Guide to setup a Quarantine Tank (QT).

[ArmanS]

Update, unfortunately the Kole Tang had passed away last night, this morning I went to check on him and he did not make it. I treated with PAraguard and added Prime but I think it was too late, his skin was peeling poorly.

 

[Dr. Reef]

Update, unfortunately the Kole Tang had passed away last night, this morning I went to check on him and he did not make it. I treated with PAraguard and added Prime but I think it was too late, his skin was peeling poorly.

I am very sorry to hear about the loss, Brook usually kills within 12 hrs.. hard to deal with and really not much out there that really deals with it in terms of treatment. Best effective medicine i have used and seen so far is formalin (37%).
Paraguard is not really a curing medicine in my opinion and rate is just as same as prazipro (good for only some internal and external parasites along with some bacterial and fungal diseases) Regardless of their claim for brook or ich i dont buy that and have not successfully treated any fish it with.

 

[Dr. Reef]

how long should I wait or do I need to wait before beginning the Cupramine treatment? Do I need to do any water changes or put carbon to remove the medication?

Now that brook took its first victim i would do water change 50% and another 50% tomorrow and start cupramine treatment on the remaining fish right away. If you can find/buy formalin it would be better to treat with first than cupramine.

My next situation, I was planning on getting an Achilles Tang, and an Xmas Islands Emperor Angel. I was thinking it would be best to put them in the same QT tank which is the vacant one at the moment, and treat first with 4 weeks of Cupramine and then 2 weeks of Prazi Pro,

Best you keep these two fish in the clean/non diseased QT and start preventive cupramine treatment on them. hold copper at 0.6 for 4 weeks.

and I was planning on leaving the tank fallow for 9-10 weeks.

Due to Brook in main tank and 1 hospital tank its best to leave those tanks fishless for 10 weeks. ( well hospital tank still have 1 tang in it so cupramine it right away after water changes).

What happens if I get the achilles first and then the Emperor a few days later, will it be an issue? Should I begin the cupramine treatment when they both are in the tank together?

no matter when you get the fish and how many days apart they are, clock on QT starts when the last fish goes in. So if achilles cam in today and Emperor 5 days later. qt/treatment clock goes back to day one with the addition of last fish. you can begin cupramine on achilles and when emperor comes in and introduced to the same tank as achilles treatment clock will set to day 1.

Sorry for all the questions at once,

there are no too many questions. i want you to succeed in this hobby. please feel free to contact me or best post here on the forum so everyone can read and gain knowledge. Remember there are no stupid questions expect for the ones that dont get asked.

 

[ArmanS]

So this morning I came in and my Flame Angel also passed away, he had similar issues with skin peeling /flaking off. I will buy formalin so that way I have it on hand if needed next time.

So my plan for now is, 1 of my QTs is disease free. I will use that for my Emperor Angel and Achilles. I will treat them with 2 weeks of Prazi Pro then Cupramine at 4 weeks of .5 and then 2 weeks of observation.

Display tank is currently fallow and will continue to be fallow for 10 weeks.

QT #2 that had the Flame and Kole with Brook. I will do a few 50% water changes over the next few weeks. Then introduce another Flame and Kole Tang together and start with 2 weeks of Prazi Pro and then 4 weeks of Cupramine as well.

Or, do you suggest that I put the Angels in QT together and do 2 Weeks of Prazi, then skip the Cupramine and do observation for another 6 weeks and treat if needed, and keep the Kole Tang and Achilles together, treat with Prazi for 2 weeks then Cupramine for next 4 weeks?

Thanks,
Arman

 

[Zer0.]

QT #2 that had the Flame and Kole with Brook. I will do a few 50% water changes over the next few weeks. Then introduce another Flame and Kole Tang together and start with 2 weeks of Prazi Pro and then 4 weeks of Cupramine as well.

So your going to do a couple WC and then put fish in a QT you know has brook in it?....

 

[ArmanS]

I'm not sure what I will do on that QT. I will leave it fishless for a couple weeks until I know what way to proceed. I can break it down and clean everything and start that one back up from scratch if needed. I think that would be a better option then running fallow for 12 weeks.

Bnumair, I ordered some Formalin-MS from Fish Vet. It seems like that was the only available Formalin treatment that I could find. And when you get a chance can you let me know how I should handle my QT tank that had the fish with Brook in it.

Thanks,
Arman

 

[Zer0.]

I'm not sure what I will do on that QT. I will leave it fishless for a couple weeks until I know what way to proceed. I can break it down and clean everything and start that one back up from scratch if needed. I think that would be a better option then running fallow for 12 weeks.

Bnumair, I ordered some Formalin-MS from Fish Vet. It seems like that was the only available Formalin treatment that I could find. And when you get a chance can you let me know how I should handle my QT tank that had the fish with Brook in it.

Thanks,
Arman

Sorry wasn't trying to sound rude in that last post. Yeah running a Qt fallow for 12 weeks is kinda a waste. Id just clean it out with some very mild bleach solution, let it set dry a couple days. and restart. Even if you wanted it to be cycled odds are it would be broke down cleaned and cycled before the 12 week fallow time was up. GL either way!

