live rock in quarantine

[chad_thunder]

Hey everybody this is my first post here.

I have set up a 10g quarantine tank using my DT water, a 20g aquatech Walmart filter with sponge media from my canister filter from my 37g DT, a 50w Hydor heater and a 240gph Hydor powerhead. I put about 5 lbs of live rock in my QT (just 3 ok sized pieces) so the fish can have something a little more natural to hide around. I'm currently cycling the QT using frozen brine shrimp food, started 12/28. I figured the live rock would help with filtration for the time being. I'd like to keep the QT up and running for awhile, as I'm going to be adding fish here soon to my DT, it's understocked and been up for awhile now. I am reading a little bit of ammonia, around 0.25 ppm, will have to take another reading to see if it's going up or down.

I have read different things about keeping live rock in QT's. Some say it's good and some say it doesn't matter. My LFS guy says he keeps live rock and substrate in his QT and it's fine. But then I read about copper treatments killing off live organisms in the rock resulting in an ammonia spike. I guess my question is, is keeping the live rock in the QT ok, and if the latter is true about the copper, would treating the empty tank with copper early during the cycling process be a good idea to go ahead and get that spike out of the way while the QT is empty? I will not ever be transferring the rock into my DT.

Thanks for the read sorry it was a little long winded.

 

[gone fishin]

The copper can get adsorbed into the rock. This makes it hard to maintain a stable level of copper. Also, the rock would not be able to be used in your DT at all. Myself and a lot of other folks use PVC fittings like 90 degree elbows and tees for the fish to hide in. good luck

 

[chad_thunder]

Well how do you filter ammonia and nitrates? Does bacteria grow on the sponge filter adequate enough to maintain levels?

 

[chad_thunder]

Nitrites*

 

[gone fishin]

some people that already have a tank up and running will put a sponge into the sump or filter to populate with bacteria, then transfer to the QT. Other people will use an uncycled QT. This requires frequent WC's and using something like seachem prime to deal with the ammonia.

Personally I do the latter option and rely on WC's and prime. I also keep an ammonia alert badge in the tank for a quick reference.