Guide to setup a Quarantine Tank (QT).

[Dr. Reef]

hi avandss
equipment looks fine.
Again a myth, there is no such thing as established water. bacteria is well deep inside the rocks and sand and not in water itself. Also importing water from DT will import problems of DT to QT.
I like to start QT with freshly made saltwater (aged atleast 4-6 hrs) and match all parameters to source ( if fish coming out of dt then qt should match dt parameters, if fish coming from fish store then match their parameters)
Chemipure will have no use in qt as phos is usually not an issue in qt. Bio Spira on the other hand is a starter bacteria that claims instant cycle but personally i dont have much faith in such products.
You can try it and see if it keeps ammonia at bay. a little experiment u can do with it is to start the qt and dose bio spira then add a deli shrimp to the tank and see if ammonia spikes in next 2-3 days. if not then ur good and pull the shrimp out. (pull shrimp out after 2-3 days anyways or when ammonia hits 1.5ppm)

 

[shermanator]

Hi
i am glad to hear that your qt and 2 clowns are doing well.
That is good news along with the news that ammonia is not in sight thats even better. I would not worry about prime till u notice ammonia. or better yet do water change at that time.
I prefer to so water change than use chemicals. just my personal thing.
I understand that LFS qt and use copper which is very good but 2 weeks is not good enough for ick. i would qt atleast 4-6 weeks more leaning towards 6.
prazipro is fine to use it wont hurt anything.
You can get the fire fish and qt them together with the clowns. 30gal should be able to handle all those 3-4 fish with ease. Remember the qt clock starts the day you add the last fish. Another thing that i would put a screen cover on the qt as fire fish are suicide jumpers.
Good Luck and i hope i answered everything. if not please feel free to add.

Thanks. I will stick it out for at least four weeks. I'm doing another WC today and was wondering if I should clean my aqua clear sponges. On my DT I clean them twice a week to avoid nitrates. I know nitrates are not an issue with fish only, so should I bother cleaning my filter in mt QT?

Thanks so much for all of your help. I love being able to come get expert advice here.

 

[shermanator]

One more unrelated question (but about QTs): my wife wants my current "ugly" QT out of the family room. It's next to my DT and it is ugly -- was once painted black on three sides and doesn't look pretty.

I told her I could buy a nice looking nano setup and she is considering it. I'm thinking I could keep it cycled and then once my DT is stocked, have a nano setup too. So my question is:

Would a 12 gal nano setup be OK for a QT that will be used to stock a 55 gal.? It would be 1-2 fish at a time max. I'm not sure she will go for a 24 gal nano. If it matters, I was thinking about the 12 gal JBJ nano tank.

thanks!

 

[Dr. Reef]

Thanks. I will stick it out for at least four weeks. I'm doing another WC today and was wondering if I should clean my aqua clear sponges. On my DT I clean them twice a week to avoid nitrates. I know nitrates are not an issue with fish only, so should I bother cleaning my filter in mt QT?

Thanks so much for all of your help. I love being able to come get expert advice here.

i strongly discourage that practice. Filters are the only place in your tank where the bacteria is living. in a small tank like your qt, once you clean the filters out more than likely most of the bacteria will get washed away, may throw the tank into cycle. If you have to clean the filters do it in between fish for it to bounce back in case.
I usually run my HOB with ceramic media in a media sock and in between fish i take the sock (or filter in ur case) and shake the debris off inside the qt tank never exposing the filter to air and never scraping hard or rinsing the media or sock with anything but saltwater.
After that give it enough time to produce bacteria back up before putting a fish in that tank.

 

[Dr. Reef]

One more unrelated question (but about QTs): my wife wants my current "ugly" QT out of the family room. It's next to my DT and it is ugly -- was once painted black on three sides and doesn't look pretty.

I told her I could buy a nice looking nano setup and she is considering it. I'm thinking I could keep it cycled and then once my DT is stocked, have a nano setup too. So my question is:

Would a 12 gal nano setup be OK for a QT that will be used to stock a 55 gal.? It would be 1-2 fish at a time max. I'm not sure she will go for a 24 gal nano. If it matters, I was thinking about the 12 gal JBJ nano tank.

thanks!

