Let's See Your Quarantine Setup

[Daltrey]

Just set up a new 40 gallon breeder for a quarantine tank. Trying to decide if I should plumb it to the 20 gallon long below for a sump or not. Do most people run skimmers or sumps for their quarantine tanks?

 

[chefjpaul]

Ill post a pic tomorrow, but as far as your questions, I follow the lead from the fish disease experts here on R2R.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/how-to-quarantine.189815/

I personally would not set a sump on it, as you wont be running a skimmer for a fish QT and it add extra water volume, relating to higher cost of medications.


https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/fish-disease-treatment-and-diagnosis.771/

 

[mtraylor]

I do not use my quarantine tank very often, but I never use a sump or a skimmer. The reason why is that I usually use mine for treatment of fish rather than observation so none of that is needed. OH and I never quarantine corals.

 

[Daltrey]

Ok, Going to leave the sump and protein skimmer off. Just added the sponge filter that has been in my display tank sump for the past month so it should be seeded with beneficial bacteria. Also will add a 150 watt Eheim Jager heater and hopefully I should be all set to begin adding fish.

After reading some of the horror stories about ich and velvet the last thing I want is to have to break down my 155 gallon tank. So far I only have two clown fish and one already has an internal parasite that I'm about to treat.

A pic of my lil helper

 

[Idoc]

I use a 10g tank with an AquaClear 50 HOB filter, heater, airstone, Seachem ammonia badge, thermometer,and egg crate top for a fish QT.

I also have a 20g long with sand, a couple live rocks, AquaClear 50 HOB filter, small koralia powerhead, heater, Seachem Ammonia Alert Badge, and thermometer for an invert and coral QT. I don't have a light yet, but I don't have any corals yet either.

Unless you are quarantining large fish, a 40g is going to be more expensive to operate with salt, meds, and bigger equipment. I only plan on getting small fish and watch them grow, so the 10g will be fine.

 

[Daltrey]

Just placed an order for the aquaclear 50 HOB. I do 50 gallon water changes once a month in my DT so was plan on using that for the 40 breeder. Not planning on leaving the quarantine tank setup. Only going to use it as a hospital or quarantine setup when needed.

My mixing station

 

[Daltrey]

I plan on ordering the stocking list for my 155 display tank soon. Probably around a dozen fish. Going to quarantine and treat them all at the same time. Hope that is a good idea.

My 155 bowfront

 

[dcmartinpc]

Here is my QT setup. 6 weeks for coral and fish. I run 2 rounds of PraziPro prophylactically and watch for ich. If nothing shows up after prazi treatment and 6 weeks, in the tank they go. I didn’t use to QT and I was burned, bad.... aiptasia and vermatids completely took over the tank and I lost a beautiful and expensive scribbled angel to flukes. Killed it all with bleach and acid and started over.

 

[Daltrey]

Dcmartinpc, Do you use any type of copper treatment? Just trying to figure out what meds I will be needing for my first time using a quarantine.

 

[HB AL]

My quarantine tank

 

[Daltrey]

HB AL, I suggest 1 gallon of cupramine to get rid of the ich on your blue tang. You can just dump it all in at once.

 

[bean2986]

QTs

• bean2986
• Sep 29, 2017

Not a great pic, but here are mine. All are just with HOB Aquaclear, Light, AIr Stone, 2x Heaters and PVC. No sumps or skimmers. I use bottle bacteria and keep extra filter pads in my DT sump.
65 Gal for big fish/ groups
20L for singles
20L for inverts/ coral

 

[dcmartinpc]

Dcmartinpc, Do you use any type of copper treatment? Just trying to figure out what meds I will be needing for my first time using a quarantine.

I don’t treat with cupramine unless ich is observed. That is why I wait 6 weeks. That catches almost all strains of ich. If I observe it, the 6 week clock restarts and I treat with cupramine for 4 weeks then monitor for 2 more weeks.

Don

 

[Susan Edwards]

Isn't adding a dozen fish at the same time, to either a 40 gal qt or main tank going to be way too much for the bacteria load to handle. From my understanding, that is going to be a recipe for adding stress right off the bat and probably really mess with ammonia etc. Since I got burned by MV, now that I can add fish, I'm only adding 2-3 fish at a time and a good 4-6 weeks apart. I have 3 fish in observation now at the 2 week mark. All doing great. Haven't decided if I'm going to do any medications or just get them nice and fat and healthy. I had to add two mandarins to the DT without going through QT as I lost the 2 I first tried in the QT tank. Right in with the pods and both doing well so far as I can tell.

