qt tank questions?

[zsalinas]

If I'm settin up a qt tank can I just take water from my existing tank and maybe a few pieces of the lr and the substrate can Ijust put them in a qt tank? Would this be sufficient enough or would it still need to cycle and everything?

 

[moneyman]

Take just the LR. Leave the substrate. This might be sufficient depending on the livestock, size of LR, and size of QT.
When I had a 10 gallon QT, I brough over a soft-ball size LR and 10 gallons of water. I fed little and did 10% water changes once a week. My small tang was fine in the QT and the tank never showed any elevated ammonia readings.

 

[zsalinas]

Then do I just need to buy some type of hang-on filter and have that run it? I've read on the QT pages and stuff but it doesn't really say if you can just pull the water from the display tank. I plan on doing that now it's easier. Also I'll probably just do a 10 gal qt. Won't the LR end up dying anyways because of the salinity being so low? Thanks for the help

 

[moneyman]

The pods in the rock might die. But, the nitrifying bateria will always be there.
You can have a hang on filter, skimmer, and etc. But, the only thing you need is a heater and something that move the water around the QT. I used one maxijet 600 on my 10 gallon QT.

 

[zsalinas]

Well, of course I wanna keep this cheap but also have it be effective. Will I need to keep everything running even when there aren't any fish in there?

 

[moneyman]

How long are we talking about? days? weeks?
When there are no fish, there are no significate source of ammonia. Dead pods, algae, bateria provides a little kick for a short time. You can cheat by dropping in some fish food to establish the ammonia.

 

[zsalinas]

Well like what do you do when you don't need to use the tank for anything then all of sudden one of your fish gets ick or you need to qt a new fish you bought or something? What do you do with the tank when you don't need to have anything in it? Should I just buy some tiny fish and stick those in there so it's cycled all the time? Or do I just drain it and fill it up when I need it again? See what I'm sayin?

 

[moneyman]

The beauty of moving the LR from your display tank is that your QT tank is cycled. Just put in the fish right away. 'Just-In-Time QT'. It takes 30 minutes to prepare a QT tank when you have all the parts.
You can put some tiny fish in there. You'll have to do water changes on the QT just as any other tank.

 

[zsalinas]

Ok cool I see what your sayin. So if I take the water and LR from my display I shouldn't have to worry about a cycle or anything? Just double and triple checking. I don't wanna kill anything. I know I'd have to do a water change on the small tank but that's a tiny amount of water I'm not worried about that. I'll probably just buy a cheap filter and a little heater and do that then. I just want to be ahead of myself when and if my fish develop ick. Thanks for all the help.

 

[moneyman]

You're welcome.