Q-tank questions

[bob30329]

I'm setting up a 10-gallon tank with a Whisper 30 hang-on filter and small heater. If I buy anything that needs more room I'll have the store hold it a few weeks. My main tank is still "cycling".

I'll use a piece of LR or some sand from the main tank to cycle it.

I've read the salinity in a Q-tank should be less than the main tank. Is this good practice?

Any other hints on Quarantine tanks? What's your quarantine process for fish/corals, etc?

Thanks in advance,

Bob

[robsmith32]

Just use water from waterchanges on main for qt, unless you have a parasite or something in the main you are treating for.
you don't want to transfer velvet/ich to the qt that you have fish trying to recover from it there.
I'd say no LR or sand in QT either. Can make medicating and recapture a nightmare.
I don't know if I buy into that slightly lower salinity. ON something maybe but it has to be pretty exact, low enough to kill the parasite, but not so low to kill the fish.
Depending on parasited, Velvet for instance according to where I've looked up actually reproduce more when in lowered salinity.
If not parasite, i'd just use main display water for QT. Granted, wouldnt' take out water from during the curing of the LR to put in qt. Unless putting in temp.

[yousuredo]

I have a ? as well:
do you leave the Q tank running all the time or only set it up when needed ?

[wildemon]

If you buy and trade corals as often as most members, that QT nano is gonna be occupied most of the time! The only thing I would add to the keep it simple setup, is that corals under quarantine will require light during their stay. Old tank water and hang-on-back filters work great for this. The flowerpot caves usually suggested are meant to be tossed when or if contaminated. If any rock is included, it must also be expendable.

[BRI690]

Correct me if Im wrong, but wouldn't a higher salinity be better for a QT tank (around 1.028)? I have heard that this keeps parasites away and is also safe for fish. Supposedly FS&M keeps all their tanks at hyposalinity measurements.
I have also heard that transfering a fish to lower salinity conditions is easier on the fish.

[wildemon]

Like many regrettable choices, hyper and hypo are easily confused. Hyper is more, like a child on sugar while hypo is less like the small hypodermic [most people pronounce this incorrectly]. You are correct about FS&M fish tanks which are low salinity, just like most other retailers. However their corals are very close to seawater salinity. Although species can adapt to high salt [Red Sea] they do have a hard time. Most fish can deal with low hyposalinity and it may keep some parasites from thriving. My experience is that most LFS fish are kept at less than half the salinity in the ocean for that reason & probably the economics of less salt to buy.

I may be out of trend but I think the most ideal situation is what is closest to the animals normal native environment. Warm sunny 34-35 salinity saltwater.

[robsmith32]

agree with wildemon, might add a good dip before and after qt is mentioned as plus to make sure the parasites are not there. I've read on wwm that methylene blue in a dip before and after really helps most fish, i'm thinking reef dip for inverts though.
Have read that methyl blue is good at reversing effects of cyanide that some get put through in capture and end up killing them later on after in our tanks.

Keep the qt going, you can also put a filtersponge in your sump/fuge of display in order to keep the biological going if nothing in the QT.

[Stevhan]

In any quarantine system water changes is the most important thing in my opinion. If you have a parasite the infectious stage is in the water and in the substrate. Frequently doing water changes (at the same salinity and temp) seem to do wonders for fish. Some dips work good for some fish and not for others. Water changes helps with getting rid of waste in a small system that may not always be biologically set and will also help to get rid of most parasites before they reinfect the fish. They also help to keep from buying that skimmer and uv sterilyzer that would do just about the same thing but cost more.

[Ray1214]

As my reef matures, I am more and more concerned with Quarenteening. I keep a sponge filter in my seahorse tanks sump, my main display sump, in my planted tanks sump to keep a "Live" sponge filter. My wife and I both have 5 and 10 gal tanks with the filter, media, heater and light set aside. I figure to to a water change and hook up the sponge filter, and presto instant qt tank. I use old pvc fittings and small plastic ornaments.

On this last iteration though, I figured to benefit from both worlds. Add extra water volumne to my tank as well as make sure i am using the water from my main display. I used a small powerhead and an extra overflow to put the 10 gal tank over my sump. Just pumping water back and forth with the sponge filter. I am actually hanging a small skimmer as well. (Just cause I had an extra) . I figure if I need it, I can unhook the overflow. I don't think losing about 8-9 gallons of water volumne will hurt my main display but it can help just abit.

One note. After a qt, or hospitilization, I sterilize everything before I allow it to contact my main tank.

Ray

Ray

[Loverotties]

You want them the same unless treatting like ick, then you lower it gradually!

[Ray1214]

Very gradually. I believe on Wet Web Media (I could be corrected) it is not to exceed 2 ppt per day. I am not sure what it translates to by S/G but I am guessing that if you do not change S/G more than 1.0002 per water change, since most folks lower salinity by water changes. They also recommend that if you are treating ick, hyposalinity needs to go to 1.0009, but you need to have medication of some sort along with it. (Copper, Formalin etc) and it takes a full 30 days for the parasite to go through its lifecycle so you will need to vaccuum the dead parasites from the bottom of the tank.

Ray