Quarentine tank

[Kronasaur]

What are some pros and cons about a quarantine tank?

 

[scottayy]

All pros no cons! IMO it's not even optional but a necessary piece of equipment. You won't have a successful tank without it.

 

[Jesselav1233]

The only con is having to maintain it in addition to your main tanks but it offers u an unparalleled level of protection from infection to a main tank by allowing you to acclimate any new additions to your tanks to your water parameters without exposing potentially sick livestock to your already healthy tank. I once had 8 discus die from adding a seemingly healthy angel fish to my tank. It turned out all the angels from the tank were sick as well but whatever they had just hadn't taken over yet when I bought them. So point of the story is now I use a quarantine tank with my new fish just a small 20 gallon

 

[scottayy]

Yeah, most people including myself find out they need a quarantine tank the hard way.

 

[jcolon]

What are some pros and cons about a quarantine tank?

All pros ... No cons. Considering you can even use those Rubbermaid bins as a QT, you can use the "tank" to store your tank supplies once it's QT purposes are done.

 

[rupp3322]

I found out the hard way! Sucked! So just set up a qt right away! Its not as much maintenance as your dt because you should have nothing in it except for what you are qting and a filter, powerhead, and heater. It doesnt get dirty nearly as fast and parameters dont shift as fast as in your dt. Its a must!

 

[Kronasaur]

What size quarantine should I have for a 90g

 

[rupp3322]

What size quarantine should I have for a 90g

20 gallon long is perfect

 

[Kronasaur]

Would I put all of the fish In the same one? What about two 10g?

 

[rupp3322]

I would put all the fish in the same one. I wouldnt use less than a 20 gal unless you have to. Its just easier to maintain and lastly put some pieces of pvc in there for the livestock to hide in.

 

[scottayy]

I would get one or two at a time. The bio filter in your DT and in your QT will need time to catch up to the load.

No rush.

 

[nikki_kaiser]

^^ agrees with above. I put an extra filter to grow bacteria from my main tank on so when I QT I have it and will help add bacteria.

 

[h8z2luze]

How long should you QT livestock before adding them to the DT??

 

[nikki_kaiser]

Any fish I get, I treat as though I know they have parasites so I use meds with mine. I have a 10 gallon that I use only for inverts etc that have had no copper exposure. I QT for at least three weeks. Put something in there that they can go into and hide in. It cuts down on stress. My way isn't everyone's. I had a wipe out years ago so I'm a bit paranoid.

 

[scottayy]

I'm on the fence about treating/not treating using preventative measures. I use 6 weeks though I have gone a month before out of impatience lol.

 

[nikki_kaiser]

I go with pretreating because if for some reason I don't and a fish ends up with a parasite it's highly likely they all will get it eventually. Unfortunately you can't just treat the one fish showing signs (I wish you could though!! LOL!) and you have to remove all of your fish and treat to make sure you eradicate the issue. Depending on how many fish you have can mean daily water changes and then you have the whole massive clean up of the sand, rock, etc. and wait time as cysts can attach to the bed and rock. It's a real pain. There's really a lot of people who have misconceptions regarding ich including myself until I did further research. Reading about it is tedious when all you want are facts. I really liked this link as it explains things but also separates theory and fact. It may or may not help but it is a start!

http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/fish-diseases-treatments/23132-marine-ich-myths-facts.html

 

[Grizz]

I QT for 4 weeks unless the fish looks or acts odd then i treat and start QT timer over I have QT'd for as long as 8 weeks (Hippo Tang)

 

[pcdebb]

I know I'm probably breaking the size rule, but i'm using a 5 gallon for QT right now. It's the only spare I had and I had to set it up in a hurry. I'll probably get a 10 gallon to setup for QT simply because i dont have the room for a 20.

But yea, all pros, no cons at all. it's just the best way.

 

[nikki_kaiser]

QT him in what ever you can! When I was in college I used a Rubbermaid bin because I'd spent all my money on fish, aquarium stuff and beer! It worked just fine! To be honest, and now that I'm thinking about it, I actually liked that better than the aquarium I use now!

 

[nikki_kaiser]

Ok, it wasn't "Rubbermaid"...it was a cheap brand. How many fish do you have in your main aquarium right now?