maintaing a quarantine tank

[saltym3]

I read the whole FAQ which covers the quarantine tank setup and maintance but am not sure about some things. I plan on setting up a QT tank and want to have it permantely running. After I am done QT'ing and put the fish in the main tank. Can I just keep say 1 damsel in the QT tank all the time while no other fish are in QT and when a new arrival comes remove the damsel? Also if i leave the QT at 1.009 the whole time can a damsel permantely live under that situation?

 

[a&m aggie 04']

you could keep a damsel in the Q-tank but id take him out like you said when treating other fish. Damsels can be mean little boogers, and could pick on a fish thats being treated, therefore adding even more stress. As for the Q-tank salinity, you want to keep it at the same level as your main tank, say around 1.023-1.025. Only when doing hyposalinity would you want to SLOWLY lower the salinity of your Q-tank to 1.009, and again raise it back when the treatment is over. A fish can live at that low of a SG but would not be happy for long periods of time.
HTH,
Mark

 

[saltym3]

thanks for the response. Yeah after reading a good book I figured it would be best to keep the salinity the same as the main tank but after reading here I saw that some had said if you were going to QT you mid as well do hypo just in case.

 

[clarkiiboi]

I have an empty, but running QT (for close to a year). All I do, when its not in use, is add some flake food a few times a week. It's a 10 gall., and have never seen spikes of any kind yet. That tank is actually better than my main...........
Keep the QT as close to the Main as you can for just the normal "watch" of new fish....if something should arise and hypo is needed then that is the time to do it. HTH