Quarantine Question
- Thread starter salt55
- Start date
Here is my little write up on QT:
Well, with a QT you can either set up a permanent tank, or, like me, an "as needed" one which is only used when new fish are going to be intro-ed to your tank. The best way to do it is set up a permanent tank.
Yes, if your water in your main tank is good quality, you can use that water to fill your QT with. Of course, you will then have to replace the water in your main tank with new pre-mixed, aged salt water. Doing this is a real plus because your main tank water will have bacteria in it that will help establish and cycle your new QT. Otherwise, you can do a 50-50 water in the QT, meaning 50% water from your main tank and 50% pre-mixed, aged salt water. Or, if you are patient and don’t mind a slower cycling process, you can just setup the QT with all new salt water. Up to you how you want to handle it.
Paint the bottom [on the outside] of your tank black or blue. Emphasis on the OUTSIDE. The reason you do this is because a QT should not have substrate. Without substrate, aquarium bottoms become reflective which can be disturbing and disorienting to fish. Don’t let anyone tell you that this is not a necessary step. It is. I have seen fish become disoriented and not able to eat properly due to reflective bottoms. Alternatively, if you have a black table top or stand, then you can place the aquarium on this and skip painting the bottom. Be sure to use black or blue. Some hobbyist will also paint the back and even the 2 sides black—further reducing reflectiveness in tank. That is optional.
You will want to set up QT with the filtration of your choice, it can be as elaborate or as simple as you want. You want to make sure that in-tank circulation is good and that surface water agitation is good to ensure adequate gas exchange. Optimum water quality is your goal in the QT. You may need to also add a heater or, perhaps even a grounding probe [especially if you are going to place tangs and angels in the QT].
To cycle the tank, you can add a cupful of your substrate from your main tank, a piece of inexpensive LR, and some fresh shrimp. The point here is to get the tank into cycle mode, thus you need to add organic material. The LR and sand has nitrifying bacteria in it to help speed the cycling process along. However, if you don’t want to take LR or a cup of sand out of your tank, then you can just use the fresh shrimp…it will just take a bit longer to establish your QT.
Of course, you need ammonia, nitrite and nitrate test kits to test the cycling process.
Use PVC pipe to build a simulated rock structure for your QT, or, you can use fake tank décor. It is best not to use substrate or live rock, etc., because if you need to treat your new fish, then LR and live substrate will not survive treatment. Additionally dead coral will absorb some meds that you may need to use to treat diseases making it extremely difficult to maintain therapeutic dosage of the med during treatment.
As for lighting, I recommend it. All you need is standard NO’s, nothing fancy needed. The reason I recommend lighting is because you will need to observe your fish closely during QT to check for health and any fish diseases that may have come with them. WO a light it is hard to see if fish are sick. Thus, I suggest using tank lights. It is not absolutely necessary, however.
You basically let the QT cycle just as you did your main tank, and you maintain it the same as you do your main tank. Optimum water quality is essential when fish are introduced to the QT, so you will need to be diligent about maintenance while fish are in temporary holding. You want to maintain your QT at the same level as you main tank. Meaning pH, temp, etc.
Yes, most new tanks will cycle, even if you have some nitrifying bacteria from other sources. In my reef tank, I managed to never have a cycle, but I had a 6” deep live sand bed from day one and 80lbs of cured LR from this site. As I said, if your water quality is good in the main tank, then add a cupful of your substrate to your QT. Also, as I vaguely suggested in my first post, if you don’t maintain a QT except when you need it [like when you are going to add fish] and you set up on an as-needed basis [like me], then you will basically have to perform maintenance to keep the QT from cycling. This basically means high maintenance on the QT to prevent it from ever going into a cycle. IE: daily water changes, diligently vacuuming up left over food, detritus, blasting trapped debris in the simulated reef [PVC structure] off so it will settle on the aquarium floor so you can vacuum up, etc. Whatever it takes to keep the tank from going into a cycle. This takes daily diligence….no break. It only takes a few hours for food that has been left uneaten by fish to decay and start deteriorating your water quality. Now, if you don’t mind babysitting your QT, then go ahead and do it this way. Be sure to have a plentiful supply of your test kits as you will need to test daily [or more often].
TerryB recommends also doing hyposalinity in the QT. At this point, I am trying this for the first time. It can’t hurt to do it, can only benefit, but, then your QT time will be extended. You will need to reduce specific gravity/salinity over a 48-hr period, maintain the fish in hypo for 3 wks, then, over another 4-5 days bring the salinity back up to your main tank parameters. So, you are looking at another week in QT, in addition to the standard 3 wks. I think it’s a good idea. Hypo is a very precise process, however. You must get the specific gravity down to 1.009 and keep it there. It must not rise above that. To accomplish this, you need a refractometer to measure the salinity. Other instruments are not as precise, but you can also use a quality glass hydrometer, if you don’t have a refractometer.
Well, with a QT you can either set up a permanent tank, or, like me, an "as needed" one which is only used when new fish are going to be intro-ed to your tank. The best way to do it is set up a permanent tank.
