Quarantine Basics

[Fishchaser]

tx for your opinion bu do you have on and how big is it?

[RockingCricket]

For all the reasons Wayne clearly stated above, a QT can be nothing but highly recommended.

I personally will be setting one up before I make any more purchases. I would be gutted if I lost my blue faced angel due to anything a QT could've prevented - though it would be like me to have to learn the hard way.

As for size, either a 10 or 20 gallon. I'm sure a 20 would be better all around, apart from the extra space it'll occupy in my 2 bedroom apartment. My home has turned into enough of a jungle as it is, what with my aquarium that dominates the lounge, my wifes bearded dragon, a bengal and 2 other domestic cats.

[wayne]

'I would be gutted if I lost my blue faced angel due to anything a QT could've prevented ' - that is EXACTLY the point.
How big it is totally down to personal preference, and what you're going to QT. If it's little clowns and so on, 10's are fine, if you have an expensive taste for large sohal tangs then a 55 is what you would use. You might blanche at using a 55 for QT, but if you're QT'ing hundred dollar plus fish then the cost of a second hand 55 is negligible.
Bear in mind this doesn't have to be fancy. When I was breeding a lot of freshwater fish my grow out tanks were 40 gallon plastic boxes from IKEA. Also bear in mind that when you're not using it, break it down and put it in the garage. This is to be advised anyway else it will invariably end up as a second display.
Whether you QT the single fish that goes in a nano is a good point. However if, or an invert dies in there you are going to know about it, and if it dies in your nano form ich where you can't treat it, then I wouldn't put another fish in for two months

[Lorna]

question: Would an old aquaclear 300 filter work on a 10g qt. I want to start one up at the same time I start my cycle in my main tank. Do you put down any substrate in the qt? or just pvc pipes. Could you say start a qt tank with something like those quick start products as I don't have any lr or other biological medium to add at this time????

[1979camaro]

the aquaclear would work fine. you can even float the filter media in your sump (if you have one) to colonize it with bacteria. no need for substrate pvc pipes will do. as far as the lr/bio media at this time it isn't of great concern as you are still in the process of setting up the display. by the time that is ready for fish you will be able to snag some lr from there temporarily

[S.Reef]

The big thing that really needs to be stressed is maturing the filter before placing stuff in the qt...lost quite a few fish at first to that ammonia spike.

[wayne]

Definitely NO SUSTRATE. If you need to treat with copper it will ALL need to be removed, an enormous p.i.y.a. and stressor

[tommyo125]

I think yu did a great job explaining the QT, but I have a question. They tell me I can use a sponge filter in my QT is this true? I am talking about a ten gal tank. I am sorry one more thaught. If I use a sponge "NEW" filter do I have to wait for the tank to cycle? I think I hado a form of ich and I have live rock and inverts in my 12 gal main. Would like to treat the main with hypo. if I can. How long will it take to clear the Tank out of these nasty parasite? .... sorry three questions .

[wayne]

Yes a sponge filter is fine though not my first choice - rather than using an air powered sponge I prefer an internal powerfilter (which includes sponge). Sponge filters are very efficient at removing ammonia, but do produce nitrates. But in a QT who cares?
Cycling can be done really quickly if you're prepared to sacrifice a piece of live rock to be seed material.

You have a 12 gallon with LR;inverts and think you have ich. I would NOT hypo a full blown reef. Hypo down to say 1.017, which I have seen before is NOT likely to be effective against most strains of ich, hypo down to 1.010 will kill some stuff. If I really wanted it to be free of ich I would take the fish out for two months - it's not an absolute certainty none will survive that long, but it's in the 99% + range. I would put them in as cheapo a setup as I possibly could, with a piece of old junk liverock, and hypo it down a long way OR copper them. What fish are they?
Do you have an lfs you can scrounge a few bioballs or some filter floss or something from to seed your filter. As I think I describe, for copper I have a 20 long, 200 watt heater and Fluval 4 power foam filter. I use as cheap a light as I can bodge, and bits of plastic tubing. If you seed the filter and change a bucket of water every week that is fine for 2 or 3 fish for months

[tommyo125]

Oh I basically lost all but one fish a green chromise or something like that. What I planned on doing was setting up the QT and using BIO spira to get the tank up and running. Then house my sea horse, cleaner shrimp, rock, crab and snails, I guess with the one fish in the QT. Then I wanted to raise temp of main tank to like 84 deg and lower salt to 1014 for like a week and also sift the sand as much as I can and hope I KILL the bumbs. Then once I get my main back up to snuff return all the above to main . PS my inverts show no sign of sickness? Hmmmm. Do you think that will do it? Also should I change out my carbon filter after all this.

One more thing I have an hawian anenome <-- I think thats spelled right . If I transfer that to my nephews tank does it run a risk of taking parasites with it? or should I just bring it back to the pet store?

Thanks