Guide to setup a Quarantine Tank (QT).

[Dr. Reef]

That pretty much answerd it, I want to get a tank withiut fish, get it cycled, and in the mean time get a fish or two into quarintine, I was just wondering if I should do a quarintine procedure on the tank itself to ensure there is no unwanted "guests" In it from the previous owner.

Can I start cycling a hob filter in a bucket for now, looks like my qt is gonna be occupied for a bit while we get this ich delt with.
Thanks again

ok yes you can setup a 90 gal tank fresh start and cycle it and qt some fish while ur waiting on it to cycle. Main tank doesnt need fallow period but if you use live rock then there might be hitchhikers on it. i dont use live rock i do dry rock so i dont run into that situation.
You can do a HOB in a bucket as long as temp and pH and water parameters are maintained at acceptable ranges of saltwater and a deli shrimp to start a cycle.
Good luck

 

[Tom39]

I know this has been answered before but I just couldn't find it snd was hoping you could help me out.
When medicating with prazi pro, is it just a 1x dose and you let it run with no carbon or skimming?
For some reason I thought I recall reading that you dose 1x a day for 3 days and then let it run with no carbon or skimming.
Also, is the time that the meds are to run in the tank, 2 weeks? Then start water changes and running carbon?
Thanks,
Tom G

 

[Dr. Reef]

Hi tom39,
prazipro is designed to be used as a bath treatment rather than a tank treatment over days, so to account for that i usually double the dose by dosing regular manufacturer recommendation the first day and another dose third day. its harmless even in much stronger doses so there is no ill effect. Manufacturer also recommends to use it as a bath every 3 days so thats another reason why i dose 3rd day. Treatment lasting 1 weak. after 1st week i do 25% water change and redose a full dose again for the third time and let it ride the second week.
i hope i was clear.
good luck

 

[fishbreath69]

I have read on here a few times that a hob is better for a qt than a canister, I'm just wondering why. Canisters have more room for media, way more flow and from my experiences way more reliable. Ease educate me... lol
Thanks

 

[Dr. Reef]

Canisters become nitrate factories over time but in qt nitrates are not that of a big deal unless there is too much light to go with it and then u will have algae farms but if you keep up with water changes and keep nitrates low it shouldnt have any problem keeping up.

 

[fishbreath69]

Ok, thanks a lot

 

[Tom39]

bnumair,
Thanks for getting me straight. I knew there was a sequence to dosing, I just couldn't find or remember it.

I know many have said it prior but it is worth saying again.

Thank you for all your help and for the amount of time you have donated to helping and keeping this thread going. It truly is above and beyond.

Tom G

 

[Dr. Reef]

bnumair,
Thanks for getting me straight. I knew there was a sequence to dosing, I just couldn't find or remember it.

I know many have said it prior but it is worth saying again.

Thank you for all your help and for the amount of time you have donated to helping and keeping this thread going. It truly is above and beyond.

Tom G

Your welcome Tom. how is ur qt coming along and what do u have in it?

 

[mrpergo]

Hi tom39,
prazipro is designed to be used as a bath treatment rather than a tank treatment over days, so to account for that i usually double the dose by dosing regular manufacturer recommendation the first day and another dose third day. its harmless even in much stronger doses so there is no ill effect. Manufacturer also recommends to use it as a bath every 3 days so thats another reason why i dose 3rd day. Treatment lasting 1 weak. after 1st week i do 25% water change and redose a full dose again for the third time and let it ride the second week.
i hope i was clear.
good luck

I need to get this straight because my QT is almost cycled and would be getting fish. Here is my understanding from my reading so far.
Float the fish to acclimate for temp for 15 min. open bag and check sg, your QT should be the same as the place you get your fish. Then introduce fish to QT. After the first day or two use PraziPro (double the dose ) then 2 days later give them another blast of PraziPro, then 25% water change, wait 2 days and again with PraziPro. Then let your residents relax and observe for a month.
How's my interpretation ?
Taking it slow but I'm reading so many conflicting ways to do things.......lol

 

[Tom39]

Your welcome Tom. how is ur qt coming along and what do u have in it?

I have 3 pajama cardinals in the QT at this time. I actually put them in there last week but did not dose the prazipro this past until Saturday. I wanted to give them time to get used to the QT before I medicated them. The fish are eating and seem to be healthy and doing good.
The media in the canister filter is handling the bio-load and I have no ammonia readings in my tests. :dance:

Thanks again for everything,
Tom G

 

[Dr. Reef]

I need to get this straight because my QT is almost cycled and would be getting fish. Here is my understanding from my reading so far.
Float the fish to acclimate for temp for 15 min. open bag and check sg, your QT should be the same as the place you get your fish. Then introduce fish to QT. After the first day or two use PraziPro (double the dose ) then 2 days later give them another blast of PraziPro, then 25% water change, wait 2 days and again with PraziPro. Then let your residents relax and observe for a month.
How's my interpretation ?
Taking it slow but I'm reading so many conflicting ways to do things.......lol

Hi,
you have it 99% right. after float acclimation of fish wait 2 days then dose a regular amount of prazipro then 3 days later second dose. wait a week do 25% water change and do a third full dose and ride a week out. then so water changes and/or other treatment or just observation.

