Quarantine Tank Question????

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
RYANLAWRENCE

RYANLAWRENCE

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Jun 2, 2010
Messages
315
Location
The Lone Star State
Ok so I finally decided that the risk of losing my fish was too great and got a quarantine tank. I have a 10 gallon tank, a sponge filter (the sponge has been in my main tank wedged in between my live rock for a week), and a small heater. Is this all I need for a quarantine tank? And also, what decorations or hiding places do you use in your quarantine? Any help is appreciated.
Thanks in advance
Ryan
 
I've been doing alot of research on this lately too (Working towards setting up my fist saltwater tank...for like the last month... I'm slow). QT tanks were on the top of my research list.

Alot of what I read suggests just using good sized PVC piping (And a bit of live rock), and not even worrying about substrate and such. Myself, I'm kind of planning a "mini-fOWLR" which will likely end up living in the middle of my dining room table. My logic here is A: I rent, and don't have alot of space and B: Means I can keep a close eye on the blighter I just bought so i can head things out. Basically, even my quarantine tanks are way underpopulated display tanks.

Esentially, it's about as decorated or undecorated as you like, though anything (Like live rock) you put into it might be destroyed by meds or anything else you have to do if things go wrong, but ten pounds of live rock is better than thirty, fifty, or a hundred (And that's ignoring the FISH, inverts, and everything the heck else.)
 
Thanks yeah I didn't really want to put live rock in there because I knew it would get destroyed if I ever have to treat a fish. I didn't think about PVC though...that sounds pretty good. That would a a good place for a fish to hide. Did you happen to read anything about lighting?
 
I was on the fence about QT's and then after a fish came down with flukes and died I was glad that it was in QT and didn't destroy the huge investment I have made in my DT.

As for QT you want it as simple as possible. My setup is a HOB bio wheel filter, heater and one or two pvc tubes for them to hide in. The conditions in the QT are really never going to match the DT so you want it as simple to clean and change water. I change the water every two days or three at the most.

Also I've found through some testing that adding IO's BioSpira really helps with the parameters. I know a lot of people don't believe in the "bacteria in the bottle" but I've tried with and without and found for me the "with" works better. As for flow, the filter should provide enough until the fish passes the QT period.

Also be aware that you do not want to cross contaminate. When ever doing work on both DT and QT I do the DT work first then the QT stuff. I never use the same hoses, buckets, etc. for both tanks.

Hope that helps...Steve
 
As for lighting I think it is necessary but it doesn't have to be anything spectacular. I ended up buying a 10g kit on sale for $35.00 which came with a filter, canopy and the light built into it. I also painted the bottom, two sides and the back a deep blue so that it didn't see anything except through the front. Less stress during a stressful situation. Small things but all helping to ease the transition from LFS, to bag, to QT and eventually to DT.

Steve
 
My finished quarantine tank! All I need is the powerhead, which is coming in the mail, and I'm all good to go. Thanks for all the help guys!
 

Attachments

  • image-1020330690.jpg
    image-1020330690.jpg
    34.4 KB · Views: 99
Ok I just got my first quarantine tank resident, a flame hawkfish. He is acting well but not eating. How often do you feed when they are in quarantine? And how often do you change the water?
 
Just got home and found out terrible news. hawkfish is on his side breathing rapidly and not swimming. Any ideas of how to save him? or is he a goner??
 
ok so hawkfish is dead but LFS gave me another for dirt cheap. I acclimated him and put him directly into my display tank and he is doing well (knock on wood). I found the killer of my hawkfish in the quarantine though...ammonia was .5mg/L. How did this happen? about an hour before i got the fish i put a sponge that had been cycling in my main tank for a month into the quarantine. Did the sponge cause the ammonia spike?
 
how long was the sponge out of water? Sounds like a minicycle of some sort. Even though your putting something with established bacteria, you should check if it creates a minicycle
 
It was out for maybe 30 seconds top. Just enough to put the sponge on the little mount thing for the sponge filter. Would that be enough to cause a spike?
 
the ammonia spike could had been from the hawkfish. When i had a fish die in my 36g, it was dead no more than 3 hours and my hermit barely started eating it, but it released quite a bit of ammonia because my nitrate ended up going up ~10ppm
 
Maybe it was the fish that caused the spike then. It's weird that the fish died then, water was perfect before the fish. I guess it was from stress. I'm gonna get this water back to normal, then put another sponge in and see if the sponge was the culprit. Pretty unfortunate first experience with a quarantine tank
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

theiris1002
Good heater for 5 gallon quarantine tank
Replies
1
Views
247
ADsnail
ADsnail
V
New Rummynose Tetras dying in quarantine
Replies
7
Views
679
Vidaeus
V
M
Is it even possible to have an Uncycled SW tank?
Replies
2
Views
729
Andy Sager
Andy Sager
R
Frequency of vacuuming in a no substrate quarantine tank
Replies
7
Views
375
Aiken Drum
Aiken Drum
L
Danio erythromicron stowaway
Replies
7
Views
393
Lycanthi
L

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom