Just remember when using food instead of just dosing pure ammonia the food can take a day or two to actually start decomposing and releasing ammonia. I would prob. Let it go another day or two then check again just to be safe.
Guide to setup a Quarantine Tank (QT).
- Thread starter Dr. Reef
- Start date
Just remember when using food instead of just dosing pure ammonia the food can take a day or two to actually start decomposing and releasing ammonia. I would prob. Let it go another day or two then check again just to be safe.
shawnhayes2u
New member
bnumair: What are your thoughts on using quinine sulfate and chloroquine phosphate instead copper treatments? Also curious, I was always under the impression that any treatment killed everything, including bacteria? After reading this thread I see that's not true? So, keeping a biological source in the QT will help keep ammonia low for the QT period. Cycled water and some biology (floss, live rock etc) in the QT is the best way to achieve a stable QT?
shawnhayes2u
New member
bnumair:
I am setting up a 40-Gal long QT, bare bottom, with a spare small wet/dry filter with filter floss, bio-balls, red sea skimmer and using PVC for hiding spaces for inhabitants to come. Using water from my DT to start up the QT, DT has been fully cycled and running for months. Thoughts??
I am setting up a 40-Gal long QT, bare bottom, with a spare small wet/dry filter with filter floss, bio-balls, red sea skimmer and using PVC for hiding spaces for inhabitants to come. Using water from my DT to start up the QT, DT has been fully cycled and running for months. Thoughts??
Hi,
i personally have yet to use sulfate ad chl phos but i have been reading very good reviews on Reef Central, i think these studies are still in the early stage of the game... Regarding bacteria, no its not true that biological filtration dies completely using any treatment. i think the myth you are talking about is about copper. Chloramine is very safe form of copper that will wipe out about 20-25% of the beneficial bacteria but will not kill all of it. This is why i advocate if space/pocket permitted to keep a permanent QT which can handle a copper treatment with less difficulties than uncycled. Yes its best to setup a QT just like a normal saltwater tank with filter/floss/ceramic media and not use live rock or sand (if sand is needed then use pure silica sand).
water from DT itself will not bring you the bacteria you are looking for. In fact i wouldnt use DT water for many reason and start with freshly made saltwater. you can place the floss and filter in the sump or behind the live rocks of the DT and let them grow bacteria over few weeks and then place them into QT giving you instant cycle. Its again another myth that cycled water is what makes instant cycle tank. bacteria resides deep inside rock and sand and not free floating in water.
hope this answers all your concerns. Feel free to ask.
I have just placed 3 fish in my quarantine tank. My last experience was bad as far as quarantining fish. I think I started with to many fish and it overloaded the nitrification process. So I am trying again with 3 fish. I had ordered 4 fish but one of the Kauderns cardinal was DOA. I now have 1 Kauderns Cardinal, 1 cow fish, 1 Bluedot jawfish in a 110g tank. Ammonia is 0 and nitrite is 8ppb. Everyone is eating and appears healthy. They went in the tank Jan. 27. My question is should I just observe or should I prophylactically start to treat with medications? If I should start treating, with what and how? I plan on keeping this tank as a permanent quarantine tank, so I will probably leave the cardinal in it and possibly the cow fish until it gets a lot bigger. My DT has lots of Tangs. Thanks
Spar
New member
Depends on what you are wanting to treat prophylactically and your tolerance to guessing wrong if you don't do all that you can to begin with. If you don't mind pulling out all your fish down the road, fully treating while running your DT fallow for 10-12 weeks, then it is completely up to you whether you treat prophylactically now or not. Regardless, it is advised to observe in QT for 4-8 weeks.
If treating for Ich, you can just do TTM treatment prior to putting them in your permanent QT for the remainder of an observation period. You could also treat with Cupramine (copper) at .5ppm for 4 weeks, and if you have no live rock or sand in your permanent QT you could treat them there instead of a separate tank.
