Quarantine Tank Questions...

[SoloChromis]

So ever since my Velvet outbreak back in my old 75g, 2 years ago, Ive *tried* to be diligent about quarantining new fish, but during the duration of these 2 years, I keep finding myself making "exceptions" and coming up with excuses to go ahead and let certain fish skip the whole quarantine process, and just putting them in the display straight away. My reasoning always consists of...

- "My quarantine is too small for this guy, he'll be much more comfortable adjusting to the roomier 120g"

- "My display tank is more established. I trust it's filtration more, and I wouldn't want to risk putting this fish in my flimsily filtered quarantine."

- "This goby/wrasse won't cope as well in the bare bottom quarantine, and gobies are hardy fish anyways, he's *probably* fine"

- "I haven't gotten a new fish in months and my quarantine is gonna have to be rebooted. Theres no way I trust something *that* freshly set up to house this fish. Screw it, you'll be happier in the reef anyways"


... So as you can see, I come up with all kinds of reasons to dodge quarantining, but a recent outbreak that took my new schooling bannerfish and spotbreast angel, has me kicking myself for making this mistake yet again. My quarantine tank is a 20g tall, filtered by 2x Aqueon HOB filters (rated for 20-30g each)w/ seeded filter pads, various PVC pipes for shelter, a thermometer, and 2x koralia nano pumps for water movement. To me, it just feels nerve racking setting up a small tank, seeding it with a filter pad thats been floating around in my sump for months and then chunking a tang in there. I have only lost a fairy wrasse and some blue/green chromis in the quarantine, everyone else has come out after the 30 day quarantine period unscathed, but I feel like Im definitely missing something that would perhaps put my mind at ease. I usually do a 50% water change every 2 weeks, depending on what's in it at the time. I guess you could say I just don't trust my quarantine system as much as I do my display. I have even considering setting up ANOTHER tank, with a skimmer, LR and a sandbed and then if the new fish shows signs of disease, transfer it over to the sterile, bare bottom, PVC littered hospital tank. Obviously, that sounds excessive, but I would love to hear what your procedures look like for quarantining new fish, your success rates, and maybe some advice or helpful info for me. Cheers :beer:

 

[fearyaks]

I'm sorry I can't help you put your mind at ease as I'm quite new at this myself. I too am very nervous about my QT 'killing' healthy fish.

For myself I did the following -
bought a 29g nanocube. It has a top, a built in filtering system and good lighting. I figured once I was finished with setting up my DT, I could sell the cube (or have a cool little nano to play with). Obviously that's a really expensive QT setup so perhaps not as ideal.

If you're concerned about losing a prime fish, have you thought about purchasing one from Live Aquaria? They have a good 14 day guarantee. At least you'd have some financial piece of mind (although shipping might be expensive).

I guess this is a bit blasé but sometimes fish just don't make it... perhaps they're dealing with a disease, perhaps they were collected poorly. I try to keep things really mellow in the QT for the first few days... no lights for a couple of days, lots of pvc pipes they can hide in. Then gradually add more lighting. I also have the tank in a low traffic area of the house.

I guess if you're really worried you can just test the water every few days?
Good luck and try not to worry too much? If you're handling your 120 well, just do the same with the QT.

 

[Nina51]

i have a very simple qt. ten gallon tank, air stone, heater, pvc pieces, seeded filter sponge from my sump. i have only ever qt'ed one fish at a time, the biggest being a kole tang. did ttm and then 1 month of observation. 100% success.

 

[woodnaquanut]

QT has so many advantages and so few disadvantages, I see no reason NOT to QT.

The size of the QT depends on the size of the new fish. I tend to buy small fish so a 10G works fine. If the fish is larger I'd go with a 20G long or 40B. Same for multiple fish in QT - go larger.

The cost is almost nothing compared to the cost of, well, just about everything else in this hobby/addiction.

Fight the urge to speed up the process. This is good training for everything else you'll do keeping aquariums.

 

[RedStangGA]

This is kind of why I converted my first DT, a 29gal biocube, to my new QT. I think AIO's are nearly the perfect QT. Easy to set up. Don't take a ton of space. And they can be found used for dirt cheap. Plus, they're large enough to be a serviceable QT for nearly any fish short term. Unless you just bought 3 mondo sized tangs of course...

 

[gone fishin]

For the most part I do not know when I am going to get a fish. If I see one I like then I get it. I then pull out a couple ten gallon tanks for TTM and once done they go into a 29g. I fill it up towards the end of tank transfer. I do WC to keep the ammonia down. The 29 has a filter, heater, small PH and some PVC.