QT tank as a display tank??

[FlyfisherDan]

Being new to the hobby and reading hundreds of very informative posts on this website, I was wondering............
Could I setup a biocube style tank with sand, liverock and cleanup crew as a qt as long as any additions are qt'd for 90 days AND there would be no resident fish in there? The added upkeep on that tank would be minimal and wouldn't mind having something a little more attractive than a bare bottom qt for 3 months at a crack whenever I want to add something "wet" to my DT. I would probably just have the CUC and some softies in there.

 

[SteveZZR]

Quite new to Reef Keeping myself, but I think you'd be fine - plenty of people don't run a QT at all.
You're essentially running a smaller setup that won't cost you so much in the event of a total wipeout. I believe in the event of something going wrong, i.e. parasites, your sand and rock would have to be thoroughly cleaned if not thrown away!

there's also the issue of any medication - could be dangerous to inverts and corals, so you'd need an additional hospital tank available as well as the QT.

 

[maddmaxx]

NO to a diplayed QT...

if you bring in a fish to QT that has ich. that ich will now be present in the sand and rock. which at this point you could not treat the sick fish with meds cause the sand and rock would absorb the meds. if your using anything copper based, then that would kill off your inverts and also absorb into the rock and sand. in the event that you set up a QT wit sand and rock and introduce an ich infected fish. you will now have to remove the fish and treat them in a regular setup QT to treat the fish, while also leaving the other QT with sand and rock fishless for 12-14 weeks to allow the ich in that tank to fully die off..(which would completely destroy the entire concept of a QT tank).. a QT is supposed to be extremely basic to treat fish. nothing more. if you want a biocube set it up as a nano tank.

when it comes to QT tank, you want bare minimal inside the actual tank. its more for viewing the fish that is inside the QT. if your looking to add a lil something to the looks of the tank, i would paint the back of tank black, paint the bottom of the tank either white or brown to look like sand, and i glued some fake plants onto some pve to make it look decent. but again. no sand no rock no inverts no corals....

 

[FlyfisherDan]

My idea behind this was to use it to observe any fish if I were to add anymore fish to my DT. If any symptoms were to show, I would move them to either a hospital tank to medicate, or in the case of ich, I would do the tank transfer method. The "observation tank would then lay fallow without any fish for 72-90 days. My idea was to mainly use it to qt frags and any cuc additions.

 

[Pife]

no to a diplayed qt...

If you bring in a fish to qt that has ich. That ich will now be present in the sand and rock. Which at this point you could not treat the sick fish with meds cause the sand and rock would absorb the meds. If your using anything copper based, then that would kill off your inverts and also absorb into the rock and sand. In the event that you set up a qt wit sand and rock and introduce an ich infected fish. You will now have to remove the fish and treat them in a regular setup qt to treat the fish, while also leaving the other qt with sand and rock fishless for 12-14 weeks to allow the ich in that tank to fully die off..(which would completely destroy the entire concept of a qt tank).. A qt is supposed to be extremely basic to treat fish. Nothing more. If you want a biocube set it up as a nano tank.

When it comes to qt tank, you want bare minimal inside the actual tank. Its more for viewing the fish that is inside the qt. If your looking to add a lil something to the looks of the tank, i would paint the back of tank black, paint the bottom of the tank either white or brown to look like sand, and i glued some fake plants onto some pve to make it look decent. But again. No sand no rock no inverts no corals....

+1