For velvet, brook and a few other extreme-nasties, most people just observe for 4 weeks minimum to ensure they aren't present, and then react later (copper, among other treatment methods). They are uncommon enough and the treatment is harsh enough that prophylactic treatment is generally not advised. Although, prophylactic treatment with copper will help with at least velvet, if already going down that road with Ich.
well said...
i do treat all fish with prazipro. Prazipro will cause milkyness of the water.
But that is the only treatment i do on all fish.
In case i am housing tangs i definitely treat them with copper or hypo.
shawnhayes2u
New member
I have two tanks (30 gal and a 40) running together as one QT system..(sump, skimmer, live rock for bio, 2 air stones) suggestions/recommendations/experiences on how many fish (inch of fish per gallon) for QT'n? Safely...
i have a similar Dual QT tank system. i have a 40g and 20g tank joined together via 1 sump. I dont use any skimmer or Live rocks or air stones. a simple 2 tanks and a sump with bio ceramic media for bacteria growth. a heater or chiller if needed. I have housed many fish in QT at same time as long as they are compatible and they do not fight etc. 3 gal per 1" of fish is something i generally keep in mind but not strictly follow.
on my last run i had 17 ignitus anthias in my 40g along with 6 chromis and few other non aggressive fish along while i had 3 tangs in my 20g tank. just to give you an idea.
Tin Man
New member
30g QT - All 3 died. Bumming.
I have a 30g QT setup with just a heater, circulating pump and HOB filter with white cloth. 29g Biocube DT has cycled and sitting devoid of fish or coral.
Week 1: Added Cardinal, yellow clown goby and firefish. On day 5 Cardinal and goby died. Didn't realize the white cloth had turned brown. Did a 50% water change, changed cloth. Firefish recovered.
Week 2: Firefish looking good, eating well, small amt ammonia present did another 50% water mid-week, swapped out filter cloth for new every 2 days.
Week 3: Firefish still doing well, did another 50% water change after amall amt ammonia detected while continuing to swap out filter cloth. 2nd day after water change, 3.5 weeks of QT, firefish died. Ammonia zero after each water change.
WTH? Was it because I bought the fish at costco even though my costco seems to be well kept and no sick fish in their tanks? No sign of disease. Didn't even appear stressed. All appeared well after first 2 died. I know this thread talks about a cycled QT and I was setup more like a hospital. THoughts? Suggestions? I can't believe I am back to square one and have to start a 4-6 week quarantine again or much longer if I have to cycle a QT. Bumming.
I have a 30g QT setup with just a heater, circulating pump and HOB filter with white cloth. 29g Biocube DT has cycled and sitting devoid of fish or coral.
Week 1: Added Cardinal, yellow clown goby and firefish. On day 5 Cardinal and goby died. Didn't realize the white cloth had turned brown. Did a 50% water change, changed cloth. Firefish recovered.
Week 2: Firefish looking good, eating well, small amt ammonia present did another 50% water mid-week, swapped out filter cloth for new every 2 days.
Week 3: Firefish still doing well, did another 50% water change after amall amt ammonia detected while continuing to swap out filter cloth. 2nd day after water change, 3.5 weeks of QT, firefish died. Ammonia zero after each water change.
WTH? Was it because I bought the fish at costco even though my costco seems to be well kept and no sick fish in their tanks? No sign of disease. Didn't even appear stressed. All appeared well after first 2 died. I know this thread talks about a cycled QT and I was setup more like a hospital. THoughts? Suggestions? I can't believe I am back to square one and have to start a 4-6 week quarantine again or much longer if I have to cycle a QT. Bumming.
I have few questions for you.
1. did you cycle the QT? i read later as no..
2. did you acclimate the fish before introducing to qt? salinity, temp and pH?
