QT for 4-5" Yellow Tang

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Floyd R Turbo

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Feb 7, 2009
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West Des Moines, Iowa
What would be the minimum size tank I should use for a short-term QT of a 4-5" round Yellow Tang? This for another totally messed up tank I just got the go-ahead from the owner to take over maintenance. It's a 220 FOWLR with just this one fish, and Nitrates between 600-800 because he has never - that's right - never done a PWC in at least 2 years.

I'm going to tear down the tank and start it over. Thread coming. But need advice on this one ASAP. Going to QT it w/current tank water in smaller tank so I can acclimate it to healthy conditions, then put it back in after the tear-down.
 
I agree Sharpie lol.
At least something like 100G. It's been used to a lot of room so you can't all of a sudden take it away. Maybe a tank that your minding that has only 1 or 2 fish in it would be a nice home?
 
Ok, might have that, but this is really only for 24-48 hours, until I can drain the tank, replace tubing, sand out a few scratches on the acrylic (inside), and refill. I have a 92 corner bow that I've been looking for a reason to set up, but I would have to move tanks around to get that fired up. I have a 37 ready to go, just have to jury-rig a filter. So would I really need 100g?
 
Oh yeah, and Phosphates were about 10, temp 65.5 F (no heater!), KH was 4.5. When I asked him how often he does a water change he looked at me like he had no idea. He was only topping off 5g/wk. Salinity was 31ppt, pH 7.9. Yowzers.
 
Oh if it's only 24-48 then I think the 37G will sufice, just be as quick as you can and acclimate him for at least an hour and a half with drip acclimation. Be ready to do hypo.

Been missing your threads Floyd, where've you been?
 
I think the 37g is fine as long as you've got a decent amount of media in there. Be prepared for a water change or two just in case.
 
The setup I have is one I got off Craigslist, it's an Eclipse top with the built in filter, not what I plan on using long term, but I plan to tie some egg crate together in a tall box and put that over the intake, then fill it with bio-balls from the existing setup (Lord knows they have enough) so that will cover the bio filtration, then I will use water from their tank to fill it, and then will have to perform a series of PWCs to bring the KH up slowly enough so I don't shock the fish. Since KH is about 4.5 now, I figure it will take several 25% PWCs to bring it up safely so that I can do large enough PWCs to knock out the nitrates. Once everything is set back up in the original system, and the water parameters are matched, it's academic. It's getting there without killing the fish that is going to be the trick.

Thanks for the advice. I have a 12g but I think that's just way too small to do the job. Oh well, if it were only a smaller fish. Now the fun task - catching and transporting him!!
 
Hey Floyd I love your threads! I cant wait to follow this one. But just my experience I have a yellow tang that is about 3-4 inches. When i got my tank the amonia was WAY high so i put him in a 10 gallon for about 2 weeks while the DT went through a mini cycle. He never stopped eating and always seemed happy in the QT. He was prolly just happy to not be swimming in his own excrement but thats just my experience. So I think 48 hours should be fine.
 
I'll be firing up the thread on this tank pretty soon. It's quite an undertaking in a very short span, so I'm going to have to plan it out very well...
 
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