Guide to setup a Quarantine Tank (QT).

[Dr. Reef]

Yesterday the ammonia spiked to 1.0. I put some rock in there added amquel and did a 50% water change. Ammonia went back to 0. Today 1.0 again. Did a 50% water change and added amquel again. Hopefully the spiking is the high point and the cycle will end soon. Fish all seem fine knock on wood. all eating and all swimming actively.

in an un-cycled qt ammonia is always the great problem. this is why i like permanent qt. anyways ur doing it right, keep a lot of water made and handy, u will need to do lot of changes before it gets under control.
keep testing and keeping that ammonia down to 0.
good luck.

 

[JonnyD91]

in an un-cycled qt ammonia is always the great problem. this is why i like permanent qt. anyways ur doing it right, keep a lot of water made and handy, u will need to do lot of changes before it gets under control.
keep testing and keeping that ammonia down to 0.
good luck.

Yeah, i thought i was good. the QT had been set up over a year ago. I just kept a bunch of live rock i wasn't using in the display in it. Cleaned out the rock and did some big water changes before the fish came and bam, ammonia. I guess i would have to keep something other than rock in it, to keep it up all year and have good biological filtration.

 

[Dr. Reef]

Only live rock with water will not hold cycle. Bacteria can only live in same ratio as ammonia being produced. With no livestock there is no ammonia so no bacteria. There are two ways yo hold cycle in un-used tank. Keep it running like normal watch parameters and either keep a small fish or keep ghost feeding it. Otherwise it will lose the cycle.

 

[JonnyD91]

Well to add insult to injury, i think my bicolor blennie may have ich. he has a few white dots in his fins, the look like pimple whiteheads, very small the size of a pinhead. IME ich shows up easily on the fins and most of the time it shows there first.

so.... I will monitor it for the next 2 days, then decide treatment. I have a flame angle in there and I hear they are sensitive to copper. I did a successful treatment with hypo once and with this ammonia present that may be the better way to go given i have to do the water changes so often, it may be easier to change water of a lower salinity then to change water dosed with copper.

Thoughts?

 

[LGB76]

I am just basically trying to see if I got the right idea.
just any basic bio-wheel HOB filter, with a heater and a power head in the QT.
Place filter floss or ceramic rings inside the DT sump to have a good bacteria count on them. Fill the QT with newly mixed saltwater, and test for ammonia while ghost feeding to make sure it falls back down to 0.
I should treat all new fish with atleast prazipro and treat with cooper only if signs of ick.
leave in QT for a minimum of 6 weeks...

 

[Dr. Reef]

I am just basically trying to see if I got the right idea.
just any basic bio-wheel HOB filter, with a heater and a power head in the QT.
Place filter floss or ceramic rings inside the DT sump to have a good bacteria count on them. Fill the QT with newly mixed saltwater, and test for ammonia while ghost feeding to make sure it falls back down to 0.
I should treat all new fish with atleast prazipro and treat with cooper only if signs of ick.
leave in QT for a minimum of 6 weeks...

yes u got it right. and qt for 8 weeks.
filter/rings go into main tanks sump for atleast 2-3 weeks to get good amount of bacteria on them.

 

[Dr. Reef]

Well to add insult to injury, i think my bicolor blennie may have ich. he has a few white dots in his fins, the look like pimple whiteheads, very small the size of a pinhead. IME ich shows up easily on the fins and most of the time it shows there first.

so.... I will monitor it for the next 2 days, then decide treatment. I have a flame angle in there and I hear they are sensitive to copper. I did a successful treatment with hypo once and with this ammonia present that may be the better way to go given i have to do the water changes so often, it may be easier to change water of a lower salinity then to change water dosed with copper.

Thoughts?

should i say oh no or ur lucky its not the main tank.. lol. anyways ich is not good but the good part is its in qt and not main where it could wipe out everything. anyways at this time just watch and see if ur not sure. place a pic here if u can. but if ur even slightly sure then start hypo. angels are sensitive and can take cupramine treatment but with ur tank situation i also recommend hypo.
good luck

 

[JonnyD91]

should i say oh no or ur lucky its not the main tank.. lol. anyways ich is not good but the good part is its in qt and not main where it could wipe out everything. anyways at this time just watch and see if ur not sure. place a pic here if u can. but if ur even slightly sure then start hypo. angels are sensitive and can take cupramine treatment but with ur tank situation i also recommend hypo.
good luck

Yeah, i went through ich in the display back in 2006 when i first started. Never again. No way were these new fish going to even look at the display before hanging in the QT for a good while.

 

[JonnyD91]

Best i can get so far, kinda hard to tell.

 

[Dr. Reef]

its ok. i cant see from the pic to be sure. but watch for signs. white spots heavy breathing shy behavior and not eating. keep me posted.

 

[hogfanreefer]

Hope it's not what you think it is! Fingers crossed.

