Jess's tuesday question: quarantine tanks

[DebsSisterFlo]

Gotta learn something new every day, so today please teach me about quarantine tanks.
Once I remove everything from the 20g, should I just leave the water and skimmer and use that as qt?

Does a qt need a bare bottom or sand?
should there be any live rock or decor?
how long do critters need to be in there before going into the show tank?
when I get my first horses is it really necessary to put them in qt?

what else can you tell me? Thanks!!!

[xtopher]

I will definately be following this one. I too am new to the QT concept. With my last tank I just kinda threw caution to the wind and just added new arrivals to the display, pretty costly move as a lot of the fish had parasites that they contaminated the other fish with.

[tdwyatt]

bare-bottomed.

Doe not necessarily need to remain established, although it will make setting up for impulse purchases easier. Of course, I realize that NONE OF USq make impulse purchases, only those based on careful research and planning for a new specimen...



buy a sponge filter plus several replacement sponges, and keep these in your main system sump to colonize with deammonificating bacterial species. When you set up the system, place one of the sponges on the filtration device (best to use a powerhead for this), and if you use an antibiotic in your treatment/quarantine tank, simply replace the sponge with a fresh one and DISCARD the old one (and perform a 20% water change q 3 days).

For fish specimens, place a section of PVC large enough for the specimen in question on its side to hide in. This dramatically reduces stress in these fishes.

Smart to use a Seachem ammonia allert tag to monitor ammonia in the system while in use. If ammonia shows, start using a HOT or cannister filter to run ammocarb and/or carbon. Keep in mind that use of carbon will require redosing on a daily basis for most antibiotics.


If you prefer not to use sponge filters, bioballs may be substituted instead, especially if the system is to be left up and running. Make sure to sterilize the bioballs after each new specimen finishes the quarantine period.

Keeping the tank empty between uses as a quarantine reduces the chances that you'll transmit some pathogen or parasite to a newly arrived tank acquisition.

If bringing in photoautotrophs, do not forget to slowly ramp up photoperiods, so decent lighting and a timer are a must.

Keep a piece of eggcrate over the top when fishes are introduced, lighting is not necessary, and may spook new fish acquisitions.

Keep feeding to a minimum, although it is a good idea to feed A VERY SMALL DOSE OF FOOD

[tdwyatt]

bare-bottomed.

Doe not necessarily need to remain established, although it will make setting up for impulse purchases easier. Of course, I realize that NONE OF USq make impulse purchases, only those based on careful research and planning for a new specimen...



buy a sponge filter plus several replacement sponges, and keep these in your main system sump to colonize with deammonificating bacterial species. When you set up the system, place one of the sponges on the filtration device (best to use a powerhead for this), and if you use an antibiotic in your treatment/quarantine tank, simply replace the sponge with a fresh one and DISCARD the old one (and perform a 20% water change q 3 days).

For fish specimens, place a section of PVC large enough for the specimen in question on its side to hide in. This dramatically reduces stress in these fishes.

Smart to use a Seachem ammonia allert tag to monitor ammonia in the system while in use. If ammonia shows, start using a HOT or cannister filter to run ammocarb and/or carbon. Keep in mind that use of carbon will require redosing on a daily basis for most antibiotics.


If you prefer not to use sponge filters, bioballs may be substituted instead, especially if the system is to be left up and running. Make sure to sterilize the bioballs after each new specimen finishes the quarantine period.

Keeping the tank empty between uses as a quarantine reduces the chances that you'll transmit some pathogen or parasite to a newly arrived tank acquisition.

If bringing in photoautotrophs, do not forget to slowly ramp up photoperiods, so decent lighting and a timer are a must.

Keep a piece of eggcrate over the top when fishes are introduced, lighting is not necessary, and may spook new fish acquisitions.

Keep feeding to a minimum, although it is a good idea to feed A VERY SMALL DOSE OF FOOD TO

[tdwyatt]

bare-bottomed.

Doe not necessarily need to remain established, although it will make setting up for impulse purchases easier. Of course, I realize that NONE OF USq make impulse purchases, only those based on careful research and planning for a new specimen...



buy a sponge filter plus several replacement sponges, and keep these in your main system sump to colonize with deammonificating bacterial species. When you set up the system, place one of the sponges on the filtration device (best to use a powerhead for this), and if you use an antibiotic in your treatment/quarantine tank, simply replace the sponge with a fresh one and DISCARD the old one (and perform a 20% water change q 3 days).

For fish specimens, place a section of PVC large enough for the specimen in question on its side to hide in. This dramatically reduces stress in these fishes.

Smart to use a Seachem ammonia allert tag to monitor ammonia in the system while in use. If ammonia shows, start using a HOT or cannister filter to run ammocarb and/or carbon. Keep in mind that use of carbon will require redosing on a daily basis for most antibiotics.


