Guide to setup a Quarantine Tank (QT).

[rjjr1963]

after treatment, use carbon,polyfilter/cuprasorb to reduce copper down to 0. once 0 you can take a bucket of DT water and net the fish out of QT and place it in bucket. then using a DT net net the fish out and move to DT.

If I buy several fish from my local store that are in the same tank can I then QT them in the same tank? What about shrimp, crabs and other sorts of live stock do they need to be QT as well? I'm going to build a 180 gallon mixed tank but the focus will be on fish. I like lots of activity in my tanks so I'll have mostly smaller fish to start out with. I could set up two QT tanks but if I'm limited to 1 fish per tank it will take a fair amount of time to build up a population.

Thanks for the advice.


One other thing I forgot about. You mention using a frozen shrimp to seed the tank. What kind of shrimp are you referring to? A frozen shrimp like a human would eats?

 

[Dr. Reef]

If I buy several fish from my local store that are in the same tank can I then QT them in the same tank? What about shrimp, crabs and other sorts of live stock do they need to be QT as well? I'm going to build a 180 gallon mixed tank but the focus will be on fish. I like lots of activity in my tanks so I'll have mostly smaller fish to start out with. I could set up two QT tanks but if I'm limited to 1 fish per tank it will take a fair amount of time to build up a population.

Thanks for the advice.


One other thing I forgot about. You mention using a frozen shrimp to seed the tank. What kind of shrimp are you referring to? A frozen shrimp like a human would eats?

Depending on the size of fish and your QT, you can have multiple fish at once in same tank. i generally use the rule of 1" of fish per 3-5 gal of water. so for example you buy 5 small fish all 1" size then u need minimum of 5x3=15 gal of tank.
i personally dont QT inverts.
Yes any shrimp from walmart for human consumption like in deli area will work. Purpose is for it to decompose in tank and starting the bacterial process.

 

[sensei]

Merry Christmas!

I filled my 120 gal Quarentine tank 2 days ago.
I used 25 gal of Water from my DT (to add nutrients in Water since I am going to quarentine coral) and 90 gal of freshly prepared salt water
I seeded the QT Tank with ceramic rings that were in my DT for a month and dosed stability.
yesteday I feed the tank with reed roids powder ( mixture of marine planktons)
today I tested and had the following results:
Amonia = 0
Nitrate = 6ppm
Nitrite = 0.05
Phosphate = 0.12

How can I know if the tank is cycled and safe to start adding coral??
should I dose powder food every day??
waiting for your reply

 

[mrpergo]

add an ammonia source to get to 2 and see if its gone the next day
if you have nitrates already looks good to me but I would check with the addition of
ammonia and see if its gone the next day

 

[Dr. Reef]

Happy Holidays
Yes add a bit of ammonia in form of food or 100% ammonia in bottle to atleast 1.5 ppm then test 4 hrs later. ammonia should drop to 0 and you might see some nitrites and definitely rise in nitrates. this will be indication of a cycled tank.

 

[sensei]

Happy Holidays
Yes add a bit of ammonia in form of food or 100% ammonia in bottle to atleast 1.5 ppm then test 4 hrs later. ammonia should drop to 0 and you might see some nitrites and definitely rise in nitrates. this will be indication of a cycled tank.

how do I know how much food to add?
what kind of food should I add?
I added reef roids powder thinking that it would do the job, but I am not sure if it did since I added it yesterday and today there is cero amonia in water.
should I add a raw shrimp a live it there until amonia is 1.5 or 2 ppm and then pull it out???

should the shrimp spike amonia in one day??

Thanks

 

[Dr. Reef]

how do I know how much food to add?
what kind of food should I add?
I added reef roids powder thinking that it would do the job, but I am not sure if it did since I added it yesterday and today there is cero amonia in water.
should I add a raw shrimp a live it there until amonia is 1.5 or 2 ppm and then pull it out???

should the shrimp spike amonia in one day??

Thanks

place a deli shrimp in the tank for 3-4 hrs and check for ammonia. whatever the reading is record it and then check 24 hrs later to see if ammonia has decreased to 0. if it has pull the shrimp out regardless and wait till ammonia hit zero and ur biggest indicator will be nitrites and nitrates spike. which we know today they are 0.5 and 6ppm respectively.

