Guide to setup a Quarantine Tank (QT).

[Dr. Reef]

hypo will rid ich sooner or later. also hypo is best performed at 1.009. the theory is that fish can adjust to dramatic change in water chemistry while parasite cant and eventually die.
it takes atleast 30-90 days of hypo to fully rid the ich parasite.

 

[Dr. Reef]

hypo will rid ich sooner or later. also hypo is best performed at 1.009. the theory is that fish can adjust to dramatic change in water chemistry while parasite cant and eventually die.
it takes atleast 30-90 days of hypo to fully rid the ich parasite. when last ich is gone by observation and also make sure fish is breathing fine/normal (no ich in gill) then wait 4-6 weeks out after that. then over several days increase salinity 1-2 points everyday.
good luck.

 

[SloppyWhenWet]

Well does it help to keep this QT tank clear of anything? I got a few PVC and egg crate as cover along with the sponge. Is it possible to reuse the sponge? I'm using hypo only no chemicals.

 

[SloppyWhenWet]

Well does it help to keep this QT tank clear of anything? I got a few PVC and egg crate as cover along with the sponge. Is it possible to reuse the sponge? Do i want to remove these plastics as well? I'm using hypo only no chemicals. So many stages of the bug just looking for first hand experience.

 

[Dr. Reef]

Well does it help to keep this QT tank clear of anything? I got a few PVC and egg crate as cover along with the sponge. Is it possible to reuse the sponge? Do i want to remove these plastics as well? I'm using hypo only no chemicals. So many stages of the bug just looking for first hand experience.

pvc for fish to hide in or behind is fine and egg crate over is good too to prevent jumping. sponge is ur biological filter where bacteria is residing. you dont wanna touch that. if u wanna replace it u need to have a brand new replacement sitting in sump of ur main tank for 2-3 weeks so it can have enough bacteria when u replace the old one out.

 

[Deinonych]

Another question - how long should I expect a cycle to take on a QT? I dosed the tank with ammonium chloride to 1ppm a week ago and haven't seen much drop in NH3 levels.

I did add the ceramic rings in a media bag to my HOB filter 4 days ago -- appreciate the advice on that.

 

[Dr. Reef]

Another question - how long should I expect a cycle to take on a QT? I dosed the tank with ammonium chloride to 1ppm a week ago and haven't seen much drop in NH3 levels.

I did add the ceramic rings in a media bag to my HOB filter 4 days ago -- appreciate the advice on that.

every tank is different and every cycle is also different and it all depends of several thing in ur tank.
usually a qt should cycle in 1 month time to max 6 weeks.

 

[Deinonych]

Thanks...just trying to manage my own expectations.

 

[fyrfytr]

First saltwater tank. Was running fine....then out of nowhere had a fish loss, 48 hrs later all 5 were gone. I want to get back into this, but we still are not sure what killed them. None were quarentined, so this time around I will be making a spair 10gal a QT. Few questions:

1. How do I clean the old DT? There was no coraline build up and it was all dead rock and dead sand that I was trying to seed...so I can nuke the tank and not be out a lot
2. Fish died, the 12 snails and 2 peperment shrimp survived. What do I do with them?
3. Is it practical to cycle the DT and the QT at the same time, or would i be better off to leave the DT without fish (cant think of the word) and just cycle the QT and leave everything as is?

 

[nickbuol]

A couple of questions, how big is your DT? How long had it been up and running when this happened? I just want to get the full picture so that a quarantine process can be established correctly for you.

 

[keithhays]

Many of the questions in this thread have to do with establishing a biofilter in the quarantine tank. For those who don't have separate hospital tanks, establishing a biofilter in a tank where you are going to dose things that will destroy a biofilter seems to not makes sense. Even for those with hospital tanks, the quarantine tank ceases to be a quarantine tank if you don't bleach everything between batches of fish moving through it. I am curious for opinions on this as I am designing a system for doing this now with holding for new comers as well as hospital tanks?