 

[Dr. Reef]

I have 3 pajama cardinals in the QT at this time. I actually put them in there last week but did not dose the prazipro this past until Saturday. I wanted to give them time to get used to the QT before I medicated them. The fish are eating and seem to be healthy and doing good.
The media in the canister filter is handling the bio-load and I have no ammonia readings in my tests. :dance:

Thanks again for everything,
Tom G

Sounds like things are moving along just fine.
Good Luck and Safe Reefing.

 

[mrpergo]

Thank You for clearing that up bnumair
My next question is how do you transfer your fish after the observation period from the QT to the display tank ?

 

[Dr. Reef]

I transfer fish from qt to main using the following method.
I take a bucket of main tank water. Using a dedicated qt net I scoop fish out of qt and drop them in bucket. Then using dt net I scoop them from bucket to main tank.
Reminder: before doing so please make sure that qt and dt water parameters are exactly the same. Salinity, temp, pH etc should match to the closest.

 

[SkyHawk]

Dead fish, any idea?

Dead fish, any idea?

Hi guys,

My fish in QT died last night. I am new to this hobby and this is/was our first fish so I am quite discouraged from his passing. Mostly because I don't know what I did wrong and so don't know how to correct the problem.

He was a small royal gramma. He was in QT about 6 weeks (I was just about to promote him to the DT). I did weekly 15% water changes. Last night I found him unusually lying against the corner of the tank. I could tell he was in trouble so I did an emergency 50% water change. This morning he was dead.

I would really like to understand this before I redo the same mistake. Here are the things I suspect.

1- Overfeeding resulted in ammonia toxicity.

I didn't think I was overfeeding but perhaps I was. I was feeding twice per day, morning and night. There were times when the fish seemed to be sleeping and just didn't come out to eat and so the food would be wasted. The tank has no rock in it so I imagine the biological filter can not handle much waste.

2- Malnutrition

He only ever ate mysis shrimp. Perhaps 6 weeks of this diet was bad for him. I have a small pellet food but he seemed unable to get these in his mouth so I stopped feeding it to him cause I didn't want the food to waste. I was going to buy some marine flakes and try that.

3- Depression

Like I said, I really don't understand why he died. The tank has no lights and perhaps living in the dark all the time (he was in a basement) was bad for him.

So what do I do now?

I tried to cycle the tank before I put the fish in but I don't know how well it worked. The tank has no rock and so I wonder how much bacteria can really live in this tank. I used a Salifert test kit to monitor ammonia but admit to having a difficult time reading any ammonia levels that may of been there.

 

[Dr. Reef]

Hi SkyHawk,
its anybody's guess why fish died but the major things to look for is ammonia and temp pH swings and salinity swings, basically all the major parameters of the water needs to be in balance and stable along with stress due to many reasons.
But for future i would advise to have the tank cycled properly and ready for fish to come in. once u have the fish follow the acclimation process on this website and then observe.
Good Luck.

 

[SkyHawk]

What do you use to monitor ammonia in your QT tank? I was using a Salifert test kit but never really found it to change much even when I cycled the tank prior to adding the fish. By change much I mean at all.

I was able to detect NO2 during the cycle and NO3 but ammonia I just don't see it. It's been a couple of days now and I've been thinking alot. I still think the problem was ammonia eventhough I can't seem to measure it with my kit.

I did a 100% water change and added the water from my display tank. I added another Royal Gramma to the QT. He's on day two now and has not eaten yet. So now I'm really worried about ammonia since I've got uneaten food scraps. I added some more media to the tank filter hoping that it will provide a larger home for nitrifying bacteria.

 

[Dr. Reef]

Lets take a step back and tell me what u ur setup consists of. Equipment sizes quality etc. Then tell me what did u do step by step day by day to cycle it. Then tell me what and how and where u got the fish and how u introduced it to qt. Please give all details.

 

[lovetoclown]

I'm sorry to ask but I can't find it in a search. When putting shrimps (cleaner,pistol,peppermint) in qt is there any pretreatment for them like prazipro and coopermine for fish and coral dips for coral. Also what about snails and crabs.

 

[Dr. Reef]

I'm sorry to ask but I can't find it in a search. When putting shrimps (cleaner,pistol,peppermint) in qt is there any pretreatment for them like prazipro and coopermine for fish and coral dips for coral. Also what about snails and crabs.

inverts cant survive copper at all. so i personally dont qt inverts. if you do want to qt them u have to have all parameters as a normal tank and acclimate them and observe over few weeks then move them to DT. for corals i use coral dip and place them into the main tank.
there is a guide i wrote i will post a link.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2157531&highlight=acclimation+of+new+corals