 

[ArmanS]

Yeah that sounds like the best advice. No need to apologize. Putting them in the same tank that had Brook without giving it a fresh cleaning would be stupid of me to do. I will most likely do that, give it a complete clean with a mild bleach solution let it air out and then restart it. I'm not too worried about a cycle, I have an ammonia alert badge on it, as well as prime and I can do plenty of Water Changes if needed. But even with a cycle it would be a much shorter process doing it that way then letting it sit fallow.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Dr. Reef]

Don't break it yet, keep it running and add bleach to it so everything gets a bleach contact. Run bleach water for 24 hrs then break the tank down and spray/clean everything with bleach water then rinse and air dry for 24 to 48 hrs. Then set it back up again.

 

[ArmanS]

Don't break it yet, keep it running and add bleach to it so everything gets a bleach contact. Run bleach water for 24 hrs then break the tank down and spray/clean everything with bleach water then rinse and air dry for 24 to 48 hrs. Then set it back up again.

Will do. Should I reuse the Foam filter floss or toss it and use a new one?

Also, have you used the Formalin-MS from Fish Vet? This is the one I've ordered.

 

[Dr. Reef]

Filter floss is cheap and easily replaceable. I don't see any harm after running bleach through it but why take any chances on such a cheap item. In fact u can place some in fellow reefers established tank or even in your other untouched qt as long as it's cycled and seed the floss. Once u re set up the qt u will have instant biofilter.
Formalin ms is what I use it has 37% active ingredient.

 

[ArmanS]

Thanks, yeah I bought filter floss in bulk so I can just throw away when dirty. I also bought 500g of ceramic rings x2 for my QT setups. They just arrived so they aren't contaminated. I'll buy some bleach tonight and get to work!

 

[ArmanS]

Added 1 cup of bleach to my HT that was infected. Will let run for 24 hours then tomorrow empty it, air dry it, and use a bleach/water mixture in a spray bottle to clean all the equipment. I'll probably set it back up on Monday / Tuesday.

 

[Dr. Reef]

Added 1 cup of bleach to my HT that was infected. Will let run for 24 hours then tomorrow empty it, air dry it, and use a bleach/water mixture in a spray bottle to clean all the equipment. I'll probably set it back up on Monday / Tuesday.

sounds like a plan.
Good luck and Safe reefing.

 

[Mashtun]

Hello,

I added my first fish to my QT setup 2 days ago and I was about to start the prazipro treatment for 2 weeks when I noticed last night what I believe might be ick. I am not sure if I should push back the prazipro treatment and start treating cupramine right away, or if I should stick with the plan of 2 weeks prazipro followed by 4 weeks cupramine. The fish is a fire fish and the QT is a 20L bare bottom tanks.

Thanks for any help.

 

[Dr. Reef]

Hello,

I added my first fish to my QT setup 2 days ago and I was about to start the prazipro treatment for 2 weeks when I noticed last night what I believe might be ick. I am not sure if I should push back the prazipro treatment and start treating cupramine right away, or if I should stick with the plan of 2 weeks prazipro followed by 4 weeks cupramine. The fish is a fire fish and the QT is a 20L bare bottom tanks.

Thanks for any help.

Hi
sorry to hear the problem you are having but i am glad its in QT and not main tank. If you know for sure its ich i would start copper treatment or hypo right away and not waste any more time. Dont worry about prazipro as it can be administered later.
Good luck and safe reefing.

 

[mhsmith]

Finally added fish to my quarantine tank. I have a 110g tank that has been set up for some time. It has a separate sump that i have place a MarinePure Ceramic Plate 8x8x4". The plate has been in my display tank for over a month. I added 3 schooling banner fish, 1 hog fish, 1 blue dot jawfish, 1 mystery wrasse and 1 blue tang. So far 2 of the schooling banner fish died within 2 days of placing in tank. The hog fish managed to get into the overflow and was sucked into the filter sock and died. That was with a net and acrylic blocking it. I was amazed at that. I am now on day 3 of quarantine. The other fish are eating but minimally. I was wondering when to start Prazipro. My levels are yesterday the nitrite was 22, ammonia <0.25, nitrate o.5. Today nitrite 32, ammonia <.25, nitrate 1. I did a water change yesterday prior to those readings.

 

[Dr. Reef]

Those readings only indicate one thing. That is your tank is still cycling. There should be no ammonia at all and 0 nitrite as well. The death of fish also indicate cycling issues such as ammonia poisoning.
Either the ceramic media did not have enough bacteria or bio load placed is much greater than what system can handle.
For now u can do 2 things.
1. Do water changes daily to keep ammonia at bay. This will depend on how fast ammonia shoes so u could be doing water change once a day could be twice a day or even more, just depends on ammonia production.
2. You can use prime/amquel/ammolock etc to keep ammonia at bay.
3. Try adding seachem stability. It's a very good stabilizer.
Good luck and safe reefing.

 

[mhsmith]

Thanks. The ammonia is 0 that is the lowest that they have on the Seachem ammonia chart. I am doing a water change now. So hoping for the best.

 

[Johnseye]

Once the tank has been used for QT with copper and other meds can it ever be cleaned out and used to hold inverts?
I've read some things about the copper leaching into the silicone but is that enough to hurt inverts?
Is there a best method for cleaning out the tank after it's been medicated other than introducing carbon in the filter?