If you prefer not to use sponge filters, bioballs may be substituted instead, especially if the system is to be left up and running. Make sure to sterilize the bioballs after each new specimen finishes the quarantine period.

Keeping the tank empty between uses as a quarantine reduces the chances that you'll transmit some pathogen or parasite to a newly arrived tank acquisition.

If bringing in photoautotrophs, do not forget to slowly ramp up photoperiods, so decent lighting and a timer are a must.

Keep a piece of eggcrate over the top when fishes are introduced, lighting is not necessary, and may spook new fish acquisitions.

Keep feeding to a minimum, although it is a good idea to feed A VERY SMALL DOSE OF FOOD TO CHECK

[DebsSisterFlo]

Wow Tom, you really wanted to get those points across? Just poking fun at your triple post, all in good fun.
Thank you for all of that information!!! So keep the tank empty, ok, when I fill it can I just use water from my main tank? How long does a critter need to be in qt before going into the show tank?
Thanks!

[Loverotties]

yes you can use the water and keep it in there at least a week and make shure it's the same salinity and temp as the show tank.

[Tim224DT]

IMO a QT shouldnt have anything in it but water. A good skimmer on the QT is helpful. Some type of bio filter like bioballs or a bio wheel is needed. The reason for nothing in the tank is when you dose copper or what ever is needed to at the time rock and substrate will soak it up and not get the full treatment. I would say a week in the QT is long enough for new arrivals.

Tim

[xtopher]

Nice triple post Tom, you ARE very knowledgable but I think you made your point

[xtopher]

great explainations though.

[DebsSisterFlo]

only a week in qt? Ok you seahorse people, please give your .02 on this one, cuz on those "other" boards they make it sound like a month isn't long enuf for horses!

[titanfan]

So a sponge is recommended to keep in the show tank's sump? This allows it to be moved to the quarantine tank with needed bacteria. If this sponge is under water 24/7 (in the sump) does this mean it would not have to be cleaned weekly? I figure cleaning it would defeat the purpose of allowing bacteria and, I guess no phosphate problem because no aerobic filtering would be occuring. Am i correct with this?

After quarantine can the sponge be cleaned with anything to reuse it or is a new sponge required each time?

[tdwyatt]

Originally Posted by DebsSisterFlo

Wow Tom, you really wanted to get those points across? Just poking fun at your triple post, all in good fun.

You're not going to believe his, but the system went down on this end, I didn't think ANY of it went through, I just found out that it went at all, I didn't even get to proofread the posting!

Originally Posted by DebsSisterFlo

So keep the tank empty, OK, when I fill it can I just use water from my main tank? How long does a critter need to be in qt before going into the show tank?

Yes, the idea is to use the old water from your tank, and place the replacement new water in through your sump to disperse it throughout your display system. Using the sponge filters provides safe disposable biological filtration, and makes the recycling and sterilization issues disappear.

Usually 7 to 14 days is plenty of time to see if there are any hitchhikers, diseases, or pests in the incoming specimen. Look for aiptasia, anemonea, flatworms, red Acropora mites, and those wicked little Asterina spp. sea stars on coral specimens, and velvet, marine ick, isopods and other parasites on your incoming fishes. Some zoanthids will occasionally come in with the Sundial snails, catching them at the quarantine stage will save you MUCH grief.

HTH

[tdwyatt]

Originally Posted by titanfan

So a sponge is recommended to keep in the show tank's sump? This allows it to be moved to the quarantine tank with needed bacteria. If this sponge is under water 24/7 (in the sump) does this mean it would not have to be cleaned weekly? I figure cleaning it would defeat the purpose of allowing bacteria and, I guess no phosphate problem because no aerobic filtering would be occurring. Am I correct with this?

After quarantine can the sponge be cleaned with anything to reuse it or is a new sponge required each time?

So long as you're not pumping water through the sponge so it doesn't get loaded with filtered materials, it should not be an issue. Put it in the sump, lace some egg crate on top of it and put something to keep it under water without deforming it. So long as there isn't any antibiotic or copper loaded into the system, I would think that treating it with 70% ETHYL alcohol (NOT ISOPROPYL) for a few hours then allowing it to air dry should allow for reuse SO LONG AS THERE WERE NOT ANY KNOWN PATHOGENS with the fishes. I imagine treatment with a 1:10 Clorox solution would be fine as well, so long as there is no scent of chlorine for at least 48 hours after allowing the sponges to air dry before placing them back in the sump. Unless you are destitute though, it would be best to discard the sponges after use. This would be the most absolute way to make sure that you don't accidentally bring in something with the sponges.


HTH, and sorry for the typo's in the triple post.

[DebsSisterFlo]

Thanks Tom! Don't worry about the triple post, you've more than made up for it! Would a ten gallon be big enough for a qt? I really want to get the kribensis and pleco into the 20g... going from the 38g to the 10g has really p'd them off!