3. white cloth???? do u mean floss?
here are few concerns that stand out.
first off if qt is not cycled then adding fish to that will take a lot more than 50% water change every week or so. A non cycled tank will probably need to have water changed almost on daily basis with large quantities (50-75-100%) depending on bioload.
secondly changing your only source of bacteria harboring media (floss in ur case) in the middle of non cycled tank that is trying to cycle is invitation to trouble. that floss is starting to harbor bacteria and once you rinse it or replace it tank goes right back to cycling again day 1.
all across i see ammonia which is the number one cause of your fish being dead in my opinion.
here is what i would do if you are going to keep a hospital tank uncycled.
Place some floss in the established tank so it gets bacteria living in it.
one hospital tank is needed put together the tank, place water and equipment in it and move the floss from your main tank to hospital thus giving you an instant cycle, uses seachem stability to promote bacteria.
another way would be to setup a hospital tank and have a lot of water ready at same salinity temp pH as the hospital.
Do small amounts of water changes through out the day and do not let ammonia build up at all. ammonia in any concentration is deadly to fish burning gills and organs inside killing fish over few days to hours.
All these methods should be practice with the assumption that fish are bought from good source and arrive healthy. after temp acclimation salinity and pH acclimation is must as well. most fish store keep salinity low and a sudden salinity jump will throw fish into salinity shock.
Seachem Stability is a very good product which gives boost to bacteria and take new tank symptoms away.
Tin Man
New member
Appreciate the feedback. I was torn on going non-cycled vs. cycled. I thought non-cycled would make it easier to treat any disease that would come up. Or is it only copper that will off good bacteria in a cycled QT? I have another 12g I could use if I need to treat with copper.
cycled QT is much easier to handle as a hospital than non cycled. Try using stability it will pretty much give you instant cycle. Not sure which sk8r post you are referring to about changing cloth but in my experience as soon as you replace the media that is harboring bacteria you will throw the tank into cycle again
Copper (cupramine specially) does not kill all the bacteria only hurts it by about 20% in my yrs of experimentation.
here is a link to copper based treatment that touches that subject slightly.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=20614751#post20614751
Copper (cupramine specially) does not kill all the bacteria only hurts it by about 20% in my yrs of experimentation.
here is a link to copper based treatment that touches that subject slightly.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=20614751#post20614751
I have the cowfish, cardinal and jawfish now in quarantine for about 10 days. They all are eating and seem healthy. I haven't done a water change yet but nitrite is 4ppb and ammonia is zero. I am torn about treating with Prazipro. Do I put it in the tank, disconnect the skimmer and just wait for 5 days, then do a water change. I also wonder why a quarantine tank that is permanent cannot use copper if you have live rock. I don't have live rock but I have a block of the marine pure biofilter media. Is it that it kills the bacteria living in it?
Tin Man
New member
i was going by this thread
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2472596&highlight=qt
i am switching to cycled QT method now. thanks for your input
hob filter necessary?
So I have my 55g QT setup with a penguin 350 hob filter and a koralia 1200 gph. I changed out 15 gallons of water and went to go restart the penguin, won't restart. I tried disassemblying it, dumping water to prime it, etc. no go.
For the time being I added a second koralia on the opposite end of the other koralia so I have lots of flow/water surface.
My media for the cycle is on the bottom of the tank, I don't store it in the hob.
I am wondering if it is really necessary to have the hob or two koralias suffice?
If a hob is necessary can you recommend one besides the marineland because I am close to throwing it on the ground and smashing it (hulk smash).
P.S. the tank is one of teh $1 per gallon ones so I think certain filters don't fit it proper.
So I have my 55g QT setup with a penguin 350 hob filter and a koralia 1200 gph. I changed out 15 gallons of water and went to go restart the penguin, won't restart. I tried disassemblying it, dumping water to prime it, etc. no go.
For the time being I added a second koralia on the opposite end of the other koralia so I have lots of flow/water surface.
My media for the cycle is on the bottom of the tank, I don't store it in the hob.
I am wondering if it is really necessary to have the hob or two koralias suffice?
If a hob is necessary can you recommend one besides the marineland because I am close to throwing it on the ground and smashing it (hulk smash).
P.S. the tank is one of teh $1 per gallon ones so I think certain filters don't fit it proper.
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