A testament to the Fish Corral

[spinman]

After going thru the ich outbreak 2 months ago, you'd think I learned my lesson. Well, the Heni I QT'd for 2 weeks and then added to the main came down with ich 2 days later. My advice: QT, QT, QT. And do it for 4 weeks minimum. From the 2 times this has happened to me, both the BHT and the Heni came down with ich after 2-3 weeks.

The thought of having to move the Heni, a YT and 2 clowns back into the QT made me want to jump off a bridge. Last time I had to do this, I had to pull most of the LR out just to catch the fish.

This time I had the Fish Corral. I could not believe how EZ it was to use it. I placed some flake and pellets inside the Corral and sunk it to the bottom. 5 mins. later, the Heni comes rolling in. Bam! One down. Next I shushed the clowns towards the Corral and one of the them went right in. Two doen. Two to go. The other clown went it minutes later. Last was the YT. He was the one I dreaded the most as he hunkers down into the LR and is very skittish. My wife moved the net on one side of the tank and the YT shot around the tank like a bat out of h*ll. All of a sudden, Bam! Right in the corral.

I swear the whole ordeal took less than 10 minutes with not one piece of LR disturbed.

5 stars for this product. Now onto 6 weeks of hypo....

Spin

[hackteck]

where did you purchase this item from?

[spinman]

git it right here:

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...pc=1&N=0&Nty=1

[tecwzrd]

Originally Posted by hackteck

where did you purchase this item from?

Fish Corral


Tangs and Butterfly fish are known ich magnets but fortunately I haven’t had an issue yet. Thanks for the review though Do you have cleaner shrimp?

[hackteck]

thanks for the link

[spinman]

Yeah, I've got a cleaner shrimp.

[Brenden]

If you do not want to spend $20 a empty clear 2 liter bottle will work too.

[hackteck]

what do you have to do to remove a fish from your tank brenden?, dive in with scuba gear and snatch it hehe

[mykpoz]

Originally Posted by hackteck

what do you have to do to remove a fish from your tank brenden?, dive in with scuba gear and snatch it hehe

nope speargun!

[Brenden]

what do you have to do to remove a fish from your tank brenden?, dive in with scuba gear and snatch it hehe

I actually had to do it one time when I first started this tank. I would rather not talk about it (Melissa either). I have since made a trap that is similar to the one in this post but does not have the short handle on it. The 2 liter bottle on a dowel rod also works well.

[zenn]

i think more people ad fish before qt'ing for 4 full weeks than are willing to admit it. I think there's a lot of people that worry about their QT tanks killing fish because they're small and harder to keep the water quality stable. So they get nervous after 1-2 weeks of QT and just add the fish to the display tank because they figure the chances of it actually getting ich at this point are less than the chances of it dieing in QT.

At least that's been my experience. I've lost quite a few fish in my 10g QT tank and i almost had a huge problem because i did the same thing you did a while ago. So i guess what i'm saying is don't feel like your the only one making the mistakes.

[tecwzrd]

Originally Posted by zenn

i think more people ad fish before qt'ing for 4 full weeks than are willing to admit it.

The majority of fish owners I know don’t bother with qt tanks Personally I don’t understand why, especially with sw.

I think it’s mostly because people get lazy with fw tanks and can just dose the whole tank with little consequences.

It can be done also with fo setups in sw but severely limits your invert/coral selections in the future. (If at all depending on the meds you use)

For most people they can set up a qt tank for less then $30 requiring only a 10 gal tank, cheap hob filter, & heater keeping the hob unit on the main in order to maintain bacteria and switching to the qt tank when needed. (Disposing properly of hob filter media once done if copper based meds used)

Hopefully when they keep loosing $30+ fish/inverts/coral they will realize the folly of just adding them to the main.

[zenn]

Originally Posted by tecwzrd

The majority of fish owners I know don’t bother with qt tanks Personally I don’t understand why, especially with sw.

I think it’s mostly because people get lazy with fw tanks and can just dose the whole tank with little consequences.

It can be done also with fo setups in sw but severely limits your invert/coral selections in the future. (If at all depending on the meds you use)

For most people they can set up a qt tank for less then $30 requiring only a 10 gal tank, cheap hob filter, & heater keeping the hob unit on the main in order to maintain bacteria and switching to the qt tank when needed. (Disposing properly of hob filter media once done if copper based meds used)

Hopefully when they keep loosing $30+ fish/inverts/coral they will realize the folly of just adding them to the main.