Yes, if your water in your main tank is good quality, you can use that water to fill your QT with. Of course, you will then have to replace the water in your main tank with new pre-mixed, aged salt water. Doing this is a real plus because your main tank water will have bacteria in it that will help establish and cycle your new QT. Otherwise, you can do a 50-50 water in the QT, meaning 50% water from your main tank and 50% pre-mixed, aged salt water. Or, if you are patient and don’t mind a slower cycling process, you can just setup the QT with all new salt water. Up to you how you want to handle it.
Paint the bottom [on the outside] of your tank black or blue. Emphasis on the OUTSIDE. The reason you do this is because a QT should not have substrate. Without substrate, aquarium bottoms become reflective which can be disturbing and disorienting to fish. Don’t let anyone tell you that this is not a necessary step. It is. I have seen fish become disoriented and not able to eat properly due to reflective bottoms. Alternatively, if you have a black table top or stand, then you can place the aquarium on this and skip painting the bottom. Be sure to use black or blue. Some hobbyist will also paint the back and even the 2 sides black—further reducing reflectiveness in tank. That is optional.
You will want to set up QT with the filtration of your choice, it can be as elaborate or as simple as you want. You want to make sure that in-tank circulation is good and that surface water agitation is good to ensure adequate gas exchange. Optimum water quality is your goal in the QT. You may need to also add a heater or, perhaps even a grounding probe [especially if you are going to place tangs and angels in the QT].
To cycle the tank, you can add a cupful of your substrate from your main tank, a piece of inexpensive LR, and some fresh shrimp. The point here is to get the tank into cycle mode, thus you need to add organic material. The LR and sand has nitrifying bacteria in it to help speed the cycling process along. However, if you don’t want to take LR or a cup of sand out of your tank, then you can just use the fresh shrimp…it will just take a bit longer to establish your QT.
Of course, you need ammonia, nitrite and nitrate test kits to test the cycling process.
Use PVC pipe to build a simulated rock structure for your QT, or, you can use fake tank décor. It is best not to use substrate or live rock, etc., because if you need to treat your new fish, then LR and live substrate will not survive treatment. Additionally dead coral will absorb some meds that you may need to use to treat diseases making it extremely difficult to maintain therapeutic dosage of the med during treatment.
As for lighting, I recommend it. All you need is standard NO’s, nothing fancy needed. The reason I recommend lighting is because you will need to observe your fish closely during QT to check for health and any fish diseases that may have come with them. WO a light it is hard to see if fish are sick. Thus, I suggest using tank lights. It is not absolutely necessary, however.
You basically let the QT cycle just as you did your main tank, and you maintain it the same as you do your main tank. Optimum water quality is essential when fish are introduced to the QT, so you will need to be diligent about maintenance while fish are in temporary holding. You want to maintain your QT at the same level as you main tank. Meaning pH, temp, etc.
Yes, most new tanks will cycle, even if you have some nitrifying bacteria from other sources. In my reef tank, I managed to never have a cycle, but I had a 6” deep live sand bed from day one and 80lbs of cured LR from this site. As I said, if your water quality is good in the main tank, then add a cupful of your substrate to your QT. Also, as I vaguely suggested in my first post, if you don’t maintain a QT except when you need it [like when you are going to add fish] and you set up on an as-needed basis [like me], then you will basically have to perform maintenance to keep the QT from cycling. This basically means high maintenance on the QT to prevent it from ever going into a cycle. IE: daily water changes, diligently vacuuming up left over food, detritus, blasting trapped debris in the simulated reef [PVC structure] off so it will settle on the aquarium floor so you can vacuum up, etc. Whatever it takes to keep the tank from going into a cycle. This takes daily diligence….no break. It only takes a few hours for food that has been left uneaten by fish to decay and start deteriorating your water quality. Now, if you don’t mind babysitting your QT, then go ahead and do it this way. Be sure to have a plentiful supply of your test kits as you will need to test daily [or more often].
TerryB recommends also doing hyposalinity in the QT. At this point, I am trying this for the first time. It can’t hurt to do it, can only benefit, but, then your QT time will be extended. You will need to reduce specific gravity/salinity over a 48-hr period, maintain the fish in hypo for 3 wks, then, over another 4-5 days bring the salinity back up to your main tank parameters. So, you are looking at another week in QT, in addition to the standard 3 wks. I think it’s a good idea. Hypo is a very precise process, however. You must get the specific gravity down to 1.009 and keep it there. It must not rise above that. To accomplish this, you need a refractometer to measure the salinity. Other instruments are not as precise, but you can also use a quality glass hydrometer, if you don’t have a refractometer.
E
eipappas
Guest
Beth - I just set up an emergency hospital tank using a thin layer of substrate from the tank and a few pieces of LR and 100% water from my existing tank (I'd say 10% of that was new water added to the existing tank the day before)... Does this mean the tank might still cycle? How much of a daily water change should I do? 1 gallon a day? And if I start vacuuming in the little tank i'm afraid I'll vaccuum up more than the gallon and also scare the fish to death... This might just be a silly thought though. More importantly I'm using the QT to medicate a wounded clown fish - would water changes hurt the medication process? Thanks in advance