Quarantine tank

[Gluestick]

I've been hearing a lot about quarantine tanks in all the books i've been reading. Do you all have one? What does yours consist of? Is is necessary?

 

[bertoni]

Mine is a 20g tank. I use it for fish. I also have a 12g "quarantine" tank that I use for soft corals. All that's needed is a heater, a pump, and a simple filter. A quarantine tank isn't "necessary", but it can save a lot of animals.

 

[Andrew]

Ive got a 36 gallon qt and a 5.5 gallon tank. Im glad I have them and wouln't get rid of them.

 

[Gluestick]

I didn't know you had to quarantine corals - how/why?

 

[Andrew]

Corals will die durning the hypo process.

 

[TippyToeX]

I think a quarantine tank is absolutely necessary.

Here is how I recently setup mine. Linky

An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure

Why QT corals? Because they come in with some of the most nasty hitchhikers that could devastate your livestock. Each individual coral has it's on monsters that can attack it. Or infection present.

 

[Gluestick]

What is hypo process?

 

[geo]

You should quarantine corals to be sure they are healthy and not carrying any unwanted hitchhikers. There are many predators that can be introduced into your display, and to quarantine all new arrivals is the best way to prevent this. If you happen to introduce some flatworm, nudibranch or whatever into the display it can be devastating. Why risk the already healthy livestock?

 

[TippyToeX]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6674275#post6674275 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Gluestick
What is hypo process?

Slowly bringing the salinity down to 1.009. Keeping it there for 6 weeks.

 

[Gluestick]

So you keep fish in the quarantine tank for 6 weeks with low salinity?

 

[dwculp]

I have a QT tank after I experienced a total disaster. When I first started in thius hobby just under two years ago I was having an easy time of it, no fish deaths and everything was just peachy. Then I bought a coral beauty angel who brought in ich and ended up killing every fish in the tank. I couldnt treat the tank with copper because of the inverts.

I then setup a 29 gallon QT tank and all fish get QT'ed for a minimum of 4 weeks. I have only had one fish die in QT of mysterious circumstances. If he did die of disease he could have easily spread it to my other fish. I have not had an outbreak of ick or any other disease since starting the QT. I also run the QT at the same salinity as the display tank (~1.025) to keep down the stress when moving the animals from QT to the display.

My QT tank is simple. A 29 gallon tank with an emperor bio-wheel filter, a heater, a single rock and PVC pipes and sand on the bottom. Most people wouldnt include the sand but this was a converted display tank.

I will NEVER go without a QT tank ever again.

 

[TippyToeX]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6674831#post6674831 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Gluestick
So you keep fish in the quarantine tank for 6 weeks with low salinity?

For a parasite such as ick yes.