Okay I've seen a lot of things about quarantine and a lot about cycling. What I'm coming to "know" is that I won't be able to cycle the tank using CUC which would simultaneously be their quarantine for 76 days. I'm definitely seeing that being a no no. So then I'd want to use a clown to assist in cycling the tank. The problem is, this is my display tank so I am not going to treat it with copper. So how do I deal with this situation? Do I set up a quarantine, qt the fish for 6 weeks and then add it to the display tank? Basically, my plan is falling through, I was going to get a qt tank in a couple weeks and right now the main display tank is almost entirely online. I'm assuming a fresh water dip will not be enough to ensure a clown is not bringing ich or velvet into my tank? So then I guess it really boils down to the question above and then some: do I need to qt the fish 6 weeks with prophylactic treatments then add it to the main tank to help cycle? Then in the meantime do I need another qt tank to separately qt CUC so they'll be ready once they're needed? How can I replace CUC quickly if needed if they require a 76 day qt?
First fish cycling vs quarantine
- Thread starter TDDredge
- Start date
- Tagged users None
what about using liquid ammonia or fish food to cycle up vs a clown
your main issue in a qt tank isn't keeping bac fed, its giving them enough places to attach. pvc elbows arent sufficient slick surface area compared to a little rock and sand, which are omitted so you can treat and flush out the system / clean it etc. How you activate that media doesnt matter
a little ammonia still upcycles for a lot of fish, if you are using enough surface area such as canister filter area, or HOB filter with floss etc or a sponge/air pump classic surface area QT setup
if you have enough actual surface area, any form of bac support will keep it ready. meds w just kill it off one day anyway most likely, so its handy to have a rinsing non retaining mass you can clean, recycle, and reuse in the QT tank.
your main issue in a qt tank isn't keeping bac fed, its giving them enough places to attach. pvc elbows arent sufficient slick surface area compared to a little rock and sand, which are omitted so you can treat and flush out the system / clean it etc. How you activate that media doesnt matter
a little ammonia still upcycles for a lot of fish, if you are using enough surface area such as canister filter area, or HOB filter with floss etc or a sponge/air pump classic surface area QT setup
if you have enough actual surface area, any form of bac support will keep it ready. meds w just kill it off one day anyway most likely, so its handy to have a rinsing non retaining mass you can clean, recycle, and reuse in the QT tank.
TDDredge
Active Member
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2020
- Messages
- 168
- Reaction score
- 110
The issue I'm coming up with is that you're kind of darned if you do and darned if you don't. Down the road, if my tank needs CUC replaced, they need 76 days of qt? That's a problem.
The other issue I'm seeing is trying to get a qt tank going for inverts. If there's a tank with prophylactic treatment for fish, you need a separate tank for inverts. Starting that tank going will be nigh on impossible to keep CUC alive if they can't survive helping cycle the main tank. And keeping invertebrates in a 20 gallon qt tank for 76 days: if something does go wrong, in a smaller tank like that it'll go wrong faster. The main tank will be more stable, which is going to be more important for shrimp and other inverts.
So basically, no matter what, it's difficult to cycle a tank for inverts, and likely a tank will be cycled with a fish, because if it's not the main tank it's the qt tank. A fish has to go into a tank some point. Add onto this prophylactic treatments. Particularly copper, as one of the royal metals, kills bacteria. Silver is most known for it, but they latch onto bacteria and bombard them with electrons and destroy them. That means the fish is undergoing stress from treatment, and then after that fish is treated the tank will have to start from zero again anyways because 100% water change, and bacteria will never actually grow in the qt tank, so the fish is cycling the tank, and it's a risk that the tank will fail because it doesn't have a great bacteria load anyways. On the other hand you have a medicated fresh water dip and then introduction to the main tank. If you get ich in the main tank, you can put the fish in a hospital tank and treat them, which is the same risk as having a qt anyhow, while you starve out the ich in the DT and your inverts stay in the DT for that time. The difference I see is that they might not end up in a hospital tank if you dip and introduce to the main tank, and have less stress from a riskier tank and prophylactic treatment out the gate.
