Multiple tank QT set up for coral and fish

[nightOwl]

I plan on building a new fish room and getting a new tank in the coming months and wanted to see how people have set up multiple tank QT systems for corals and or fish. If you have a either of the above for your large tank fish rooms please post with a brief explanation. I am trying to decide if it should be a separate system for each or combine the two.

Thanks in advance

 

[nuxx]

He had a 3 level metal stand built for 20 and 40 gallon QT tanks.

I run each tank as it's own system for the following reasons:
- Don't have to reset the clock on each new fish.
- Keeps something extremely nasty contained to one tank.

Also going to start REALLY covering the tanks since it's believed ich can spread through the air...

 

[foxvalleypcgeek]

Also going to start REALLY covering the tanks since it's believed ich can spread through the air...

Now that is interesting...

 

[nuxx]

Now that is interesting...

There's a thread here about it somewhere...

I think up to 10 feet, which stinks since our frag tank is about 6-7 away from the QT tanks.

Fun!

 

[nightOwl]

He had a 3 level metal stand built for 20 and 40 gallon QT tanks.

I run each tank as it's own system for the following reasons:
- Don't have to reset the clock on each new fish.
- Keeps something extremely nasty contained to one tank.

Also going to start REALLY covering the tanks since it's believed ich can spread through the air...

Does each set up has it own skimmer, sump, etc?

I like what you mentioned about being separate for fish and not resetting the clock for new items. More details please .

 

[Joe's Coral Reef]

I think you need at least one for fish, then separate one for coral and inverts. The fish QT has no rock, just pipes for fish to hide, heater, minimal lighting and sponge filter. Its easy to medicate the fish this way. Where as a coral QT has rock, cycled and stronger light. Then you have to decide if you want multiples based on timing and stuff.

 

[nuxx]

Does each set up has it own skimmer, sump, etc?

I like what you mentioned about being separate for fish and not resetting the clock for new items. More details please .

Each tank has the following:
- 1 or 2 powerheads mounted halfway down pointing towards the water's surface.
- Hang on the back power filter filled with MarinePure spheres with a filter pad on top.
- Heater.
- Thermometer.
- Air pump and stone.
- PVC pipes.
- Ammonia badges.

No skimmer since it would mess with some medications.

Dose SeaChem stability each day during QT.

Get the fish eating and then start 3 rounds of PraziPro changing 25% of the water on day 5. During the time I also dose ParaGuard each day.

After the Prazi treatments are done, I run Cupramine for 4 weeks. I bring it up over 5 days, with 1 drop per gallon on days one and three and .5 drop per gallon on day 5.

After the Cupramine has been run, I monitor for 3-4 days and then put in a specimen container and really give them a good look over, then off to the display or into an acclimation box in the display.

 

[Mr. Brooks]

I set this up to be my coral and fish QT. Kinda what you're talking about in regards to combining the two.



I think I went a little too big though. It isn't very manageable in regards to tear down and sterilization. I recently decided to use this as a holding tank, stable parameters, strong light, good filtration, always running. I'll have several 20 gallon and 40 gallon breeder tanks from petco ready to go at a moments notice as hospital tanks or for QT if a fish or coral looks questionable. I have hang on filters running on the holding tank at all times for biological filtration. All I have to do is pick one up and move it to one of the breeders. Essentially I have two levels of QT. QT breeders if something looks suspect and then a large holding tank/QT with optimum parameters/best environment for survival of healthy looking new arrivals. If a disease/parasite presents itself in the holding tank, I'll move it to a smaller QT for treatment and leave the holding tank fallow.

I have yet to see how this will work in practice but I'm thinking it should work well.

I'm building a very large system and I want as many lines of defense as possible while also optimizing the chance of survival.

In regards to skimmers on the smaller QT's, I use a small Tunze nano skimmer when QTing coral. But for fish, if I'm medicating, the skimmer would remove the medication. So a skimmer on a fish QT is not useful unless you aren't medicating for anything.

 

[nightOwl]

Each tank has the following:
- 1 or 2 powerheads mounted halfway down pointing towards the water's surface.
- Hang on the back power filter filled with MarinePure spheres with a filter pad on top.
- Heater.
- Thermometer.
- Air pump and stone.
- PVC pipes.
- Ammonia badges.

No skimmer since it would mess with some medications.

Dose SeaChem stability each day during QT.

Get the fish eating and then start 3 rounds of PraziPro changing 25% of the water on day 5. During the time I also dose ParaGuard each day.

