New emergency qt

[whodeydan76]

I messed up... I ordered fish a month ago at my lfs. I had a delay on getting my tank running and I told them to wait 3 weeks to send the fish...well they did and I am only 4 weeks into my cycle. So I borrowed a 20 gal tank, stand, air pump and air stone. I bought a small preset heater and used one of my nano powerheads. Then had a friend do a water change on his system (established) and I filled the tank with that water and put an old hob filter on the tank.
When I had to pick up my fish all I had to do was transfer them to the a small bucket and drip acclimate them over about an hour. I bought a pair of black ocellarus clowns, a yellow tang (the size of a 50 cent piece) a purple psuedochromis, a diamond goby and a 50 cent piece size hippo/regal tang. Once the regal gets over 2"-3" I will put them in a buddies 180 but I think for the time being he should be fine in my 93 gallon cube. Dont you guys think? (tang police)
O yea... and the quarantine part is new to me (I know I know) but I should be ok to keep them all in the qt for 8 weeks and by then my tank will be totally cycled and all. While cycling... should I run my skimmer? I looked at the stickies but didnt see anything about skimming while cycling...

 

[StevieD]

I havent ran my skimmer due to there isnt anything for the skimmer to pull out (just what ive read). Ive toyed with it a couple times, but I wont run it until I actually put something in my tank...Im almost done with my cycle, so shouldnt be too much longer i hope

 

[Slystone]

Watch your ammonia. You may need water change every few days.

 

[whodeydan76]

cool thanks guys. I actually drip acclimated 2 fw mollys from my moms tank and added them 2 days ago because I know them being in there will get help add to the cycle and I figure (as cruel as it sounds) for free if they make it awesome..if they dont... Ill feel bad but not as bad as i would have if it would have been a $40 fish.

How much water change in a 20? like 3 gallons???

 

[Dr. Reef]

u can run skimmer. like mentioned there may not be enough for it to pull but a new skimmer takes almost a month to settle in anyways. i always run everything on new setups to get them all acclimated to their environment.
in a 20gal tank u can 2-3 gal per week (once cycled).

 

[kismetsh]

With 6 fish in an uncycled 20 gallon I think you are going to have to do more than 2-3 gallons per week water change.

Others have had good luck with an ammonia alert badge (my only experience involved a defective one). Absent one of those I would test ammonia often in the QT and be prepared to change water often as well!

Good luck!

 

[whodeydan76]

bnumair.. I thought with the tank having good established water in it like it says for emergency qt that you dont have to worry about a cycle? It is barebottom except for a few pieces of pvc for things to hide behind.
I just put the fish in fri so I guess I will do an ammonia test and see where im at then do water changes accordingly.

Am I incorrect in thinking the fish will be ok bare bottom with good cycled water?? i have been doing water tests daily to make sure they are doing well and everything seems to be checking out .

 

[Slystone]

Yes to bare bottom. You do need pvc for them to hide in, esp. with that many fish.

 

[Xadieu]

That's a lot if fish your going to put in all at once into your MT I think you should put each in slowly, find ones at are peaceful fish and put them in first so they can acclimate to their new environment and put the aggressive fish in last.

 

[kismetsh]

bnumair.. I thought with the tank having good established water in it like it says for emergency qt that you dont have to worry about a cycle? It is barebottom except for a few pieces of pvc for things to hide behind.
I just put the fish in fri so I guess I will do an ammonia test and see where im at then do water changes accordingly.

Am I incorrect in thinking the fish will be ok bare bottom with good cycled water?? i have been doing water tests daily to make sure they are doing well and everything seems to be checking out .

Water contains very little of the beneficial bacteria needed to "cycle" a tank. Those bacteria generally colonize surfaces (filter media, sand, rock etc). You really need to stay on top of your testing and water changes, that is a lot of fish for a small uncycled tank.

 

[Dr. Reef]

yes this is a misconception about established water. in my opinion there is hardly any difference if u used (so called established water) vs new saltwater.
for example if this was true and there was such a things as established water then no one would need to cycle their tanks ever, just get water from a buddy or LFS and drop in a fish.
in an established tank water there is very little bacteria mostly found in rocks and some in sand.
in an emergency qt there are 2 ways to make sure cycle is not an issue.
1. either import established filter from a running tank or
2. keep up with water changes dont let ammonia creep up.
hope this helps.

 

[Dr. Reef]

this is copied from the sticky on top of this forum, Guide to setup a QT.

Emergency QT.
This type of tank is quite favorite among reefers. This does not require a setup that is up and running 24/7. List of hardware is same.
In case you feel a need for a QT, just put together all the equipment and put water from your main tank in it and you are good to go.
Keep an eye on ammonia and nitrites and do water changes as needed.
This method will require relatively more water changes that permanent method as bacterial colonies are not established and thus require a little bit more attention from owner to maintain perfect chemistry.

There are few ways to shorten/cut the attention requirement in this process by adding chemicals like ammonolock or amquel that binds ammonia from being toxic to fish.
Another popular way to seed the tank is to keep extra filters in your main tank's sump and keep them seeded this way and when required pull them and use them in QT.
Just remember if copper is used in QT, those filters cannot go back to sump once QT is taken offline.

 

[whodeydan76]

I read that post a couple of times before I posted this. I'll just stay on the water changes and testing. None of these fish are at all aggressive.

 

[Dr. Reef]

that will work. yah just keep an eye on ammonia and have lots of freshly made saltwater mixed. u will need lots of water changes throughout the process.