Quarantine and number fish

[Jake007]

I am new to QT since I alway went direct into the DT for years. I tried QT over the last two months in a 10G tank using established rock and manged to kill everything I put in there (mostly chromis). Very frustrating..... I am officially done with wanting chromis.... So I let the tank, filter, media, rocks etc bake in the sun until dry for a few days just to kill anything bad in there.

Anyway, I am giving the QT idea a fresh start so I bought a 20gal tank with hopes to QT a couple fish at a time. The tank is recently setup and I am just establishing the bacteria. I am adding the bacteria starter from Seachem everyday. I plan to wait 2 weeks before adding any fish. I plan to run cupramine for all new arrivals.

How many fish can I quarantine in a 20G tank with HOB filter running sponge with two sets of bio media type bags? I also have 4 pcs of live rock 2" dedicated only for this tank. I want to avoid the high AMN issues as I am not big on frequent water changes if I can avoid them.

 

[RegalAngel]

I am new to QT since I alway went direct into the DT for years. I tried QT over the last two months in a 10G tank using established rock and manged to kill everything I put in there (mostly chromis). Very frustrating..... I am officially done with wanting chromis.... So I let the tank, filter, media, rocks etc bake in the sun until dry for a few days just to kill anything bad in there.

Anyway, I am giving the QT idea a fresh start so I bought a 20gal tank with hopes to QT a couple fish at a time. The tank is recently setup and I am just establishing the bacteria. I am adding the bacteria starter from Seachem everyday. I plan to wait 2 weeks before adding any fish. I plan to run cupramine for all new arrivals.

How many fish can I quarantine in a 20G tank with HOB filter running sponge with two sets of bio media type bags? I also have 4 pcs of live rock 2" dedicated only for this tank. I want to avoid the high AMN issues as I am not big on frequent water changes if I can avoid them.

If you are using Seachem's Stability, it will NOT work unless you have fish present in the tank. I tried w/o fish and it did not work; with fish presto no ammonia at all.
I use Stability everytime I QT my fish, and it works great. I use a bare tank with an outside canister filter.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=16566626&postcount=23

 

[Jdbrine]

If you are going to be treating with Cupramine you will want to remove any LR in your QT tank because it will absorb the medication making it ineffective. Also you would never me able to use that rock with any inverts if it came into contact with copper.

 

[Jake007]

I have listed the products wrong in my earlier post. I am home now and checked. I have Coppersafe by Mardel and Seachem Stability.

I used the Stability the first time I quarantined and still had amonia spikes that is why I was planning to sacrafice the few pieces of live rock to help with the bacteria. It still not clear to me why the Stability product would not help to get the bacteria count up. I thought that was what it is for?

So is 2-3 fish reasonable for a 20 gal QT tank with water change only once per week or once every 2 weeks?

 

[Jacob D]

The bacteria population rises and falls according to the level of nutrients available to them. A "clean" tank won't support much bacteria. I have also found that clean QT are not the most hospitable environment. Having some algae growth in the tank is a good thing and so is as much LR as you can afford. At some point you may use a medicine that nukes the bio filter, algae, or contaminates your rock at which point you follow through the treatment and act accordingly with regard to water changes and dealing with any contaminated rock.

I strongly recommend using a skimmer on your QT, other than times when medication calls for it to be turned off. If you don't want to run a skimmer then you'll be changing the water more frequently. Either way spend $5 and get one of the Seachem ammonia alert badges.


The number of fish depends of course on how large and how much food/poop is involved in the whole process, and of course how sensitive the fish are.

 

[jjk_reef00]

Do very large water changes 50% every 3 days and it should help keep your water parameters in check. That is what I do even with an established qt.

 

[khaosinc]

one trick I use is to keep the filter pads (new one each time) for the HOB in my sump. That way they are coated with everything to help keep everything stable.

 

[Jake007]

Sounds like even with only a couple fish at a time, I am going to have to increase the water change frequency.

Does the Coppersafe product kill all the good bacteria, some, or none?

 

[jjk_reef00]

I would use seachem cupramine instead of coppersafe. I've heard cupramine is easier on the fish. All I've ever used was cupramine (with great success) so I can't compare the two. It isn't suppose to kill biological bacteria. I remove all rock, sand etc when I treat because you don't want anything to absorb the copper.

 

[Jake007]

Thank for the reply. Since I already bought the coppersafe product, I guess I will continue that route.