Guide to setup a Quarantine Tank (QT).

[matthewfaye]

quarantine tanks

quarantine tanks

Hi should I have a quarantine tank? The shop we get are fish from they quarantine there fish for so long so they said they don't need to be we can just put them straight into the tank but we have put 2 raccoon butterfly's in and the day we put them in they started showing signs of parasites so we have been using a marine anti parasite treatment and it's spread to the fox face and today we have lost one of the raccoons and fox face so the raccoons came in with a parasite so we're still treating the tank but this has made me think do we need one but is it going to cost money running another tank? The shop has said to do regular parasite treatments but we have a 1000l tank it's cost a lot of money in treatments. Help please thanks
Faye

 

[Spar]

Hi should I have a quarantine tank? The shop we get are fish from they quarantine there fish for so long so they said they don't need to be we can just put them straight into the tank but we have put 2 raccoon butterfly's in and the day we put them in they started showing signs of parasites so we have been using a marine anti parasite treatment and it's spread to the fox face and today we have lost one of the raccoons and fox face so the raccoons came in with a parasite so we're still treating the tank but this has made me think do we need one but is it going to cost money running another tank? The shop has said to do regular parasite treatments but we have a 1000l tank it's cost a lot of money in treatments. Help please thanks
Faye

when it comes to QT'ing and treating fish, the only person you should trust is yourself. i QT & treat my fish even from sources that claim they do (even when I am confident they did a good job at it).

you may want to ask them what their QT protocol is; most stores will tell you they 'QT', but it really is just them holding on to the fish longer to make sure they are eating and generally healthy. They are however still exposed to the likely many parasites and disease in their overall system.

your call in the end, and obviously not everyone has the space and time to QT themselves. ultimately that will be your best cost saver though; QT'ing yourself.

 

[mrpergo]

if the nano has no live animals in it then you can take media out from 1 compartment of the established HOB and place it in the new HOB. this will most likely give your new QT an instant cycle while the established nano may or may not see a mini cycle lasting a few days.

if there is light livestock in nano then you can still swap half of the media but either use prime/ammolock/amquel etc if ammonia shows up or use stability right after swap to boost bacteria.

if there is med to heavy livestock in nano then only take at most 25% of the media and swap with new. definitely use stability or ammonia reducer products in case. this may not give instant cycle to new QT but will cut the cycle time short by a long shot, using stability will also help.

Bnumair the 20 nano also has 20# live rock in it, should I still be worried of a cycle if I swap media out ?

 

[Dr. Reef]

Hi should I have a quarantine tank? The shop we get are fish from they quarantine there fish for so long so they said they don't need to be we can just put them straight into the tank but we have put 2 raccoon butterfly's in and the day we put them in they started showing signs of parasites so we have been using a marine anti parasite treatment and it's spread to the fox face and today we have lost one of the raccoons and fox face so the raccoons came in with a parasite so we're still treating the tank but this has made me think do we need one but is it going to cost money running another tank? The shop has said to do regular parasite treatments but we have a 1000l tank it's cost a lot of money in treatments. Help please thanks
Faye

like advised in earlier post, i dont trust anyone when it comes to QT. i do it myself. for some parasites signs may occur fast and some may not show up for weeks. A fish store will never hold fish for weeks before selling unless advertised like a couple of online vendors do. but their costs are higher. again i still dont trust it.
Fish stores are fish motel, fish check in fish check out. cost is high in any business and thus most stores keep low salinity and less water changes etc to keep overhead low.
again its your call.

 

[Dr. Reef]

Bnumair the 20 nano also has 20# live rock in it, should I still be worried of a cycle if I swap media out ?

is the nano established? (gone through cycle) if it did with the rock in it then there will be no mini cycle if half media is removed. (most likely)

 

[Rwiesner20]

Extremely impressed with all the information and greatly appreciate all the information.

 

[sensei]

Bnumair,
I am setting the QT as you adviced.
I am waiting for the ceramic rings to problate with bactiria from the DT
I have two DT. In one I have ich problem. One Hippo tang developed ich after I introduced him, but he is eating very well. Never lost apetite. He has been like that for1 month now.

I also have a fox face, that looked like he got ich but you can not see it any more.

in the same tank I have 2 dragon face pipefish, but they always looked clean, never had signs of ich.When the QT is ready which fish should I medicate?

I ask because I don´t know if the pipe fish will survive in the QT as they eat pods and there will be no rock in the QT.
do I need to medicate the foxface even if he looks clean?
thaks for your advice

 

[Dr. Reef]

Hi
sorry your DT has ich... but to your questions, you need to treat every fish in that tank. No exceptions. Clean or not.
due to sensitive fish in the batch hypo salinity is the only option. You can feed pipefish brine shrimp or amphipods in Qt. A step-by-step guide for hyposalinity is available in my blog. Good luck and safe reefing

 

[sensei]

Hi
sorry your DT has ich... but to your questions, you need to treat every fish in that tank. No exceptions. Clean or not.
due to sensitive fish in the batch hypo salinity is the only option. You can feed pipefish brine shrimp or amphipods in Qt. A step-by-step guide for hyposalinity is available in my blog. Good luck and safe reefing

Thanks,
I learned my lesson, I am setting the QT and will quarentine every fish after this ich episode. It is to risky to put fish in the DT with out Quarentine.
thanks again

 

[sensei]

Hi
sorry your DT has ich... but to your questions, you need to treat every fish in that tank. No exceptions. Clean or not.
due to sensitive fish in the batch hypo salinity is the only option. You can feed pipefish brine shrimp or amphipods in Qt. A step-by-step guide for hyposalinity is available in my blog. Good luck and safe reefing

Bnumair
I have been thinking, and since my DT has ich, and I will not medicate and instead use hypo salinity, could I treat the whole DT?
If it is posible I guess the dragonface pipefish fish would have greater chance of survival and I could strat right away with out waiting for the ceramic rings to get poblated with bacteria en the DT
I dont know if it would affect the sps frangs in the tank?
thanks for your opinion about this?

