Keeping a Quarantine Tank

[GouramiFanatic]

I'm moving this Friday and I've decided to take the current fish in this tank and bring them to my office tank. I have (4) Julii Cories and (1) Hillstream Loach which I'll put in my 46 gallon bow tank. I also have a single Neon Tetra which my boss has agreed to take. I feel more secure with doing this instead of moving them from my house, to my aunt's house, then to our new house. The way that our closing is set up, this is the only resolution unless I wanted to keep the fish in my car all day long.

Anyway, with the removal of all of my fish I'll have an empty 10 gallon tank which I'm planning to keep as a quarantine tank. My question is, how do I keep it cycled? I know I'll need a source of ammonia, but I can't keep fish in it as it would sort of defeat the purpose of using it as a Q Tank. Would keeping a snail in it work? I don't want to keep any fish in this tank that I can't put in my 75 gallon tank.

Also, one last question. About a month ago I had a bad battle with Ich in this 10 gallon. I lost several fish. I treated it with the heat method and the Ich spots have been gone for about a month. Do I need to worry about it reoccuring once I transport them to their new homes or is it now dead?

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Run the QT filter on another tank, such as your office tank.

It should be dead by now as long as you haven't seen white spots for at least 2 weeks while keeping the heat raised.

 

[GouramiFanatic]

Thanks for the advice, but I was hoping there'd be an easier solution. Having to lug a filter (even thought it's so small), from home to work back to home and back to work, etc. (especially if I'm treating for a disease) seems to be more work than it's really worth. Is there an easier way?

 

[Thebluyak]

keep dosing little bits of ammonia, let food start rotting or keep some fish in there to keep NH4 sources coming to feed the bacteria

 

[Andos99]

Just keep a few zebra danios in it. When you quaratine something, they should be no bother.

 

[Jarred Darque]

I suggest just keeping in something small and hardy. guppies, danios, or a few cories for cleanup duty when you have a QT'ing fish in there they will keep up some bio load so that when you have to put a fish in there for QT it wont be as big a shock for the system and it canquickly recover. I am turnin my 29 into a QT tank

 

[Menagerie]

I don't keep a QT set up. If there is disease, then the bacterial colony will more than likely be destroyed during treatment--PWC is the answer. When bringing home a new fish, I simply do daily PWC. There is a sponge filter to aerate the water and an ornament to hide under. If you suddenly needed the QT tank cycled, then using established media from a different tank will work in a small filter. Once your main tank is set up, you will not be bringing home fish very often and having an empty 10 gallon tank is a waste of space, IMO and often, you end up putting fish in it anyway (defeating the purpose of having a QT tank ready to go).

 

[Thebluyak]

true, very good point. Some fish are more sensitive than others, such as discus which is what Im getting. They almost need a QT tank because they are so succeptable to diseases and every new fish has to be qt or it could kill your very expensive discus's. All depends on the situation IMO if you actually need one or just like having one in case.