Quarantine Tank

[inno]

I was thinking in investing in a 5 - 10 gallon tank for general purposes such as QT'ing and maybe placing pregnant females in. What are the general guidelines to a QT tank? Do I need to buy a heater, filter, lights, plants... ect or can I get away with something else? Also should I keep the water the same as my big tank, as far as temp and ph? Also how long should you QT your fish before you introduce it to your big tank, and can you QT more than one fish at a time?

Thanks!

 

[Fishanatic]

I was thinking in investing in a 5 - 10 gallon tank for general purposes such as QT'ing and maybe placing pregnant females in. What are the general guidelines to a QT tank? Do I need to buy a heater, filter, lights, plants... ect or can I get away with something else? Also should I keep the water the same as my big tank, as far as temp and ph? Also how long should you QT your fish before you introduce it to your big tank, and can you QT more than one fish at a time?

Thanks!

You need a filter, lighting and a lot of "safe" hiding spots. you also need a heater, and try matching the same parameters of you're main tank. Qt fish for a minimum of one week.

 

[spiketooth]

I dont have substract for my qt tank. Makes it easy to see there bio load and if they have ich, makes it eaiser to manage

 

[inno]

So do not bother with gravel or anything. Just a couple think potted plants?
Thanks for the feedback!

 

[spiketooth]

This is just my opinion. I have fake plants becuase ich seem to be in every fish i buy here so it makes it alot easier to manage becuase i can remove clean and put back in. I have filter media in my main tank ready to be tranfered over at all times and a back up filter if there is some problem so i can swap media to help the healing process and remove any bad bac or ich

 

[inno]

This is just my opinion. I have fake plants becuase ich seem to be in every fish i buy here so it makes it alot easier to manage becuase i can remove clean and put back in. I have filter media in my main tank ready to be tranfered over at all times and a back up filter if there is some problem so i can swap media to help the healing process and remove any bad bac or ich

What do you mean by having filter media ready to transfer over? The fake plants seems like the best thing to do.

 

[spiketooth]

My qt tanks is not always running. I have extra filter media in my main tank so if i have a sick fish or get new fish i can just pull that media, put it in my qt tank and be good to go.

 

[inno]

Okay I got you, well thanks for all the advice. I have a way better Idea of what to do now. Do you QT everything you put into your tank? For example, snails, Shrimp?

 

[spiketooth]

Yup, they can carry stuff. I qt everything, even plants

 

[spiketooth]

Whats your idea, i am always open to new ideas

 

[inno]

Whats your idea, i am always open to new ideas

I have a way better Idea as in now I know what to do. Before talking to you I was going to live plant it with gravel and everything. But that seems to be to hard to manage if a fish is sick and you want to clean everything. I will be doing it your way.

 

[TOMatt]

I've got an old 20Gal that I use for a QT tank.
I've got extra media in the filter for my main tank, and just move it over to the QT when i get new fish. I keep a ziplock bag of substrate, the small filter, plastic plants, and other heater in a box, and just set them up when needed.

So far i haven't had any get sick (other than a couple that die with no explanation in the main tank), but if the new fish did get sick, i'd probably throw away the substrate and really give the plastic plants, heater, etc a good wash before reusing.

 

[Buu]

I've got an old 20Gal that I use for a QT tank.
I've got extra media in the filter for my main tank, and just move it over to the QT when i get new fish. I keep a ziplock bag of substrate, the small filter, plastic plants, and other heater in a box, and just set them up when needed.

So far i haven't had any get sick (other than a couple that die with no explanation in the main tank), but if the new fish did get sick, i'd probably throw away the substrate and really give the plastic plants, heater, etc a good wash before reusing.

when your QT tank is down, do you just return the extra media to your main tank even if they fish were sick/you medicated?

 

[spiketooth]

I wait for the media to dry out. Then put back in. thats why i always have a back up for my qt tank

 

[MMantelli]

I always keep my qt running its a 10g the only thing it has is a diy water bottle filter, 50w heater, rocks covering the bottom, a terra cotta pot and a hood light combo off my 20 from when I uh upgraded the light. And the rocks are only there to give my cichlids something to do the light is optional and the pot is shelter to make them comfy. Here is a pic. When building this I thought what would be the easiest setup to be able to remove and boil everything if I ever did have to treat for parasites or ich or something and wanted to make sure everything bad is dead.

 

[pcdebb]

my qt is barebottom with no deco in it at the moment. I have a filter in it but no media, it's running to have water movement. if you have a filter on it and you are treating sick fish, the filter will remove the meds. having a small tank has always been an issue with me as far as ammonia spikes. the qt has been empty for weeks, and I did a water change, but the ammonia was high, so I'm going to snag a 20G from petco (the sale is on) and upgrade my qt.

Mmantelli you have to tell me how you built the DIY filter

 

[MMantelli]

A filter will only remove meds if there's carbon or similar in it but you can still use mechanical and biological filtration.

I took the skinniest water bottle I could find cut the bottom out then stuck a handful of biostars from a pre existing media in it stuffed polyfill after that and an airstone into the bottom of the polyfill and as the air goes up it pulls the water up behind it.

 

[TOMatt]

when your QT tank is down, do you just return the extra media to your main tank even if they fish were sick/you medicated?

I haven't actually quarantined for sick/medicated fish yet, just new ones being QT'd for a couple of weeks before going in the big one.
If i had sick/medicated fish, i'd throw away the QT filter media and buy new stuff. Then I'd let the new stuff sit in the big filter until I needed it for the QT tank again.

 

[Buu]

I haven't actually quarantined for sick/medicated fish yet, just new ones being QT'd for a couple of weeks before going in the big one.
If i had sick/medicated fish, i'd throw away the QT filter media and buy new stuff. Then I'd let the new stuff sit in the big filter until I needed it for the QT tank again.

Thanks! Good to know.

 

[inno]

It is tempting to add new fish to your tank for whatever reason but with proper QTing you can not go wrong. Every time I have added new fish to my tank without QTing something always happened within days. Eventually you get sick of losing fish.