Large fish order, need some advice on quarantining all of them.

[Jacob D]

I thought for sure this was just a troll bait thread, but it looks legit enough after reading it all. I agree that the new list seems more reasonable. 300 gallons is not as big as it sounds.

I wholeheartedly agree with the others who have warned against using QT's that are not matured. I've made the mistake of using a "sterile" QT and losing fish and corals. My rule of thumb is once I get algae growth the tank is ready (and of course after testing that it has cycled). I don't believe in using sterile QT at all... try it and you'll end up with stressed and dying fish.

 

[Texastravis]

Quarantines are set up. Stupid biowheel filters are too loud so I am going to switch them out for some sponge filters. Looking for some ideas on DIY sponge filters. I will probably just end up buying some but didnt know if there were any good easy cheap designs out there.

I was thinking of taking a 2 liter soda bottle, drilling holes in it, filling it up with sponge media, and hooking up a maxi jet to the top of the bottle to draw all the water through it. If this will work any clue on media? Could I use the cheap white nylon stuff or will it get to clogged?

Gotta give the guy credit for hanging in there with this thread. A lot of folks just bow out when people tell them things they don't want to hear. Sounds like he may be inching slowly towards sanity.

I have come close to bailing several times but I am still here. I am getting a lot of rude mean non helpful comments. I am taking all the helpful advice given and am applying it.

1 Naso
1 Achilles
1 Blue Hippo
4 Yellows
1 Sailfin (maybe, if so a small one)

I dont see how the above list is too "insane". I have 200 gallons worth of quarantine tanks. I dont "think" Adding these fish into a 300 gallon tank/420 gallon system over maybe a months time is unbearable. This is BB so will have a lot of flow with a large skimmer (SRO-5000-ext) so I dont think ammonia will get away from me. I am not super knowledgeable on BBs just yet though so we will see.

As for the achilles, I have successfully kept the achilles tang in new tanks without a single problem. From my experience HIGH FLOW, OPEN/LARGE SWIMMING ROOM, AND GREAT WATER QUALITY have been the key to success for this fish. As for the comment on picking/grazing on rocks all tangs do this not just the achilles. I am somewhat of a nori/romain nut so their will be plenty of grazing. I also put nls on auto fish feeder twice a day and one other frozen food feeding per day.

 

[small alien]

Good luck. Post pics of your progress.

 

[ccampbell57]

I may be one of those people that sounded harsh to begin with, but will respectfully appologize as I am seeing TexasTravis listen to the people giving the advise and actually has a very manageable list of fish. The fish list coming in is pretty small now and your QT setup will be able to accomodate.

If it were me, I would keep the biowheels on the tank as I have never had any issues with them. I have 2 55g QTs and 2 30g QTs all run with oversized biowheels.

When you get the fish in, I would make sure to section off each of the yellow tangs. This will ensure that they are not picking on each other and they will have the ability to get properly acclimated and allowed to eat.

Once they are all healthy, I would put them together. As long as they are healthy and eating, they will be able to survive the onslot from another fish.

In any case, all fish added should have an eggcrate divider and placed in their own areas with PVC tube to hide.

Good luck...and sorry again for being a nay sayer, but you have taken advise and for that I say thank you...

 

[BrianD]

If someone came on the board with the above suggested stocking levels, especially for a new tank with fish added "over a month's time", I would advise against such actions. There is zero reason to be in such a hurry to add all those tangs to a tank.

I don't know what your sample size is for keeping Achilles in "new tanks", but it is a poor choice.

You may consider advice you dislike as "rude", but that is not the case.

 

[wooden_reefer]

I always stock as fast as I can after a robust cycle. I have been doing so for over 25 years.

Here, I think your timing or mindset is wrong, if I get what you are impling.

You cycle for the QT first and or at the same time as for the DT. You do not start QT while the cycle for DT is about to finish.

You cycle very well the medium for QT so that the QT can handle all fish at once; this is very easy to do. In fact, at the end of any cycle, your medium can handle a lot of ammonia. In general, if you cycle in a separate container using water about 20% of the volume of the DT, and you see that about 5 ppm of ammonia is processed every three to five days toward the later third of the cycle, you can be very sure that all the ammonia from any reasonable bioload all at once for the QT and then DT will be processed.

I QT for a min of 8 weeks; often I cannot get all the fish in one weekend and have to get fish in two or more weekends. QT then would be about 12 weeks. I live in Socal and I never buy livestock online.

This is a method for the very experienced at disease control only; otherwise a tankful of sick fish is a sorry sight.

If you cycle for the DT first, by the end of the 12 week QT, the nitrification activity in the DT would have started to diminish. You can always recharge it by having the DT process a few pulses of ammonia a couple of weeks before the end of the QT, however.

I do this all the time very sucessfully.

 

[RealReef7]

Not to be an A-hole but your gonna most likely end up with 3 yellow tangs.. if your going to keep the same type of fish in one tank its better to go odds. Also if I were you I would focus more on the coral especially if you are going sps... doesn't take much to wipe out a couple of colonies.