QT substrate and decorations ??

[BrendanH]

Hi All,

I'm gonna set up a QT in the next week or so and I would like to keep it running permanently. Can you suggest what type of substrate I could use that will not become "live" ? I also want to put in some decorations in the tank both for fish hiding spots and also aesthetics. Since the tank is gonna be in a reasonably prominant area I don't want it to look too bare. Also - any recommendations on a filter to keep it going ? Should I get one that can accept a carbon cartridge so that I can strip meds from the tank ? Finally, Do I need to take down and clean the tank out each time I'm done with a quarantine period or can I just use carbon or some other method to keep it running ?

thanks,
Brendan.

 

[WarOrks15]

well i think that you only really have to clean it when you use med or some thing that could kill other thing in you main tank. can i ask you why u are going to keep it up permanently? i have mine set up right now but when i stop adding fish i will take it down and put is away. and for the filer just get a a little sponge filter or soem thing like tht and put it in the main tank for a week or 2 and get that good bacteria growing and then you can put in the the q tank. did you read the artical about the q tanks on this web site yet? http://www.aquariumadvice.com/showquestion.php?faq=2&fldAuto=17 is has a ton of info about setting one up

edited to repair link

 

[BrendanH]

I was gonna keep it up permanently in case one of the inhabitants of my main tank became ill. Then I would have an environment ready to go for treatment. It takes about a week to get it up and running again right ? How do you deal with sudden problems in your main display ?

thanks....

 

[tmcpeek]

I usually have my QT tank up and running within 15 minutes. I have a 225 gallon and a 10gal qt. I just fill the QT up with water from my main tank when I am doing a water change. The first time I set it up I adjusted the heater to keep it at 80 degrees or so and now it is always ready to go.

This has worked for me and I have seen no problems.

 

[WarOrks15]

and you can have the filter just sitting in your sump (if you have one). then when some fish has a proble you just have to dig it all out and movge some stuff and it is up and ready for fish

 

[BrendanH]

Thanks - that's useful advice. Unfortunately I don't have a sump and my tank is 55g so it cannot easily take a 10g loss without having change water prepped in advance. I'm slowly convincing myself however that I should age my change water a little more than I currently do however (eg. I changed 10% this weekend with water I had kept mixing for about 36 hours).

One question - assuming I have not had the QT filter running in my main tank for a week in advance (since I do not have a sump and don't want to keep it in the main tank all the time) will filling the QT with water from the main tank and dropping in a fresh filter be enough to seed the bio-filtration in the filter media ?

 

[steve-s]

assuming I have not had the QT filter running in my main tank for a week in advance (since I do not have a sump and don't want to keep it in the main tank all the time) will filling the QT with water from the main tank and dropping in a fresh filter be enough to seed the bio-filtration in the filter media ?

Water will not transfer needed bacteria for biological filtration. If you are using a HOB, the media from there can be transered to the QT to populate the bacteria. Just be sure you rinse out any trapped detritus first in saltwater. Do not use fresh water, it will kill the bacteria.

Cheers
Steve