12 gal nano is a small tank but can be used as a qt, specially if your not gonna stock more than 1-2 fish at a time. Also nano tend to run hotter in temp and are usually more taller than lengthwise thus giving less space for fish to swim. These are just a few things i can point out other than that people have done it many many times.

 

[Robby2782]

This is an awesome thread! I've been reading through it and I apologize if this question has already been answered.

I'm getting ready to get a fish that I'm needing to quarantine and I sold my frag tank sooner than planned. I was planning on using a 10 gallon tank and was going to use rubble rock from my refugium to add the needed bacteria to break down nitrites/amonia.

Do you see any problem with this methodology? If I use medications like copper and prazipro I'll be boiling the rock in a couple weeks anyway along with other rock that I'm already planning on treating.

In the future I'll have a hang on filter running off my frag tank that is tied to my main system that I can use when I need to qt again…

Please help if I'm wrong...

 

[Dr. Reef]

This is an awesome thread! I've been reading through it and I apologize if this question has already been answered.

I'm getting ready to get a fish that I'm needing to quarantine and I sold my frag tank sooner than planned. I was planning on using a 10 gallon tank and was going to use rubble rock from my refugium to add the needed bacteria to break down nitrites/amonia.

Do you see any problem with this methodology? If I use medications like copper and prazipro I'll be boiling the rock in a couple weeks anyway along with other rock that I'm already planning on treating.

In the future I'll have a hang on filter running off my frag tank that is tied to my main system that I can use when I need to qt again"¦

Please help if I'm wrong...

Hi Robby
thanks for you kind remarks.
Its best to run QT bare with no rock. Any medication specially copper that you might dose in qt will be absorbed by the rock thus making your treatment in-effective. then more worse it might start releasing that copper back one day and imagine if you were already treating with copper making levels going over the safe range killing all the fish. Boiling rock may or maynot release the copper also boiling rock is dangerous, please google that.
Its best you get ceramic media rings or filter floss and place it in your main tank near the rocks or inside the sump for couple of weeks to pick up some bacteria on it. then move that floss/media to qt giving you instant or atleast almost instant cycle (depending on how much bacteria attached to media)
Also if i understood you correctly (i may have not)
do not attach your main tank to your qt in anyway. they both need to be separate independent systems.
Hope this helps.

 

[Robby2782]

I understand what you're saying, but I'm asking from a last minute resort standpoint.

Throwing out a a few pieces of rubble rock is an easy solution if that's the only reservation you'd have, and I would only use copper if the fish came down with ich. Prazipro might be the only treatment I'd feel inclined to use.

Just for biological purposes do you think this would work? I understand it's not ideal, but it's an irregular situation.

My apologies on my description of my qt/frag tank I'm running off my system. It's more of a holding tank that won't be used for chemicals, but used to hold frags or watch new fish being introduced to the display. I'm out on running two independent systems for now. It was too much hassle and burned me out for awile.

Thanks for your quick response and your feedback was appreciated!

 

[Dr. Reef]

a few pieces of rock in case of emergency or last minute wont hurt and will give you instand cycle but in worse case scenario if fish came down with ich and you have to treat with copper, you will need to pull the rock out and once you do that you will loose all the bacteria with it putting tank in cycle killing all your fish. this is why rock is never a good idea.
What you can do is setup the tank as a last minute resort with rock and place ceramic media or floss in the qt as well to seed. once seeded (couple of weeks or more) start removing rock one piece per every 3 days starting with small rocks first till all are gone.
hope this helps.

It will work for your situation and if disease occurs and need to medicate the tank follow the procedure of pulling rocks slowly.
Good Luck

 

[Robby2782]

Great idea. Thank you!

 

[Dr. Reef]

Great idea. Thank you!