 

[borg1of2]

I am 3 weeks in with fish in my QT. Clowns are doing well. Did the first water change (30%) after two plus weeks of Prazipro. My concern is that I have an Amonia reading of 0.25. Nitrates are at 10. What is the procedure to address the Ammonia being present? I also just now switched out the filter with a filter that has carbon to help with removing the Prazipro. Will that help with removing the Ammonia? Should I do water changes daily?

Any input would be appreciated.

 

[Dr. Reef]

running carbon and water changes are ur best bet. this new filter u put in? where did u get it from? was it brand new? it should have been in the sump of an established tank for it to get bacteria living on it. if u didnt do that and just got it brand new and replaced it with the old one u let all ur bacteria out too with the old filter causing the tank to go into mini cycle.
test ammonia everyday and do water changes daily till mini cycle passes. u can use amquel or prime to keep it at bay as well but i prefer water changes.

 

[borg1of2]

running carbon and water changes are ur best bet. this new filter u put in? where did u get it from? was it brand new? it should have been in the sump of an established tank for it to get bacteria living on it. if u didnt do that and just got it brand new and replaced it with the old one u let all ur bacteria out too with the old filter causing the tank to go into mini cycle.
test ammonia everyday and do water changes daily till mini cycle passes. u can use amquel or prime to keep it at bay as well but i prefer water changes.

Yes, the new carbon filter was new, not coming from any sump? However, the Ammonia was measured and detected, prior to putting in this new filter. The only thing done to the QT was the water change. We will monitor Ammonia, and do water changes.

Is the new filter issue, because of the carbon? Should I have the next filter for my HOB sitting in my sump, with and without carbon? Why wouldn't my DT cycle, by putting this filter inits sump?

 

[Dr. Reef]

Yes, the new carbon filter was new, not coming from any sump? However, the Ammonia was measured and detected, prior to putting in this new filter. The only thing done to the QT was the water change. We will monitor Ammonia, and do water changes.

Is the new filter issue, because of the carbon? Should I have the next filter for my HOB sitting in my sump, with and without carbon? Why wouldn't my DT cycle, by putting this filter inits sump?

remember, new filter means no bacteria and no bacteria means cycle.
thus when ever u have to replace filter replace it with an established filter. u can establish a new filter by placing it in sump or near rocks of an already precycled tank. if ur dt has been cycled and established u can place a few extra filters in the sump or near rocks and let them have bacteria grow on them.
carbon or no carbon is all dependent of how u will use the filter.
if ur removing meds from qt then carbon is required but if ur dosing meds then no carbon.

 

[Dr. Reef]

Email Question from Chaaban:

" Me again
Hi there, I just have a quick question, earlier tonight i started my QT because I'm supposed to have my first 2 fish (clowns) on the 10th.

The tank is a 10G with the HOB filter with the carbon pad replaced with the clay cylinders filter media, also has a heater and light.

I put 5 cups of salt in the tank and RO/DI and i added a raw frozen shrimp after the salt was completely mixed.

My question is do you think my QT tank will be ready for the fish coming on the 10th? If not is there anything i can do? I would hate to cancel my order

Please let me know what you think!

Thanks

Ryan "

 

[Dr. Reef]

Hi Ryan
10 days may or may not be enough for cycle to complete. test ammonia and when it reaches 1 to 1.5ppm take the shrimp out. let cycle continue once ammonia and nitrites are down to 0 then u can do a 50% water change and ur tank is ready for new fish.
now if for some reason cycle is not complete by the time ur fish arrive have a lot of water ready freshly mixed and ages atleast 24 hrs. match temp and salinity. do daily water changes to keep ammonia and nitrites down to 0 and use products like amquel or prime etc. till cycles finishes.
good luck.

 

[tanzer16]

Another quick question regarding cycle:


I am still in the process of waiting for my 10g qt to finish cycling.....I have hob filter with ceramic rings and used one shrimp to get cycle going. It definitely got it going, as I left in about a week and ammonia was top of charts on API test. Took a couple of weeks for ammonia to drop, then nitrites and nitrates came along nicely.

Now.....my ammonia is near zero, and nitrites seem like they're hung up somewhere around 2-5 ppm (hard to differentiate on API color chart) for the last two weeks. Nitrates were up around forty and are now between 10 - 20. Why aren't nitrites falling? Should I just wait it out, or perform a water change? Its been cycling for about a month total.

I have a sponge filter I could throw in as well if ceramic rings aren't enough

 

[Dr. Reef]

nitrites usually take twice as long in the cycle than ammonia. so i would wait it out and also mean while take a sample to a fellow reefer or lfs or local reef club to get a second opinion on the test results. but to me it still looks like as cycle in process.

 

[Kawi9_cf]

I would really like to know more about the proper ways (what salinty, how long, when to use it) to use hypo-salinity and how it works. I have 10 gallon temporary tank set up right now while I am waiting on my new tank to cycle. I plan on keeping the tank running and using it as my qt tank whenever I get new fish.

I would prefer to keep copper out of the tank.