While you can add water from the DT, that alone will not be adequate to cycle the tank. The type of bacteria required to cycle the tank is primarily attached to surfaces within the tank rather than floating in the water column. Bottled bacteria can work, but it usually takes several days to a week to reach adequate population. During that time, you will need to monitor your ammonia level.
Ok, ammonia, no2 and NO3 I have the test kit, but wait so only a few bacteria on the media can spread in the whole tank?
I NEED to put media like everyone else, yes the tank will get infected but I'll use treatment anyway, and the tank has no fish host so the disease can die
The filter media is ripe with surface area and food particles that produce ammonia and feed the bacteria. the water flow, food, waste, etc in the filtration system create the perfect environment for the bacteria.
ok go ahead. You are defeating the purpose of qt. Just fallow your tank then and add fish in 90-100 days. Dont even bother setting up QT.
If the quarantine tanks also remain fallow, then using DT media to cycle it isn’t really an issue. Personally, I would prefer to not let anything from the DT touch my quarantine systems, but as long as no fish enters the quarantine tank until it is clear of illnesses, there shouldn’t be a huge problem.
I don't understand what I should do right now, like I agree "not letting anything touch my QT" but people say to me "put the filter media" while others say "doing this is absolutely pointless" I'll put a treatment anyway
You are all over the map here with some understanding, some preconceive falsehoods of your own design, conflated fresh and salt information and plenty of suspect advice.
Sometimes I think that I shouldn't have done a saltwater tank.. While my freshwater tank is kept in very good conditions right now, but I don't do anything in it... My brain will explode soon
Not true, If you move an infected fish from the DT to QT, the QT will be infected anyway. So, the copper and prazi treatments will kill the parasites in the QT. That's what the purpose of the QT is. Now if you are using an observation QT instead of a treated QT, you are wasting your time.
Yeah that's what I thought like what is he saying the QT will always be infected from fish and then treated, but after a treatment can I just leave the water or do I need to do a 100% change in the QT?
Thats true for treatment. But if he gets a new fish and adds it to the qt with infected media and the fish is not infected why subject it to the chance? I have meds on hand if I need them. I do start all fish as observation only. The tank they go in is clean the cycled media is also at least should be its from my tank that as far as I know is not infected. If I see an issue with fish I treat accordingly if not its there for up to 4 weeks. I know not everyone has the room or tanks to do it like that. But why would you knowingly move infected media to a tank to add a new fish that may or may not be infected? I dont subscribe to just treating all fish all the time. Some are not infected and therefore dont need the added stress of medication.
-Regardless of cycling method, for the common diseases in the hobby (other than uronema), proper, medicated QT will eliminate the disease. So cycled filter media is fine.
-It may depend on the medication, but, yes, after a treatment, you do want to change the water to remove the meds from the water in the tank (this is discussed in the QT protocol below for the copper at least - I'm not sure how necessary it is for other meds, but I'd personally probably change the water after the full treatment is completed regardless to be safe).
www.reef2reef.com
Yeah I use pipes too (even in the DT cause they look good) but that's sad about the full water change, having to fully re-cycle the QTYeah, I'd say to take a step back and think about starting over/relearning the basics you need for keeping a saltwater tank.
With regards to the QT:
-Yes, the quarantine tank needs cycled.
-Nitrite is essentially harmless in saltwater tanks.
-As long as the tank is quickly processing/can quickly process meaningful amounts of ammonia, it's cycled.
-A lot of people cycle their QT's using filter media from their tank, as the media is already cycled and can bring the needed bacteria with it - others may prefer the sterile method using bottle bacteria. As mentioned, the water from your display tank will not contain enough nitrifying bacteria to make a meaningful difference any time soon with cycling; it would probably take a more than month or two with just the water to get the tank properly cycled.
-If you want to use bottle bacteria, Fritz TurboStart 900 is the recommended bacteria, as it has the most evidence of effectiveness - BioSpira and Dr. Tim's One and Only for Saltwater are the next suggestions. Those three brands work, others seem not to, so I'd stick with one of those three (Dr. Reef, Taricha, Dan_P, and others have done some great work on testing these). It's recommended that you add ~3x the suggested dose (i.e. add 3x more bacteria than the bottle tells you to add), and then your QT is ready ("instant-cycled").
-Regardless of cycling method, for the common diseases in the hobby (other than uronema), proper, medicated QT will eliminate the disease. So cycled filter media is fine.
-As mentioned, don't use calcium-carbonate based stuff (rocks, sand, etc.) in the QT, as it'll mess with the copper levels; PVC pipes are generally used in place of rocks to prevent messing with the copper levels while providing hiding spaces for the fish. If sand is needed/wanted (like with sand sleeping wrasses), people have used a bowl of Quartz/Silica sand in the QT without issues.
-It may depend on the medication, but, yes, after a treatment, you do want to change the water to remove the meds from the water in the tank (this is discussed in the QT protocol below for the copper at least - I'm not sure how necessary it is for other meds, but I'd personally probably change the water after the full treatment is completed regardless to be safe).
-For current, proper QT protocols, see the thread linked below:
Current Quarantine Protocol
2024 Quarantine Procedures Jay Hemdal David Scarborough Protozoans (Cryptocaryon/ich, Amyloodinium/velvet) and Metazoan trematodes/flukes are by far the most common parasites found on newly acquired fish. A carefully managed, proactive quarantine process can effectively eliminate these...
