Maintaing a Quarantine tank without fish

[bioteacher]

What do I do to maintain a QT once their are no fish in it? I don't want the bacteria to starve. I guess if I toss some fish food in every couple days that will slowly decay releasing ammonia?? Any advice?

 

[tjm80]

Go to Ace Hardware and get some ammonia. Couple of drops a week should do.

 

[iadubber]

Why worry about keeping a QT tank going? Just drop some filter floss in your DT's sump if you have one. Then get a cheap HOB filter for your QT. Just use the QT when you need to with the filter floss you have had in your sump put into the HOB filter. Keep a couple pieces of filter floss in the sump so you always have it on hand. Obviously it will take a few weeks for the BB to populate the floss though. Also don't reuse the floss when done the the QT.

 

[tonedogz]

I keep mine going all the time. I have 4 damsels I keep in it so there's no need to cycle it or worry about rises in ammonia or nitrites

 

[crister13]

What do you do when you get a new fish? Damsels are demonic.

 

[iadubber]

I keep mine going all the time. I have 4 damsels I keep in it so there's no need to cycle it or worry about rises in ammonia or nitrites

I don't understand that. So it's pretty much another tank not a qt? What do you do with the damsels if you have a sick fish?

 

[tonedogz]

Their striped damsels and small they don't really bother anything. If the fish is sick I treat the damsels along with the new one.

 

[Saratj1]

I had* a three stripe damsel and it was demonic, if it isn't a tank terror now give it a month,mine was skiddish torwards me, but drop another fish in there and the fight was on!

 

[CleverBs]

Iv seen the damsel thing done but the person had a portion of the tank block with egg create to keep the damsels out of the area he put new fish in so they couldnt bother it.

 

[Mrc8858]

The filter floss in the sump is not a good idea...if your tank breaks out with disease and you use filter floss from that tank your just adding more disease to your QT. They should be kept as completely seperate systems which the ammonia or fish food is imo the best way to keep it running.

 

[crister13]

The fish already had the disease and the whole purpose of quarantining is to kill the disease, so the disease or parasite on the floss will get killed. It will get in the water from reproduction off of the fish anyway. I've done it before, and it worked well.

 

[Mrc8858]

Do you add a new filter floss to your sump then to become established for the next go cause if you are just putting it back into your sump when your done with quarantine then you have contaminated the tank anyways with your meds (whole reason for removing fish most often then not) if it works for you that's great but imo if you want to effectively use a QT they must be treated as completely seperate systems

 

[scottayy]

Im just dosing extra fish food to let it rot and keep the ammonia source going. Then before I add anything I'll do a large water change to bring the nitrates down.

 

[bioteacher]

Ok, so is there any need to do water changes while there are no fish in the tank. For example, if it is fishless for 6 months do I need to change water, or do I just top off to maintain salinity.

 

[scottayy]

Probably not a need to change water. I'm not anyways. I can't think of a reason to.

 

[Hondatek]

I would do a small water change every so often to replenish trace elements .