Anatomy Of A Quarantine Tank
Anatomy Of A Quarantine Tank
Thought I'd do a little post about my Quarantine Tank setup. Quarantining all fish and treating them for all the major parasites like Ich, Flukes and Worms even if a fish shows no outward sign just makes sense to me. Fish can carry parasites even if you can't see them and that parasite could devastate your display tank. Quarantine is tough on fish but in my experience if they make it through the process they are super hardy. In 4-5 years I've never lost a fish in my display to a parasite and my fish have been through some stressful times (tanks move, re-aquascaping).
So here is mine:
My standard anti-Ich treatment is 40 days hyposalinity (1.009). I want to try Cupramine soon but I think hypo done right is less stressful on the fish. Let me go through some important factors.
Tank Size
My QT is a 50g. The bigger you can go the better. The bigger the tank the less stress for the fish you have in there - especially important if doing more than 1 fish at a time. The bigger the tank the easier it is to maintain water quality too.
Water Changes
I do a 5g water change twice a week. This is essential to maintain water quality.
Feeding
I feed twice a day and siphon out any uneaten food. Also feed nori if the fish eat it. We want our new fish to be fat and used to eating prepared foods but water quality is always the number 1 factor.
PH
This is quite important and many people forget about it. With low salt levels PH in a hypo environment is low (can be around 7.4). I use a simple PH buffer with every water change to maintain PH at a decent level.
Powerheads
I have 2 Powerheads. Flow is good and helps with water oxygenation but the powerhead grills also trap uneaten food. Nice little bonus.
UV
Can't stress how important a UV sterilizer is. My 8w unit hangs on the back and is fed by a maxi-jet. So simple yet effective. For me its effectiveness at killing parasites is not the key. UV kills nasty algaes that stay suspended in teh water column. On one cycle I lost all fish due to a huge algae bloom. I couldn't see 2" into the tank it was that bad. With a UV unit I find I'm wiping and scraping the tank a lot less.
Skimmer
I have a Remora Pro. Had it for years and it keeps on trucking. Together with water changes, UV, Powerheads and mopping up after feedings maintaining water quality is a breeze.
Live Rock
I added even more rock this time and I think I'll add even more next time. LR gives fish something to peck on and it helps with the denitrifying bacteria.
Sponges
I have 2 sponges in there that act like live rocks. They are full of good bacteria. All needed so your QT doesn't hit an ammonia cycle.
Pipe
The pipe just provides extra hiding space for fish. I also have an unused Tunze Deco rock in there which forms an awesome cave that the fish use quite a lot.
Net Cover
Added this recently. Covering the QT makes sense with new and skittish fish. Especially if there is some fighting amongst the new additions.
I use Formalin quite a lot. I dose the QT and I give the fish a few Formalin baths during the cycle. I know PraziPro is all the rage right now but Formalin has always seen off the flukes for me. I do have some PraziPro on order though and hope to test it out on the next batch. I also have Melafix and Pimafix on hand and use if necessary. I don't really like it though as it makes the skimmer go nuts to the point of having to turn it off. If anyone knows anything better for such things as fin and tail rot, popeye, fungi and wounds I'm all ears. I also have Seachem Focus on hand. I spend some time mashing it up in hot water and then mixing with food and letting it soak for 24 hours before feeding sick fish.
Hope this helps someone.
I've really been a bad slacker about them. I bought a huge 250g storage tank from my LFS, and am thinking about setting it up in my garage to hold RO/DI water. With that volume on hand, I could mix up 55g or even 110g of water at a time. It would allow me to come up with an easy water change system, easier than what I've been doing for many years: 