 

[sensei]

Thanks Bnumair,
The shrimp was in the quarentine tank for 5 hours
you can fill the rotten smell beside the tank, wife started complaining...

I took the shrimp out because I guess it will rott all the water if it stays all night. I do not have a chiller in this tank and water is at 80.5 F
I guess the rotten smell indicates decomposition which would result in amonia right?
But, I tested amonia and it tests cero. could this indicate that tank is cycled?
I tested nitrities and it is cero now ( went down from 0.5 in the morning to cero now)
I tested nitrates and I can tell it is more than 5 and less than 10 but not sure if more than previous reading of 6, maybe a little more but not to much to jump to 10
What do you think?
did I do the right thing taking shrimp out after 5 hours?
what should I do next?

Thanks for your help

 

[Dr. Reef]

i would put 2-3 good size pinch of fish food in the tank and leave it to test tomorrow and report all test results. then we can be for sure.

 

[sensei]

Bnumar,
today in the morning I dosed the tank 1 cube of myses, 1/2 tsp of reef roids and 1/4 tsp of coral frenzy.
My test result 12 hours later are as follows:
Amonia : 0.1
Nitrite : 0.1
Nitrate: more than 5 but still not 10, I guess is still the same, around 6
I run a skimer in this Coral QT tank so it took out a lot of the food that I added

I added one frag of pulsing xenia and it started pulsing, do you know if it would pulse in a non cycled tank?

any conclusion with these results?
it seems that amonia does not go up?
any recomendation?

Thanks for your help

 

[sensei]

Bnumair,
I measured again today morning and the results are:
Amonia: cero or almost cero
Nitrite went up from 0.05 ( first measurement 2 days ago) to 0.2 today
Nitrate went up from 6 to around 7.5
would the tank be considered cycled or changes in numbers need to be more drastic to conclude??

Thanks for your answer

 

[mrpergo]

personally I think its cycled. I would do a large water change to reduce nitrates and start adding fish

 

[Dr. Reef]

Yes it sure looks like tank is cycled. Do a water change and I think you are good to go.
Good luck and happy reefing

 

[sensei]

Thanks,

one more question:
why do a Water change now?
I ask because nitrates are not high

thanks for your answer

 

[Dr. Reef]

Thanks,

one more question:
why do a Water change now?
I ask because nitrates are not high

thanks for your answer

nitrates are not to high at this point but will get higher as all the food you put in there decomposes and bacteria finally catches on and produces nitrates.
if you do a water change now and siphon out most of the food and debris off the rocks and sand etc chances are you will not see a spike in nitrates thus giving you a head start over all the nitrate related issues.
you dont have to do water change at this time and can wait till nitrates shoot up a little, its my personal preference, i rather have a head start.

 

[sensei]

nitrates are not to high at this point but will get higher as all the food you put in there decomposes and bacteria finally catches on and produces nitrates.
if you do a water change now and siphon out most of the food and debris off the rocks and sand etc chances are you will not see a spike in nitrates thus giving you a head start over all the nitrate related issues.
you dont have to do water change at this time and can wait till nitrates shoot up a little, its my personal preference, i rather have a head start.

Thanks!
what % Water change would you do??

I will start treating my fish with Total transffer method. I will use 30 gal QT, since there is no biofilter in these tanks should the food for the fish be very limited to avoid amonia spikes?
or that should not be an issue if I use prime to protect against amonia?

 

[Dr. Reef]

Thanks!
what % Water change would you do??

I will start treating my fish with Total transffer method. I will use 30 gal QT, since there is no biofilter in these tanks should the food for the fish be very limited to avoid amonia spikes?
or that should not be an issue if I use prime to protect against amonia?

i would do 25% atleast or 50% at most on water change.
in an unclycled tank with fish, put just enough food for fish to consume within 2 minutes. Not just throw bunch of food in there and assume its enough for 2 min. whats best is to put a little watch fish eat then put a little more watch them eat and so on till they lose interest or actual feeding time was 2-3 min. in uncycled qt keep actual feeding under 2 min. if you can siphon out uneaten food after feeding. these steps will prevent ammonia along with help of prime.
note prime will give false ammonia reading on test. the more they eat more they will poop which is also a contributor for ammonia.

