Perfected Quarantine setup using a reactor as a filter

[Lester Verano]

So I've got a beautiful male melanurus wrasse in my new QT setup. I've gone with a semi-cheap wave maker for surface agitation, glass mason jar for a hiding place for the little guy, and get this, I've modded a reactor as my filtration unit.

I've got a cobalt MJ-900 pushing water through a small media reactor. The reactor simply has a piece of bonded aquarium filter pad I cut out into a circle to fit perfectly inside the reactor. This media pad can be found on amazon (see link and attached pic), and is the best filter pad I've ever found. The reviews on amazon are astounding, you can get a ton of it cheap, and you can rinse and re-use it. It's incredible. I'm sporting an NOS old school Oceanic 30 gallon tank with original heater, and that's pretty much my whole QT setup.

When my wrasse is done in quarantine, I can slip a piece of the well known Amazing Poly-Filter Pad in the reactor to quickly take up any left over medication, along with a small water change, and I'm ready to Quarantine my next fish whenever I'm ready.

Just thought I'd share my setup with the forum. I'm using a 10 day quarantine method, using only Seachem Cupramine. I'm only using about 90% of a full dose. The wrasse are known to be sensitive to the copper. Not taking any chances though. I've been through a velvet outbreak, and never plan on dealing with it again. I was forced to go 76 days fallow, had to rebuild my whole display, and let me tell you it was a pain. Hope you like this post. Enjoy.

 

[Feet4Fish]

Aquatic experts make the best filtration pads I have found! Totally agree!

 

[Dine]

So I have everything on hand to do this but are you only using mechanical filtration? No bio? I have a qt set up currently with just a HOB but there’s a bag of matrix in it. I know I’ll have to toss the matrix in between QTs but wondering what you’re using in it’s place?

 

[Lester Verano]

So I have everything on hand to do this but are you only using mechanical filtration? No bio? I have a qt set up currently with just a HOB but there’s a bag of matrix in it. I know I’ll have to toss the matrix in between QTs but wondering what you’re using in it’s place?

The purpose of matrix would be to have a place for beneficial bacteria to grow. This beneficial bacteria is good for helping break down fish waste from ammonia to less toxic nitrate. In quarantine, depending on how long you intend to have your fish in a quarantine tank, the beneficial bacteria is no big deal if you do small water changes every few days, and you only plan to have the fish in quarantine for no more than 10 days.

It's always good to take a small rock from your main display tank and throw it in your QT so you'll have some good beneficial bacteria in there to start with. I've used some bio filter media from my display tank and placed it in my QT before and it worked good I guess. No fish died.

Anyway, I'm only doing a 10 day quarantine. I am watching my ammonia, and doing small water changes, so I'm not worried about beneficial bacteria in that short amount of time. All I'm doing is dosing cupramine for 10 days on a new wrasse I just got. Hope that helps.

 

[Dine]

Got it. Missed the 10day thing. My setup is for much longer. Good luck with it!

 

[Lester Verano]

Got it. Missed the 10day thing. My setup is for much longer. Good luck with it!

I just got done going through a 76 day quarantine with only 4 of those bio media balls in my QT to start with and none of my fish died. Those bio balls had lots of BB on them from my display tank. I never even changed the water either. I had 2 damsels, and a cinnamon clown living in a 25 gallon tank for 76 days. Everyone was fine, and at the time I was only using a very cheap sponge filter as my only filtration.

Mason jar, waver maker, heater, pump for pushing water through the sponge filter, and that was it. Although, these were hardy cheap fish. I'd do some water changes if I were dealing with tang or more expensive fish like that.

 

[ca1ore]

Why only 10 days? Seems way too short to me.

 

[Lester Verano]

Why only 10 days? Seems way too short to me.

I listen to this guy on YouTube. He's got far more to lose in the hobby than me, and as far as I'm concerned has earned his praise as an expert. Just look at his tank! This is a great video if you can spare 10 minutes of your time. I feel it's Explained pretty good here, this very, very controversial topic, as are most topics in the reefing world. Enjoy.

 

[ca1ore]

I’d ‘listen’ around if I were you ....

 

[Lester Verano]

I’d ‘listen’ around if I were you ....

If it doesn't work out I'll let you know.

 

[ca1ore]

I’m familiar with that guy - just cannot bear to watch the video again. There are some flaws in his approach as I recall, not the least of which is that some strains of velvet show resistance to copper. Humblefish here on R2R has far more coherent views on QT, including methods to eliminate initial salinity acclimation of new fish. Just saying ....

 

[Chewbacca]

If I may ask was the quarantine for that long because the fish are new additions or was it a contamination problem with fish in your display tank? I like your set up, I don’t use your reactor set up , in my 40 gallon QT I use /have 40 lbs live rock, pvc fittings ,small wave pump and a 2 stage sun sun canister filter loaded with fine poly fiber from Walmart and backed up by a mix of fine poly soaked with diatom powder (basically canister modified to a diatom filter) sounds and looks good for what you have set up

 

[Lester Verano]

If I may ask was the quarantine for that long because the fish are new additions or was it a contamination problem with fish in your display tank? I like your set up, I don’t use your reactor set up , in my 40 gallon QT I use /have 40 lbs live rock, pvc fittings ,small wave pump and a 2 stage sun sun canister filter loaded with fine poly fiber from Walmart and backed up by a mix of fine poly soaked with diatom powder (basically canister modified to a diatom filter) sounds and looks good for what you have set up

It’s for a new wrasse. Thanks! I just got over a marine velvet contamination problem, and my clown stayed in a similar setup for 76 days, and was fine. I did a couple little water changes in that time.