 

[Spar]

Hyposalinity in the DT is possible, but comes with complications in your situation, namely:
(1) die off of micro-life causing a spike in ammonia that will be difficult to control
(2) the food that your pipefish relies on will likely die anyway
(3) coral, especially SPS, will not tolerate it

 

[Dr. Reef]

Bnumair
I have been thinking, and since my DT has ich, and I will not medicate and instead use hypo salinity, could I treat the whole DT?
If it is posible I guess the dragonface pipefish fish would have greater chance of survival and I could strat right away with out waiting for the ceramic rings to get poblated with bacteria en the DT
I dont know if it would affect the sps frangs in the tank?
thanks for your opinion about this?

Hyposalinity in the DT is possible, but comes with complications in your situation, namely:
(1) die off of micro-life causing a spike in ammonia that will be difficult to control
(2) the food that your pipefish relies on will likely die anyway
(3) coral, especially SPS, will not tolerate it

theoretically yes it is possible but like Spar mentioned there are uncontrollable factors that will make it very difficult for a new person to tackle. i would get the QT going and do Hypo there and try to salvage what you can at this point. Leave DT fishless for min 10-12 weeks (longer the better)
Good luck.

 

[sensei]

Thanks, I will do it in the hyposalinity in QT

 

[ScienceRulez]

First, I want to say hello, my first post here. I work at a small science center in the Lehigh Valley in North East Pennsylvania.

We have a 650 gallon salt water tank that also doubles as a touch tank and sadly we also have a reputation locally as the place that kills fish. Something I hope to eventually change.

While reading this thread, it seems that the general consensus is that invertebrates don't need to spend time in a QT tank. My experience says otherwise. On or about July 12, an unknown person put 24 clams, a dozen little necks, and a dozen great necks. Over the course of the next week, we lost every one of our 22 fish to Brooklynella. The only thing that was added to the tank was the clams, which I suspect was bought from a supermarket or local farmers market.

Anyway, after fighting with my superiors, I finally got permission to set up a Quarantine Tank (QT?), and this thread has been very helpful. right now it's going to be a 10 gallon tank sitting on my desk (It's the only place I have room, right now).

Anyway, from what I have read, 6-9 weeks is necessary to make sure the fish doesn't have any disease, and it may or may not be helpful to preemptively medicate any incoming fish. Is this correct?

Finally, what can be done with our original tank? The board refuses to let me take the tank apart and bleach everything, so currently its an invertebrate tank with some sea urchins, hermit crabs, sea stars, and clams, that my boss is killing off whenever he finds one. How long before I can safely reintroduce fish. As a knee jerk reaction I said a minimum of 12-16 weeks (ahh politics).

I know some of this was inappropriate for this thread and I apologize but I am really desperate and this forum seemed to have some very knowledgable folks.

Thank you in advance

 

[Dr. Reef]

Anyway, from what I have read, 6-9 weeks is necessary to make sure the fish doesn't have any disease, and it may or may not be helpful to preemptively medicate any incoming fish. Is this correct?

I treat all incoming fish with Prazipro. after that its all observation and medicate according to symptoms. The rule changes with Tangs that are known to carry ICH so i DO medicate them regardless of symptoms or not.

Finally, what can be done with our original tank?
How long before I can safely reintroduce fish. As a knee jerk reaction I said a minimum of 12-16 weeks (ahh politics).
at this time leave tank fishless for 12 weeks.

Good luck and safe reefing

 

[Saltwaterwill]

When cycjng your qt, at what point do u remove the frozen fish?, I might try that method, cycled with flake food only be,thanks

 

[Spar]

you will know that the cycle is completed when you have a zero reading of ammonia and nitrite and start getting a nitrate reading. a quicker route to get the cycle going is to use a bacteria-in-a-bottle solution. the cycle should complete in about 3 days that way.

 

[H2oGarden]

Thanks for the writeup. I'm building a QT tank into my 200 stand.

 

[Spar]

Thanks for the writeup. I'm building a QT tank into my 200 stand.

this is good for saving space, but important to know is that parasites can be transmitted via aerosol as well (evaporation), and/or splashing water. If you have a sump for your DT right next to this QT, this makes the aerosol/splashing transfer risk even more-so riskier for you. just FYI, as you very well may have already taken this into account.

 

[sensei]

bnumair,
I have been reading this thread from the begining and I have a couple of questions:

1.- after the first two weeks of prazipro, I belive you suggest 50% WC and run carbon. how you run carbon in the QT? in a reactor or how? how you know when to stop carbon?

2.-Why to use cupramine for treating ich, if hyposalinity seems to be easier and is safe for all fish? is it less effective?

3.- before you explained that if you put the ceramic rings poblated with bacteria from the DT into the QT and you add some stability, you have an instantly cycled QT and no need to wait.
can you do the same thing if you set a new DT? just add the ceramic media with bacteria, add stability and you would be able to add fish and sps the first day and not wait for a cycle???

thanks