 

[sensei]

Thanks a lot Bnumair

a couple more comments and questions:
1.- I have read in this thread that you do not quarentine invertebrates, like snails or shrimps. You have never had an issue not quarentining them? is there something you do to prevent ich cyst comming from a coral plug or rock or an invertebrate shell?

2.- The Quarentine tank that I have ready is for coral and invertabrates only not for fish. the plan is to treat them in batches of 3 months to be 100% sure there is no ich when I move them to my new DT. I will treat all fish with TTM and prazipro. I am seting up a new 470 g DT and I want to be 100 % sure no ich comes into the new system.
I would like to seed the new 470 g DT but I never treated fish in my actual 150g DT so I have to assume that it has ich ( although fish look fine). I did not mind seeding the QT coral tank with seeded rings from my actual DT because it will always run fishless.

A friend from RC recommended me to seed the ceramic rings in a 10gal bucket with new saline water, an air tube in it , add stability everyday and add food every 2-3 days for 2-4 weeks.

- my question is how much ceramic media should I use to seed this new system??
it has a 470g DT, 120 g sump and a 70g sea horse DT connected to the same system.

- do sea horses get ich?? I ask because if so I need to do TTM to them also.

any reccomendations you would like to make??

Thank you very much

 

[Dr. Reef]

Thanks a lot Bnumair

a couple more comments and questions:
1.- I have read in this thread that you do not quarentine invertebrates, like snails or shrimps. You have never had an issue not quarentining them? is there something you do to prevent ich cyst comming from a coral plug or rock or an invertebrate shell?

i have never used qt for inverts or corals. chances are very rare for ich to make it on inverts but a cyst can be carried on an invert to a new system. i generally use coral dip like revive or coralRx as per manufacturer recommendation and move them to DT. i guess i have been lucky so far. if you have a very healthy / clean system one cyst that made it through will probably not last as it need weak host fish. if your fish are healthy they will most likely fight it off.

2.- The Quarentine tank that I have ready is for coral and invertabrates only not for fish. the plan is to treat them in batches of 3 months to be 100% sure there is no ich when I move them to my new DT. I will treat all fish with TTM and prazipro. I am seting up a new 470 g DT and I want to be 100 % sure no ich comes into the new system.

i see nothing wrong with that if you like to be very sure.

I would like to seed the new 470 g DT but I never treated fish in my actual 150g DT so I have to assume that it has ich ( although fish look fine). I did not mind seeding the QT coral tank with seeded rings from my actual DT because it will always run fishless.

A friend from RC recommended me to seed the ceramic rings in a 10gal bucket with new saline water, an air tube in it , add stability everyday and add food every 2-3 days for 2-4 weeks.

- my question is how much ceramic media should I use to seed this new system??
it has a 470g DT, 120 g sump and a 70g sea horse DT connected to the same system.
you dont need a whole lot, seeding is just that , seeding...so a little amount from an established source or few pounds of live rock will get the process going.

- do sea horses get ich?? I ask because if so I need to do TTM to them also.
its rare but they can in gills and fins but very rare.

any reccomendations you would like to make??

here is a link to acclimation guide i wrote that might be helpful http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2157531&highlight=acclimation+of+new+corals
Thank you very much

 

[sensei]

Thanks, here are more questions. I hope you do not mind, jajaj
1.- I planned to use the shrimp method for cycling this big system ( 600+ galon)
Since it is big how many shrimp do you think I would have to put in and for how many days.?
I will seed it with ceramic rings with bacteria and also plan to dose stability.
how many days should I dose stability in addition to the seeding?

one thing that I worry is the smell of the tank. When I did it in the quarentine coral fishless tank I put only one shrimp for 7 hours and my wife started complaining.

I know we have to measure amonia, nitrite and nitrate to be sure tank is cycled, but in quarentine tank amonia levels never got above 0.1 and nitrite was 0.2 the highest. so in big system it could also happen that amonia levels do not sky rocket also. I do not know if this is not good for starting a new tank?

please tell me what you think.

2.- Quarentine coral fishless tank:
tank is cycled and with coral in it. since there is no fish in tank, I am only using coral food such as reef roids and coral frenzy ( both powders). would these kind of food keep the bacteria happy? I ask becuase I am not sure if they will add amonia for the bacteria? do I have to feed these foods every day of every other day would be fine for the bacteria?

thanks a lot