks for the advice!!