Is a filter needed on a temporary QT?

[Jjensen187]

Hey I had a fungal outbreak in my 29 gallons so I decided to set up a quarantine for the fish showing symptoms. It's a 10gal with a heater and airstone. I am dosing it with maracyn and it has two fish in it, a dwarf gourami and a tetra. I'll only be dosing for 5 days, is it necessary to have a filter on this QT tank? If not what steps should I take for the next 5 days?

 

[Saltwaterfishgirl]

Yes about the filter. Have you considered completely re starting your tank?

 

[jcolon]

Ideally an established filter is ideal ... which is why running two filters in your main tank is beneficial, the second can act as a backup and a QT filter.

However, in medical QT, I prefer to just run an air-stone. IMO ... in medical QT's your going to do multiple PWC's anyway since clean water's a must for curing fish, so chances are your ammo is not going to build up much anyway.

When I treated my Green TigerBarb for a fungus, I just ran an air-stone and did 50% PWC daily. Granted you have to re-dose the meds, but the fresh clean water helps the healing.

 

[Jjensen187]

I've considered but don't know the necessary steps for restarting it without the risk of a cycle. Also it would be very difficult to remove all the substrate as I'm using PFS.

 

[Jjensen187]

I figured since I'll be doing water changes every day I'll be ok without a filter.

 

[Penncentralfan]

You'll be fine without a filter. If you do daily 10-20 percent water changes you'll be fine.

 

[aqua_chem]

I don't have a filter on my hospital tanks either. As previously mentioned, frequent water changes are hugely beneficial to a recovering fish, almost negating the need for a filter on smaller tank. I would put in an airstone though.