I agree with most of what you said. Although I think serious SW hobbyist...the ones preaching QT QT QT, often overlook the fact that putting a 50 dollar fish in a 10gallon tank for a month is risky. And lots of times the fish doesn't make it. Of course we know that it's better to loose the fish in QT than to risk infecting the entire display tank with something. I guess what i'm saying is it's hard to learn how to QT properly. For me, it's an ongoing troublespot that i just haven't quite perfected yet.

[tecwzrd]

Originally Posted by zenn

often overlook the fact that putting a 50 dollar fish in a 10gallon tank for a month is risky.

Most people with 55 gal or fewer gal tanks wouldn’t put a fish much larger then 4� into it. IMO a 10 gal is sufficiently large enough to house the fish for the short 4-6 week time period.

The key is to always have a cycled filtration unit ready to go so you don’t have any nh3/no2 issues. Personally I use a HOB bio wheel hooked up to the main at all times and just transfer it over to the qt tank when purchasing new fish. I have never had any issues with maintaining water quality by doing this and I always keep 2 extra bio wheels (They are cheap) in case I trash the other cycled one due to using meds on the qt tank. (I use 90 lbs of lr for main bio filtration) Keeping a sponge filter in the sump or main and transferring to the qt tank works as well.

As a general rule a qt tank that is 20% the size of the main is usually large enough and if you properly qt all your inhabitants before putting in the main then your main should always be relatively disease free since most diseases have to come from a sick fish.

Of course having a larger 29 gal tank would be ideal (especially for housing multiple fish) and personally I use a 20 gal long tank but I was just stating the basic setup for “most people� and not the serious aquarist.

[zenn]

Originally Posted by tecwzrd

Most people with 55 gal or fewer gal tanks wouldn’t put a fish much larger then 4� into it. IMO a 10 gal is sufficiently large enough to house the fish for the short 4-6 week time period.

The key is to always have a cycled filtration unit ready to go so you don’t have any nh3/no2 issues. Personally I use a HOB bio wheel hooked up to the main at all times and just transfer it over to the qt tank when purchasing new fish. I have never had any issues with maintaining water quality by doing this and I always keep 2 extra bio wheels (They are cheap) in case I trash the other cycled one due to using meds on the qt tank. (I use 90 lbs of lr for main bio filtration) Keeping a sponge filter in the sump or main and transferring to the qt tank works as well.

As a general rule a qt tank that is 20% the size of the main is usually large enough and if you properly qt all your inhabitants before putting in the main then your main should always be relatively disease free since most diseases have to come from a sick fish.

Of course having a larger 29 gal tank would be ideal (especially for housing multiple fish) and personally I use a 20 gal long tank but I was just stating the basic setup for “most people� and not the serious aquarist.

right. THat's what i was stating as well. Most starting reef aquarist go with the 10g setup for a QT because it's what's recommened. I just have a bad track record with this method. And my point is that people get frustrated with losing fish in the QT so they skip right to adding them to the main. Not sure but it seems to me like there's probably more peopel doing exactly that than are willing to admit it. With that said, QT is very important and i do it every time now.

[Brenden]

FWIW I have 30 gal QT's and at one time I also had a 100 gal QT. They are still a pain.

[spinman]

Being the "preacher" with the QT,QT,QT mantra, I'm not that foolhardy to have a 10 gallon QT. Mine is a 55 with 30+ gallons of water in it.

The 1st time I had to hypo, I had 2 Clowns and YT in there for 7 weeks. Did a 5 gallon PWC every week, and the fish pulled thru fine.

Spin

[pkremer]

I have a 10-gallon QT, with a Coral Beauty Angel in it for the last 4 weeks that seems to be doing very well so far. I am not scared of losing him, my irritation with it is more about the impossible time I have with algae in 10-gallon aquariums!!!

[cmor1701d]

I had a 1- gal QT for new fish but got Ich anyway, probably form not QTing an invert or coral. I then ran out and got a 30 gal QT with HOB filter, etc. I now use that to make up my PWC batches. I keep a filter pad and biowheel in the sump of the main just in case I need them again.