How long do I need to leave a new QT filter in the main tank?

[Joey P]

I'm setting up a QT tank and I just stuck the filter media in the main tank's filter sump. How long do I need to leave it in there?
I have everything for the new tank but the heater since I could get that $10 cheaper on Amazon. So the soonest I could do anything with the new tank is Wednesday, but it'll probably later then that. Is a few days long enough? A week? Two weeks?

Also, whenever you read about setting up quarantine tanks, they always mention using filters without charcoal, but, I've never, ever seen filter media for HOB filters without charcoal. Once or twice, I've cut it out, but that's a real PITA. The only thing I can think of if I need to use it as a sick tank is to either put a sponge in the filter sump or around the intake.

 

[Oohitsae]

What kind of filter is it that you're talking about?

all the HOB filters I have seen have had seperate areas/bags for carbon (except aqueon quiet flow), internal filters are a different story... but you'll definitely want to cut the carbon out.
Carbon's purpose is to remove chemicals and what-not from the tank, which defeats the purpose of medicating if you keep it in there. Plus if you don't replace the charcoal every 3-6 weeks it can sometimes leach back into the water and make things worse, which is something you'll definitely want to avoid.

As for the duration, it all depends, once you start seeing the filter media turn brown, that generally means that the BB is starting to grow on it, then leave it in for a while after that. I'd say that it generally takes a good week to get a good colony of BB on a new filter pad, so I'd leave it in there for 10 days to 2 weeks before putting it into the new QT tank

 

[Joey P]

What kind of filter is it that you're talking about?

all the HOB filters I have seen have had seperate areas/bags for carbon (except aqueon quiet flow)

It's an Aqueon QuietFlow. But it was $16
I hoping that all I'll have to use it for is QT for new fish. Knock on wood. Maybe I'll get to experiment with fry, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.
Like I said before, my plan was that if I have to deal with sick fish, I'll use something else. I have a canister filter as well so it's no big deal to grab something out of there. In fact, when I wrote the part of the OP about the sponge I forget about my original plan. I was going to get some extra bio rings for my Fluval canister (I run a canister and a HOB on the main tank). That way if I have a sick fish I can grab half of the bio rings out of the canister and put them in the QT's sump and replace them with new ones.

Carbon's purpose is to remove chemicals and what-not from the tank, which defeats the purpose of medicating if you keep it in there. Plus if you don't replace the charcoal every 3-6 weeks it can sometimes leach back into the water and make things worse, which is something you'll definitely want to avoid.

As far as the leaching issue, I've heard it both ways. Even if it does leach things back into the water, I'm not sure that would be a problem, it would just be leaching back into the water what was already there to begin with and since I do regular water changes, I should be safe.

As for the duration, it all depends, once you start seeing the filter media turn brown, that generally means that the BB is starting to grow on it, then leave it in for a while after that. I'd say that it generally takes a good week to get a good colony of BB on a new filter pad, so I'd leave it in there for 10 days to 2 weeks before putting it into the new QT tank

Sounds good. I'll keep an eye on it. I got one small cave as well (okay, SpongeBob's Pineapple), I should toss that in the main tank as well.