 

[Dr. Reef]

First saltwater tank. Was running fine....then out of nowhere had a fish loss, 48 hrs later all 5 were gone. I want to get back into this, but we still are not sure what killed them. None were quarentined, so this time around I will be making a spair 10gal a QT. Few questions:

1. How do I clean the old DT? There was no coraline build up and it was all dead rock and dead sand that I was trying to seed...so I can nuke the tank and not be out a lot
2. Fish died, the 12 snails and 2 peperment shrimp survived. What do I do with them?
3. Is it practical to cycle the DT and the QT at the same time, or would i be better off to leave the DT without fish (cant think of the word) and just cycle the QT and leave everything as is?

48hrs to kill all fish is fast and sounds more like poisoning than ich unless u saw white spots all over the fish. my assumption is ammonia crept up on you.
most likely the tank was still cycling.
a bit more on the time frame and how u setup the tank and stuff will be more helpful to predict accurately.

1. can answer till i know if the tank was cycled or there was a parasitic problem. please state how the tank was setup and how was it cycled.

2. if the inverts survive then maybe the tank is cycled and u did get some disease in the tank. its best u sell them back to lfs or let someone with a very good qt procedure or been qt'ing for a while to take them for u.

3. If dt is not cycled then u can let it cycle and leave it fishless for 8 weeks. cycle will take atleast that much anyways. i am still confused if either ur tank is cycled or not and if parasite was cause of the mass death.

i would get the qt up cycled and going before anything. let me know about ur main tank size water parameter and cycle procedure and how it was setup. then i can give u a better advice.

 

[Dr. Reef]

Many of the questions in this thread have to do with establishing a biofilter in the quarantine tank. For those who don't have separate hospital tanks, establishing a biofilter in a tank where you are going to dose things that will destroy a biofilter seems to not makes sense. Even for those with hospital tanks, the quarantine tank ceases to be a quarantine tank if you don't bleach everything between batches of fish moving through it. I am curious for opinions on this as I am designing a system for doing this now with holding for new comers as well as hospital tanks?

i am not sure of ur question but i will try to clarify a few things.
Biofilter will not be distroyed even if u dosed cupramine in the qt IF biofilter is already established. I posted the email communication i exchanged with Seachem the manufacturer of the copper based medicine.
Also with my personal experience over yrs i have never seen a biofilter fail due to cupramine or prazipro or formalin.
If ur biofilter is established it will take a hit with cupramine a little but for most part it will stay intact.
Also i dont bleach between fish. i do 100% water change and 100% new filter (pre bio established by leaving them in sump of main tank) giving me an instantly cycled qt and place a small cardinal fish in it for keeping it cycled till new fish arrive.

 

[keithhays]

i am not sure of ur question but i will try to clarify a few things.
Biofilter will not be distroyed even if u dosed cupramine in the qt IF biofilter is already established. I posted the email communication i exchanged with Seachem the manufacturer of the copper based medicine.
Also with my personal experience over yrs i have never seen a biofilter fail due to cupramine or prazipro or formalin.
If ur biofilter is established it will take a hit with cupramine a little but for most part it will stay intact.
Also i dont bleach between fish. i do 100% water change and 100% new filter (pre bio established by leaving them in sump of main tank) giving me an instantly cycled qt and place a small cardinal fish in it for keeping it cycled till new fish arrive.

I am glad to hear you have experience with the Seachem products because I am checking different vendors exactly that information and Seachem is one of them. If for some reason I have to use a different vendor I might be in trouble because Seachem's site say the following about one of their products "ParaGuardâ„¢ is the only fish and filter safe aldehyde based..." I take them at their word for the most part, but like everything there are exceptions something else might have to be used that isn't filter safe.

I think maybe then:

• 1 long term 29 Gallon Fish holding tank (with biofilter, no medication that can't be used on everything)
• 1 long term 24 x 24¾ x 6 Tall Rimless holding tank (with biofilter, no medication that can't be used on everything
• Multiple 5 gallon Hospital tanks probably something I will pick up at a restaurant supply, plastic and can be disinfected or could just be thrown out if needed.
• Disposable tuperware like items for dips.
• Large central air pump
• Manifold and bubblers

?

 

[Dr. Reef]

guys here is a clarification of biofilter not being effected from email exchange between me and Seachem. Again through their claim and my personal experience over several yrs i have not seen any effect of cupramine on biofilter. precaustion advised.

for my satisfaction i emailed Seachem manufacturer of Cupramine. this is the response i got.