After the Prazi treatments are done, I run Cupramine for 4 weeks. I bring it up over 5 days, with 1 drop per gallon on days one and three and .5 drop per gallon on day 5.

After the Cupramine has been run, I monitor for 3-4 days and then put in a specimen container and really give them a good look over, then off to the display or into an acclimation box in the display.

nuxx - Thanks for the picture. I think I may have been trying to make it too complicated. I previously had a full blown set up skimmer, sump, etc on my previous QT. It was a pain to break down. I used a 5 day treatment and would only run the skimmer after that. Fish were then observed for a minimum for another 2.5 - 3 weeks. Then however long it took to get them to eat flake and pellet. The ammonia badges have saved a me a few times. I tend to feed heavy in QT trying to get the fish to accept a variety of foods. The set up you have will save space and allow for more tanks for actual frags or fish.

I set this up to be my coral and fish QT. Kinda what you're talking about in regards to combining the two.



I think I went a little too big though. It isn't very manageable in regards to tear down and sterilization. I recently decided to use this as a holding tank, stable parameters, strong light, good filtration, always running. I'll have several 20 gallon and 40 gallon breeder tanks from petco ready to go at a moments notice as hospital tanks or for QT if a fish or coral looks questionable. I have hang on filters running on the holding tank at all times for biological filtration. All I have to do is pick one up and move it to one of the breeders. Essentially I have two levels of QT. QT breeders if something looks suspect and then a large holding tank/QT with optimum parameters/best environment for survival of healthy looking new arrivals. If a disease/parasite presents itself in the holding tank, I'll move it to a smaller QT for treatment and leave the holding tank fallow.

I have yet to see how this will work in practice but I'm thinking it should work well.

I'm building a very large system and I want as many lines of defense as possible while also optimizing the chance of survival.

In regards to skimmers on the smaller QT's, I use a small Tunze nano skimmer when QTing coral. But for fish, if I'm medicating, the skimmer would remove the medication. So a skimmer on a fish QT is not useful unless you aren't medicating for anything.

Mr. Brooks - Thanks for the picture. I thought I was making a big QT but I think you have me beat...lol. Do you plan to use this as your staging area after fish or coral come out of QT? From the picture it looks like it has its own controller as well? After more thinking I need to make it simpler than I had originally thought. I think i will stick with the skimmer on the coral QT. I need something that I can break down when no corals or fish are in. Do you plan on breaking that set up down? How big a system are you planning to build?


You both brought up good points about using the skimmer on on the fish QT. I will remove that from my planning and only use it for my coral QT.

Thanks again for the responses

 

[nuxx]

The set up you have will save space and allow for more tanks for actual frags or fish.

Got this for personal frags

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2472158

I really think Stability helps a lot with QT water quality. It's cheap insurance.

 

[Mr. Brooks]

Yes exactly, it will be a staging area for fish and coral coming out of QT. As well as a place to hold fish or coral that I get from trusted sources and that look/act healthy. I don't want to medicate if I don't have to. Also I'm usually very busy so going through the smaller QT set up, treatment and tear down process is very taxing. If I can put a healthy looking fish or coral in the holding tank and just observe it for 6 weeks, it saves me a ton of time and work if that fish or coral ends up being perfectly healthy. I also feel safer putting fish and coral in a tank that I know can handle the bioload and has stable parameters. A smaller, temporary QT can be a little more difficult to monitor. This tank is set up on the same Apex controller as the rest of my system. You can plug in multiple tanks to an Apex. I do not plan on breaking this system down. If a disease or parasite gets in, I will move everything to the smaller QT's and run the holding tank fallow. Things like aptasia will have to be dealt with while the tank is running. But if I'm dealing with aptasia, I won't be adding anything from the holding tank into the main tank.

BTW as a rule, I freshwater dip all fish that come in for at least 6 minutes and I bayer dip all coral. I'll do the same when moving fish and coral from the holding tank to the display tank.

My system will be just under 1,000 gallons with a 390 gallon display.

I've been giving some thought to doing a prazipro treatment on all fish prior to putting them in the holding tank. This would only take about a week and would keep flukes out. We'll see.

For anyone new to the hobby reading this, don't take my example of combining fish and coral into one QT. Medications used to treat fish are almost always deadly to coral. If using a holding tank like me, you'll need to be able to set up a hospital tank for treatment.

 

[nightOwl]

Thanks again guys. This information will help me in my planning.

 

[scubadan206]

Ho about a "Mars Bars" setup? Fish retailers use them. Nineball had three of them. They would need to be modified since they are generally used for goldfish and other cheap hardy fish.