Cycling a qt tank for a tang?

[hbubley]

Hello all!

I recently set-up a quarantine tank in preparation for brining home a Bristletooth whitetail yellow eye tang. I ordered Dr Tims ammonia and nitrifying bacteria to add to the tank and I can also pull a rock or two from my DT.

How long should I wait until I order the fish?

 

[Troylee]

A rock and some water from your display is all you need.. put a small hang on back filter with a filter sponge and you’re good to go! Hope that helps..

 

[hbubley]

So helpful! Thank you! I got the Fluval 13.5gallon saltwater kit, so I have a small filter and protein skimmer on it.

 

[Troylee]

So helpful! Thank you! I got the Fluval 13.5gallon saltwater kit, so I have a small filter and protein skimmer on it.

Adding live rock to any tank makes it pretty much ready to go!! If you treat it copper thou don’t put it back in your display if you have inverts or corals..

 

[Sharkbait19]

Rocks will absorb copper meds, so I wouldn’t bring that over. I would use filter media from the display tank to kickstart it.

 

[hbubley]

If I have to use copper at any point I'll move the rock back over, hoping for a healthy fishy. Thank you for the heads up on that!

 

[Sharkbait19]

I would recommend prophylactically treating the fish with copper and praziquantel to prevent disease transfer. Often fish don’t show signs while in observational qt, only for a disease outbreak to occur in the dt.

 

[C4ctus99]

I got fluval biomedia(?) the ceramic donut things and just let them sit in my tank for a while then transferred over. Ended up with several fish in quarantine so got some more and added bottled bac

 

[C4ctus99]

If I have to use copper at any point I'll move the rock back over, hoping for a healthy fishy. Thank you for the heads up on that!

If the fish shows symptoms and with the rock in tank, you would need to let it lie fallow for 6-8 weeks if I remember correctly before putting it back in DT because otherwise it would be contaminated.

@vetteguy53081 would know better though

 

[hbubley]

Ah very good points, I will look into prophylactic treatments and will toss the rocks out worst case scenario.

 

[vetteguy53081]

If I have to use copper at any point I'll move the rock back over, hoping for a healthy fishy. Thank you for the heads up on that!

You dont need Dr tim ammonis chloride or any for a QT tank. Use seeded sponge or media from a mature tank ( some LFS sell this) and monitor ammonia with a reliable test kit as well as Hanna Copper test Kit for the copper. This is a temporary tank and not a display- just need to go basic. Rock will absorb some copper and change the level of copper which is essential to maintain for 30 days.

 

[bradreef]

You would be better off putting plastic bio balls in your sump prior to seed bacteria. Then you can move to qt and not worry about effecting copper levels if used.

 

[ScubaFish802]

Adding live rock to any tank makes it pretty much ready to go!! If you treat it copper thou don’t put it back in your display if you have inverts or corals..

Putting the rock back in the display even if there were no inverts, coral, etc would defeat the whole QT

 

[hbubley]

Putting the rock back in the display even if there were no inverts, coral, etc would defeat the whole QT

Agreed, I was having a thoughtless moment haha

 

[hbubley]

You would be better off putting plastic bio balls in your sump prior to seed bacteria. Then you can move to qt and not worry about effecting copper levels if used.

I'll try this method!! Thank you