Tech Support
2:13 PM (51 minutes ago)

to me
Hello Mike,

Thank you for the email and for using Cupramine! As long as you have an established biological filter, the Cupramine will not have any impact on the beneficial bacteria. After the treatment, we recommend adding some Stability in order to give your biological filter a boost. As long as the Ammonia Alert is showing zero for ammonia, than you are in the safe zone. It only detects the Free Ammonia which is the form you are most concerned about in the aquarium.

I hope this information helps. Let us know if you have further questions.

Product Support
100215

 

[Dr. Reef]

I am glad to hear you have experience with the Seachem products because I am checking different vendors exactly that information and Seachem is one of them. If for some reason I have to use a different vendor I might be in trouble because Seachem's site say the following about one of their products "ParaGuardâ„¢ is the only fish and filter safe aldehyde based..." I take them at their word for the most part, but like everything there are exceptions something else might have to be used that isn't filter safe.

I think maybe then:

• 1 long term 29 Gallon Fish holding tank (with biofilter, no medication that can't be used on everything)
• 1 long term 24 x 24¾ x 6 Tall Rimless holding tank (with biofilter, no medication that can't be used on everything
• Multiple 5 gallon Hospital tanks probably something I will pick up at a restaurant supply, plastic and can be disinfected or could just be thrown out if needed.
• Disposable tuperware like items for dips.
• Large central air pump
• Manifold and bubblers

?

nice!. that is quiet a setup if u can manage/afford it. and if u plumb is right u can probably do a tank transfer method to control ich and dont have to mess with copper at all.
If one can afford multiple tanks that would be the way to go but most people have very limited space and funds so 1 tank can do the job if done properly.
Anyways i posted the email from Seachem again for others to benefit.

Note: heaters/chiller maybe required depending on what temp u hold water at. plus a drum or bin for holding ro/di and saltwater mix for emergency water changes. Also keep all tools separate for all tanks preventing cross contamination.
Goodluck and Happy Reefing.

 

[keithhays]

nice!. that is quiet a setup if u can manage/afford it. and if u plumb is right u can probably do a tank transfer method to control ich and dont have to mess with copper at all.
If one can afford multiple tanks that would be the way to go but most people have very limited space and funds so 1 tank can do the job if done properly.
Anyways i posted the email from Seachem again for others to benefit.

Note: heaters/chiller maybe required depending on what temp u hold water at. plus a drum or bin for holding ro/di and saltwater mix for emergency water changes. Also keep all tools separate for all tanks preventing cross contamination.
Goodluck and Happy Reefing.

I am slowly turning my house into an aquarium. Space is an issue and I am going to have to be creative. I have a 4x4 space next the aquarium floor to ceiling I will have to commandier from the supposedly "needed" coffee table and lamp.

 

[idflyfisher]

cupramine/flame angel

cupramine/flame angel

I want to jump in here as I just started treating a flame angel with cupramine. I followed the directions on the bottle and three days in the fish is now not eating. I have had the fish in QT for about a week. Three days ago noticed a single white "salt grain" on the pectoral fin. LFS said to treat with cupramine. Having now read that these fish are more sensitive to copper than others I reduced the level to .25 mg/L from .5 mg/L ppm using an api test kit to monitor. Is this level going to be effective?

 

[Dr. Reef]

I want to jump in here as I just started treating a flame angel with cupramine. I followed the directions on the bottle and three days in the fish is now not eating. I have had the fish in QT for about a week. Three days ago noticed a single white "salt grain" on the pectoral fin. LFS said to treat with cupramine. Having now read that these fish are more sensitive to copper than others I reduced the level to .25 mg/L from .5 mg/L ppm using an api test kit to monitor. Is this level going to be effective?

i dont recommend copper treatment for angels but cupramine is a very week and safe form of copper. i rather see u treat it hypo salinity than cupramine but if u continue with cupramine then atleast 0.35 needs to be maintained for atleast 2 weeks after the last ich falls off the fish and its breathing normal and not heavy(due to ich in gills we cant see)

 

[idflyfisher]

ok. I think I will go with the hypo treatment. Not real happy with the api test. really difficult to tell level based on different shades of color. thanks