What size quarantine tank

lbacha · Jan 8, 2019

Hello all

I’m about to set up a quarantine tank for my new nuvo 25g lagoon and was wondering what you all recommend as a good size to house my fish for a month or two quarantine period. I’m really trying to figure out the minimum size. I’m considering either a 5g evo5 or IM 10g since they are aio. The 5g would be ideal as I wouldn’t need to make up as much saltwater but I’m not sure if it would be too small for a good quarantine tank. The IM 10g they sell at BRS seems to be a good choice but takes up more space and uses more water

Fish I’m considering
Tail spot blenny
Possom wrasse
Pair of clowns
A small goby
Possibly one or two other fish

I will most likely quarantine them 1-2 at a time and add fish slowly

jsvand5 · Jan 8, 2019

For a tank that is only 25g I’d just go with a few 10g tanks so you can do TTM without having to worry about cleaning the tanks as well between transfers. 10 is also an easy size to calculate for most meds. 5g is harder to keep the temp stable with such a small volume of water if you don’t have a heater that’s hooked up to a good controller.

mich2599 · Jan 8, 2019

QT doesn’t have to something expensive. I use a 20 gallon tank to QT. The bigger, the better as this will prevent ammonia to become toxic much faster.

lbacha · Jan 8, 2019

jsvand5 said:
For a tank that is only 25g I’d just go with a few 10g tanks so you can do TTM without having to worry about cleaning the tanks as well between transfers. 10 is also an easy size to calculate for most meds. 5g is harder to keep the temp stable with such a small volume of water if you don’t have a heater that’s hooked up to a good controller.

Thanks I figured a 10 was a good size just not a ton of space as I live in a apartment so I was trying to keep the footprint as small as possible but not go too small.

mich2599 said:
QT doesn’t have to something expensive. I use a 20 gallon tank to QT. The bigger, the better as this will prevent ammonia to become toxic much faster.

20 is a little too big as I don’t have the space for it. I’ll probably go with a 10g to keep things simple

ca1ore · Jan 8, 2019

Given the fish size constraints of your display, a 1o g will work just fine.

mich2599 · Jan 8, 2019

What works for you

just keep eye on ammonia

lbacha · Jan 8, 2019

mich2599 said:
What works for you just keep eye on ammonia

I plan on throwing some media in my sump that I can put in the QT when I set it up. After QT I will sterilize the media then put it back in my sump to reseed with bacteria for the next time I need to QT something.

Frtdrmrose7 · Jan 8, 2019

Make sure to get the seachem ammonia badge because copper can give inaccurate reading with standard copper tests.

Jesterrace · Jan 8, 2019

10 gallon is fine for the fish in question. If you had a larger DT with bigger more active fish then I would say 20-40 gallons.

lbacha · Jan 8, 2019

Thanks all I actually have a couple slides left for my seneye so I figure I can use that to measure ammonia in the tank.

I’m going to go the 10g route with media seeded from my display tank.

So does the group recommend me medicating from the start as a precaution or waiting till I see something. I know I’m being lazy as there are probably a dozen threads out there on this but I figure a forum is for writing ideas so here is your chance and I’m looking for a regimen that makes sense for a small tank with one or two fish not a QT with a ton of fish in it