Maintaining a Quarantine Tank

Kunhardt

Kunhardt

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I will be getting my quantatine tank this weekend, Will be roughly 50L. I know it should be bare bottom, and have no rocks on pvc piping or pastic ornaments for hiding, and that it should be fulled from the main tank. What i dont know is how to maintain this tank while it is inhabitted by fish. How often should water changes be done, should they be done? what kind of lighting, i believe dim light, but thats a bit vague.

Also being only 50L will it be big enough to keep my flame angel, yellow tang and bicolour blenny happily for the duration of their stay? Keeping in mind they are all still pretty small. Also should i medicate with copper? Or use some other form of getting rid of the white spot.

Any other info you guys can think of that i may have over looked would be appreciated as well.

Thanks.
 
my QT has been running with bioballs and LR, i dont dose any meds yet, but i wont as them i cant QT the inverts/corals before i add them to the main tank.

to keep it cycling i have hermits in the sump and some critters from the cheato
 
You CANNOT put substrate, DSB's, chaeto or live rock into a quarentine tank. Some parasites that falls off the fish will hide there or lay eggs etc. You only put plastic ornaments or pieces of pipe in for the fish to hide/sleep. T8 lights should be fine, as you're not keeping corals. I would say regular water changes and a small skimmer should be OK to remove waste. Remember the fish need to stay for a month, so you need to replace water weekly or even bi-weekly. 10% will be fine. Not too experienced with meds, so wait for the doctors ;)
 
oki cool. easy to remove, so just a skimmer and WC, sounds ok...
 
Most guys that has a quarentine tank only set it up when they need it. After the fish is put over into the main tank they empty and clean it - ready for next time. No need to keep it running all the time.
 
Thanks Tobes
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Tobes said:
You CANNOT put substrate, DSB's, chaeto or live rock into a quarentine tank. Some parasites that falls off the fish will hide there or lay eggs etc. You only put plastic ornaments or pieces of pipe in for the fish to hide/sleep. T8 lights should be fine, as you're not keeping corals. I would say regular water changes and a small skimmer should be OK to remove waste. Remember the fish need to stay for a month, so you need to replace water weekly or even bi-weekly. 10% will be fine. Not too experienced with meds, so wait for the doctors ;)
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Spot on Tobes! However, you can add a little bit of substrate to the tank.
 
dallasg said:
oki cool. easy to remove, so just a skimmer and WC, sounds ok...
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i wouldn't bother with a skimmer, could use a canister filter. Mature Bioballs are a good idea for QT or fish only holding tanks. Getting rid of Ammonia and Nitrites is important, Nitrates not so.
 
Cool. Thanks guys. I was told 100% water changes daily for the QT, and thought that sounded a bit weird. I've got 1 T8 ballast in my cupboard and a 10w actinic do u think that will be enough or should i get a higher watt globe?
 
Warr7207 said:
i wouldn't bother with a skimmer, could use a canister filter. Mature Bioballs are a good idea for QT or fish only holding tanks. Getting rid of Ammonia and Nitrites is important, Nitrates not so.
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I was wondering about Ammonia and nitrites myself. So should I invest in bioballs?
 
Kunhardt said:
Cool. Thanks guys. I was told 100% water changes daily for the QT, and thought that sounded a bit weird. I've got 1 T8 ballast in my cupboard and a 10w actinic do u think that will be enough or should i get a higher watt globe?
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Being a QT. Lighting is not important, you could just use natural lighting. My QT uses sunlght and this is just for the fish's nature cycles, nothing else.

100% Water change I would only do if the fish is being medicated an the particular medicine suggests it.

I would also do 100% WC, if I had say 20 fish in a small QT for some unknown reason.

I find 10% every 2 days does the job nicely.
 
You need to distinguish between a quarantine tank and a hospital tank. Both tanks are best stored away in a cupboard and set up when required

A quarantine tank is used for quarantining a new fish / coral prior to introducing the speciman into the DT. U should never use copper medications in the quarantine tank. Filtration in the qt tank is accomplished by using a sponge filter which has matured in your DT sump for just this purpose. Once quarantine pewriod has been completed, sponge filter should be thoroughly cleaned / steralised before returning to sump

A hospital tank should be marked as such indicating that copper may be used in it if neccesary. No sponge filters should be used in a hospital tank. Regular water changes are required to maintain water quality. Usually fish are in the hospital tank for a much shorter time than during quarantine.

Lighting in both cases is not critical. Energy saver bulb could be used. As long asfish has enough light to see its food / surroundings and more importantly you have enough light to observe the fish clearly either for signs of disease outbreak or for improvement in its condition.
 
dendrosa said:
You need to distinguish between a quarantine tank and a hospital tank. Both tanks are best stored away in a cupboard and set up when required

A quarantine tank is used for quarantining a new fish / coral prior to introducing the speciman into the DT. U should never use copper medications in the quarantine tank. Filtration in the qt tank is accomplished by using a sponge filter which has matured in your DT sump for just this purpose. Once quarantine pewriod has been completed, sponge filter should be thoroughly cleaned / steralised before returning to sump

A hospital tank should be marked as such indicating that copper may be used in it if neccesary. No sponge filters should be used in a hospital tank. Regular water changes are required to maintain water quality. Usually fish are in the hospital tank for a much shorter time than during quarantine.

Lighting in both cases is not critical. Energy saver bulb could be used. As long asfish has enough light to see its food / surroundings and more importantly you have enough light to observe the fish clearly either for signs of disease outbreak or for improvement in its condition.
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:thumbup:Thanks that is useful info
 
Warr7207 said:
Not advisable, especially due to the white spot life cycle.
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Not really Warr. Those tanks that Lanzo got from me (6 tanks). Those were my QT tanks for all fish bought and locally caught. The tanks ran for 2 years withs a fine layer of substrate and were fine.
 
I think that you can and do sometimes use the same tank for both. Meaning if you just bought a fish and place it in the quarentine tank and it should get white spot after a day or so, then you need to take action and it becomes a hospital tank. Unless you set up a hospital tank as well and move the fish over. That's why I say don't put any substrate or LR in to start with.
 
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