Temp qt and light question

becks · Apr 11, 2017

Hi all,

Unfortunately my DT has ich, I noticed my royal gamma scratching on the rocks and on closer inspection I see the tell tale signs of ich, I do qt my fish but not corals because I get my corals from a lfs that mainly deals with corals and aquaculture of corals so does not keep fish in the tanks, he does order fish every few weeks for a separate system but these are fish made to customer orders which he QTs in copper and keeps his systems seperate, obviously it's not full proof and I still qt the fish but thought the corals would be ok as they are completly seperate etc......but a few weeks ago I got some frags online...so lesson learnt.

I have a marine betta who was due to leave my qt and the only thing I have is a round plastic container that my lfs used for livestock given to me some time ago, it's internal dimensions are 30" diameter and 13" height to the water level giving a net volume of 19 gallons.

It needs a clean but will this be sufficient whilst my DT goes fallow? Luckily my fish are small with the biggest being 2.5"

And what would the cheapest light be for corals?

Thanks for looking

melypr1985 · Apr 11, 2017

Are you planning on running them through copper? also what are your plans for a filter? My only other concern is that the plastic bucket might absorb the copper making the levels unstable... though daily testing and corrections may help with that.

becks · Apr 12, 2017

Yes I would use copper, I could transfer the marine betta into the bucket then use my normal qt tank to treat with copper, then after 3 weeks transfer some fish in with the marine betta. Filter in here will be some dry rock and atm colony, I test and change some water daily.

Just need to find a bulb or led around 10k for coral qt?

becks · Apr 12, 2017

Edit - 39gallons is volume sorry - 30" diameter by 13" height

Humblefish · Apr 12, 2017

becks said:
Just need to find a bulb or led around 10k for coral qt?

What kind of corals do you need to QT? For SPS, you would need at least a 4-bulb T5 fixture or LED equivalent. For LPS & softies, you could probably get by using only 2 bulbs.