Maintaining water quality?

[lionpicasso]

I have a 10gal QT i couldn't keep my Ammonia,Nitrates down. How do you keep good water quality in your QT. Do you do water changes? I had 2 damsels in it(there both dead).
Thanks

 

[jonthefb]

This is a really dumb question, but did you take their carcasses out? If not it could account for your high leves in such a small system. Just wondering.
Also, what kind of filters do you have, and all the other aspects of your setup, etc???
jon

 

[broomer5]

QT's go through an intial cycle as well.
Lots of ways to run a QT - many people use a small in tank foam or hang on back powerfilter.
As jonthefb mentioned, can you tell a little more about your set up, time frames of adding vs. death of fish ???

 

[lionpicasso]

It's a 10gal with a penguin filter with a bio-wheel. i added the 3 fish dec 20, 2 damsels and one algea eating blenny, I did a 25% water change
on jan 21 when my blenny died.
And yes i took the carcass out the very day it died.

 

[cyn]

You may want to remove the bio wheel. Many people will tell you that they help to keep your levels from coming down. Is there any LR in your tank? A nice chunk of LR would provide filtration and you could remove the bio wheel and use the filter for circulation. Also, you did not mention if there is substrate in the QT. If so, what is it? CC traps and holds debris and requires vaccuming to maintain water quality. DSB on the other hand does not. DSB also provides an anerobic zone to convert trates to nitrogen gas and allows this to escape.
HTH,
cyn

 

[broomer5]

It's a saltwater tank - just happens so be a smaller one - 10 gallon.
You still need to cycle it as any other tank - or you will lose fish upon adding them.
3 fish added to a new 10 gallon tank with NO bacteria biofiltration will most likely die - no matter if you "call" it a QT or you MAIN tank - still a tank that should be cycled.
Or you can add a filter or filtermedia from an existing tank - and have a pretty good chance of all going well.
Sorry to hear of your fish dying.
A hospital tank is a different story, and should such be handled differently.