Your welcome,
i have many fellow reefers and some cousins in Richardson/Murphy area and i travel to TX quiet often. Maybe we next time i am there and time and with ur permission we can take a look at your setup if you desire that is.
Let me know how the setup works out for you. keep me posted.
Good Luck

 

[avandss]

Thank you very much for the reply, it is truly appreciated

god knows how many fish lives you have saved!!!!

hi avandss
equipment looks fine.
Again a myth, there is no such thing as established water. bacteria is well deep inside the rocks and sand and not in water itself. Also importing water from DT will import problems of DT to QT.
I like to start QT with freshly made saltwater (aged atleast 4-6 hrs) and match all parameters to source ( if fish coming out of dt then qt should match dt parameters, if fish coming from fish store then match their parameters)
Chemipure will have no use in qt as phos is usually not an issue in qt. Bio Spira on the other hand is a starter bacteria that claims instant cycle but personally i dont have much faith in such products.
You can try it and see if it keeps ammonia at bay. a little experiment u can do with it is to start the qt and dose bio spira then add a deli shrimp to the tank and see if ammonia spikes in next 2-3 days. if not then ur good and pull the shrimp out. (pull shrimp out after 2-3 days anyways or when ammonia hits 1.5ppm)

 

[shermanator]

What is your opinion on the new QT dips? Is that something worth doing upon fish arrival and prior to putting in QT?

Here's what I'm talking about: http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+27698+21246+28154&pcatid=28154

I first read about them here on RC, but I have only found people saying they use the product and no real information on whether it's "worth it" and exactly what it is.

I seem to be a treat prophylacticly kind of person, so this appeals to me. Assume it works and makes sense.

Thanks!

 

[Dr. Reef]

This does same as Prazipro. In fact Prazipro is intended for a bath as described in the link you posted but I advocate longer treatment times such as a week in qt as Prazipro has no side effort will not stay in water that long neither can be over dosed and will rid flukes and some internal and external parasites.

 

[Brando457]

I have a sponge I've had sitting in my tank for awhile now and plan on setting up a 55g tank as a QT.

How long do I need to cycle the QT for after I transfer the sponge to it/before I add fish.

Thanks!

 

[Dr. Reef]

I have a sponge I've had sitting in my tank for awhile now and plan on setting up a 55g tank as a QT.

How long do I need to cycle the QT for after I transfer the sponge to it/before I add fish.

Thanks!

a sponge sitting in your main established tank should give you instant cycle in 55gal qt. A simple test would be to setup the qt and place the sponge in it and place a deli frozen shrimp (from walmart or grocery store) if you register no ammonia in next 24-48 hours your tank is cycled and you can pull the shrimp out after 48 hrs no matter anyways.
If no ammonia is registered after 48 of shrimp kick start then you can add 1-2 small to medium size fish.
If for some reason you do register ammonia then wait till the ammonia goes to 0 then nitrites will rise and drop to 0. once those 2 rise and drop to 0 then do a water change 50% and ur good to go with few small fish.
hope this helps.

 

[Spork3245]

Hi,

I'm attempting to set-up a QT as I need to pull all fish out of my DT due to ich getting in my tank. I'm trying to take advantage of petco's $1/gallon sale tomorrow but am unsure what tank sizes to purchase. My livestock includes a one spot fox face, flame angel, fairy wrasse, ocellaris clowns, diamond goby and a neon cleaner goby. I plan on keeping the angel separate due to copper sensitivity and my plan is a 10 gallon for the angel and then two 20 gallon long tanks with dividers for the remaining fish, is this adequate? The other option is to buy the flame angel its 10 gallon and go with a single 40 gallon breeder or 55 gallon for the remaining fish, with plenty of pvc. Any suggestions?

Also, will my diamond goby be okay in a bare bottom tank for 10-12 weeks?

Thank you!

 

[Dr. Reef]

angel will be able to handle cupramine. in many cases we have seen that over and over again you can search RC for it.
If you dont wanna treat angel separate then a 55 gal single tank will do the job. i say 55 as you mentioned it as the biggest tank. otherwise a 40 will be fine in most people cases.
If you do decide to treat angel separate then a 10 and 40 will do.
Hope it helps
Good Luck


Note: if you need help with cupramine or hyposalinity
here are links of guides i wrote that go step by step.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=20614751#post20614751
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2300497

 

[Spork3245]

Thank you so much! Should I use dividers with that size or no?

 

[Brando457]

thank you for your help