Really rethink how many fish you're going to add to the QT tank to begin with. no more than 4 I'd think

 

[CindyKz]

+1 to above, adding 12 fish at once is a recipe for disaster. It will overwhelm your biofilter. 1-2 at a time is going to be your safest bet. Not to mention, if you quarantine 12 fish at once, and one has velvet, there is a good chance you will lose all 12.

I keep a 20 gal quarantine set up, cycled with LR and sand and a small CUC (and a couple peppermint shrimp, there were aiptaisia on the LR). Right now it's fallow because the last inhabitant had velvet Observe for 6 weeks, no prophylactic treatment.

A drawback to this is that the fish have to be observed very closely and the aquarist has to know what to look for - which I don't, always. I lost my last two fish to velvet a week into quarantine. I think I could have caught it in in time to treat the first if I had recognized it better (I don't think I could have done anything about the second - poor guy went from healthy and eating to dead in about 6 hours).

The drawback to prophylactic treatment (as I see it) is that every drug has some negative effect and used improperly, can do more harm than good. Plenty of people kill fish with copper, it seems. I nursed a wrasse through flukes and a bacterial infection only to overdose it with an unnecessary follow up treatment of prazi-pro. It's up to the individual to weigh the pros and cons based on their own comfort level and lifestyle.

 

[dcmartinpc]

Isn't adding a dozen fish at the same time, to either a 40 gal qt or main tank going to be way too much for the bacteria load to handle. From my understanding, that is going to be a recipe for adding stress right off the bat and probably really mess with ammonia etc. Since I got burned by MV, now that I can add fish, I'm only adding 2-3 fish at a time and a good 4-6 weeks apart. I have 3 fish in observation now at the 2 week mark. All doing great. Haven't decided if I'm going to do any medications or just get them nice and fat and healthy. I had to add two mandarins to the DT without going through QT as I lost the 2 I first tried in the QT tank. Right in with the pods and both doing well so far as I can tell.

Really rethink how many fish you're going to add to the QT tank to begin with. no more than 4 I'd think

I mostly agree with you Susan, the only way around this that I have found is daily dosing a tank with pure Ammonium Chloride (Ammonia) to build the bio-load artificially. Fritz makes a cost effective powder if you have a large tank. Dr. Tim's also has an easy to use liquid, but it costs a little more. If the tank can process that ammonia, just slowly build it up. I had my tank processing 5ppm ammonia a night and I never had an issue when I added all my fish. The key is to have the tank cycled and running and processing all that ammonia ahead of time. In most situations it doesn't work, but with careful thought and planning, it can be successful.

Don

 

[DarkSky]

+1 to above, adding 12 fish at once is a recipe for disaster. It will overwhelm your biofilter. 1-2 at a time is going to be your safest bet. Not to mention, if you quarantine 12 fish at once, and one has velvet, there is a good chance you will lose all 12.

I keep a 20 gal quarantine set up, cycled with LR and sand and a small CUC (and a couple peppermint shrimp, there were aiptaisia on the LR). Right now it's fallow because the last inhabitant had velvet Observe for 6 weeks, no prophylactic treatment.

A drawback to this is that the fish have to be observed very closely and the aquarist has to know what to look for - which I don't, always. I lost my last two fish to velvet a week into quarantine. I think I could have caught it in in time to treat the first if I had recognized it better (I don't think I could have done anything about the second - poor guy went from healthy and eating to dead in about 6 hours).

The drawback to prophylactic treatment (as I see it) is that every drug has some negative effect and used improperly, can do more harm than good. Plenty of people kill fish with copper, it seems. I nursed a wrasse through flukes and a bacterial infection only to overdose it with an unnecessary follow up treatment of prazi-pro. It's up to the individual to weigh the pros and cons based on their own comfort level and lifestyle.

Sand and rock in a QT?

 

[CindyKz]

Sand and rock in a QT?

As I said in the post the tank is for observation, not treatment.

If a fish needs treatment it's easy enough to set up a sterile hospital tank.

 

[Daltrey]

Thanks everyone, I didn't think about velvet outbreak. I will just quarantine a few fish at a time as suggested.

Also I have cycled all of my tanks using pure ammonium chloride. It is the fastest and easiest to use.

 

[Susan Edwards]

@CindyKz I too set up a 20 gal observation tank with sand, some rubble rock and decorations. Had a couple chunks of larger rock but removed them to better observe a tiny barber shop goby. With what is in there, I can use CP to treat if needed. For me, I want a nice, relaxing observation tank, not the unnatural stress of a hospital or prison style tank. I also have a 10 qt set up for corals with rock and sand but will prob. not qt corals. Lost 4 of my corals trying to qt them and may still lose a couple I put in the DT. I personally see the drawbacks of a "sterile" fish environment and my aim is to have healthy fish with strong immune systems so if something does come into the tank, I don't lose all my fish at once.