Here's mine. It's fairly simple. 2nd hand parts and all that. I opted for a permanent QT that had been through a strong cycle, as I will be putting all of my fish for my new 140L through it as I stock over 6-10 months. For anything more than a temporary emergency hospital tank, I would recommend you cycle. I read some recommendations for QT tanks whereby people were doing daily water changes on it to keep ammonia down?! Sounded nuts to me. Gotta keep those fish chilled out I think, medication and environmental changes do enough to stress them out.
It's an Aqua One AR 510 (75L). Inside is...
- Couple of comact flouros in the lid.
- 750L/hr Aqua One Powerhead for filter.
- Eheim Jager 100W heater.
- Fluval Sea 4W pump, rated at 1600L/hr.
- 1" PVC pipe structure and a gifted dinosaur ornament for hiding.
- Filter pads for mechanical filtration.
- Ceramic noodles for biological filtration.
- Cheap thermometre.
As you can see it's got a trickle filter in the lid. A small powerhead pumping the water over some filter mat and trickling down through the noodles I revealed in the second photo. As it's got a pretty tight fitting lid, a never have to do an RO topup for evaporation. But the oxygen exchange is still there as the trickle filter is above the water level in the tank.
The ornaments were used a lot by my Blenny to hide in. Clowns in there now couldn't give a toss. I've seen some people and LFS' use cut up strips of BPA-free, food grade plastic to simulate kelp or seaweed. Thought about doing the same.
The best thing I bought for the tank was the Fluval powerhead for a circulation pump. Before it I was just getting detritus build up on the glass bottom every few days. Looked yuck, was hard to remove and was bad for the water. Now, the flow is gently tumbling around the tank and it keeps food and detritus suspended for eventual removal by the filter. All Ihave to do is clean the filter every weekend when I do a single bucket water change. Easy.
As this is a QT and I dose prazi and copper prophylactically all of the equipment is written off for use in another tank. If I on-sell it, I will make the buyer aware that it has all come into contact with copper, and will potentially harm inverts if used in a tank with rock, coral etc.
As it's a QT, it's also good practice to have it's own set of tools, like net syringes, cups for taking water sample test, water change hose and buckets. Not a drop should make it across to your DT, or you severly diminish the effectiveness and whole purpose of the QT!
Whatever you choose to do, and whatever gear you select, I would recommend you make your QT a cycled tank. Nothing needs to be flash or new. Just keep the fish comfy. Good luck!
