Need help setting up a quarantine tank.

[ILikeFish!]

I have an old tank with some clownfish in it (that I need to quarantine) that I’m planning on turning into a quarantine tank. my plan is to remove remove everything from the tank except the water which I will put back in the tank. then add some filter media from my other established tank to instantly cycle the tank and then put a sponge filter in or a hob filter, then clownfish back in and start quarantining them. Will this work? On other forums and stuff people say that if you just put some old filter media in your tank it instantly cycles and you can put fish in right away, is this true.

 

[brandon429]

if you want to build it right the filter material needs to be in a channeled water path, in a filter.

not just laying in the tank or on the floor as many do

the wastewater needs to be pressed through slightly resistant materials/water channeling design of filters or bubbled sponges etc

laying merely in the water path too much flow around happens and filter efficiency drops. the #1 way to build a qt setup is find an already working example from Jay's forum for your sized tank, copy their exact filter setup and yours will carry that exact bioload you see in the example thread you copied the build from. pack it with your own filter material is fine

don't forget: bright white sparse decor/risking low surface area/is stressful cycling

successful cycling copies a known build design for waterpathing but also uses muted lighting, plenty of plastic fake plants or hiding places in the setup (that won't absorb meds) they may use small terra cotta pots and the flooring typically has epoxy gravel substrate (kept clean) or slate pieces - effort put in = quality qt that won't stress your fish further. you'd search out qt threads and find one with gear closest to yours and copy it. you can see from the thread how many fish a given setup carried and how often based on their ammonia testing it needed a water change.

I saw where Rich Ross said bad quarantine is bad vs no quarantine at all, that's a great way to state it. make the right effort for sure. then it becomes good / helpful quarantine. expect to spend nearly or over a hundred bucks setting a small one up right.

 

[ILikeFish!]

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[ILikeFish!]

if you want to build it right the filter material needs to be in a channeled water path, in a filter.

not just laying in the tank or on the floor as many do

the wastewater needs to be pressed through slightly resistant materials/water channeling design of filters or bubbled sponges etc

laying merely in the water path too much flow around happens and filter efficiency drops. the #1 way to build a qt setup is find an already working example from Jay's forum for your sized tank, copy their exact filter setup and yours will carry that exact bioload you see in the example thread you copied the build from. pack it with your own filter material is fine

don't forget: bright white sparse decor/risking low surface area/is stressful cycling

successful cycling copies a known build design for waterpathing but also uses muted lighting, plenty of plastic fake plants or hiding places in the setup (that won't absorb meds) they may use small terra cotta pots and the flooring typically has epoxy gravel substrate (kept clean) or slate pieces - effort put in = quality qt that won't stress your fish further. you'd search out qt threads and find one with gear closest to yours and copy it. you can see from the thread how many fish a given setup carried and how often based on their ammonia testing it needed a water change.

I saw where Rich Ross said bad quarantine is bad vs no quarantine at all, that's a great way to state it. make the right effort for sure. then it becomes good / helpful quarantine. expect to spend nearly or over a hundred bucks setting a small one up right.

Is it true that when you put used filter media in the tank it instantly cycles and you can put the fish in right away?