Setting up a Quarantine Tank

[Harlequinmania]

With the amount of time and money invested on this hobby , it is wise to protect on your valuable "Asset" in your fish tank. I am starting a topic on setting up a QT and pinning this up and hopefully the information will be useful to all.

Some said that we need a second marine tank in order to to keep the first one healthy, and owning a Quarantine tank is necessary for the long term health of your aquarium, and sadly many reefer have left the hobby after lost heart of their beloved fishes dieing to diseases or mystery death without knowing the real cause of it. Unfortunately, tropical marine fishes are often vulnerable to diseases because of stress caused by transported over long distances, or from other fishes inside the holding tank during shipment . Adjusting to Aquarium life can also add stress to these marine fish and lower their immune system.

With all the above reason and uncertainly of the health of your newly bough fish , If you don't quarantine your fish, you are taking a gamble hoping that the newly introduce fish to your tank is free from any diseases and does not affect the other healthy fishes inside your tank. A quarantine tank can also act as a hospital tan in which fishes from the main tank can be treated without harming the corals in the main tank.

However, since we are living in a small country our premises does not allow us to have space for more than one tank , but the truth is, owning a simple Quarantine system can be inexpensive and easy. Many hobbyists may have already own some of these equipments to setup a simple QT tank. The best part is your only need to run a QT when you plan to add new fish or corals.

1) Start with a simple glass tank , pail or plastic container which hold a minimum of 25 ~ 50 liters of water depending on the size of your fish. You do not need any substrate or decorations. But i do use some live rock and a few large PCV elbows to act as a hiding places for these new fish to hid in . This will make them feel safer, thereby reducing stress in a new environment.

2) After acclimating your newly bought fish with your tank water, place it in your QT tank.

3) Place your QT tank in a location which is cool and away from direct sunlight, monitor the temperature of the water. normally for a fish only QT tank, a temperature of below 30 degree is acceptable. You use use a simple fan to cool the QT tank if required.

3) Filtration - I uses only a simple air stone or a sponge filter together with a hangover filter to act as a biological filtration for the QT tank. This should covers the biological filtration while oxygenating and moving the water. Further more it will prevent extra heat being generated into the water from any power head with direct contact with the water keeping it cool. In order to speed up the process of the biological filtration in the new QT tank, i would use the media which i have placed inside my sump tank to run on the hang-on filter.

4) Water - If possible use water for your QT tank or changing your water with it . This will help reproduce the conditions in your display tank and help kick start the biological filtration.

5) Monitor of water quality - Do monitor the water quality in your QT tank keeping the Ammonia, nitrite in check and it is good if you can performance a daily or every two day water change .

6) Lighting -You do not need any lighting for your QT tank, unless you have some coral in it.

7) Feeding - Since you are running a minimum filtration in a QT tank, feed the minimum the fish can take . Fish can live on little foods and a day or two without any foods.

7) Medicate your new fish - It is not necessary to medicate your new fish in QT unless you notice something during the quarantine period. If you prefer the extra protection through, you can add in some to prevent any diseases.

8) How long do i need to Quarantine the fish ? - usually for a minimum of two weeks, or longer. You should be able to observe the quarantined animal daily for signs of parasites, infection and / or odd behavior. If something is our of the ordinary, treat it as necessary, and restart the clock on the quarantine once the fish shows abnormal signs.

9) After two week of Quarantine - You are now safe to transfer your new fish into your show tank with a healthy specimen.

10) you don't need to run your Quarantine tank all the time, You can either keep it away until you plan on getting a new fish or you can also consider keeping it running all the time. , just in case you need to convert it into a hospital tank to treat your fish.

I hope the above cover the basis of setting up a simple QT tank, and please feel free to share any experience in it.

[Guest]

Some photo of my simple QT tank with just a simple Air stone and , live rock and PVC elbows for the fish to hide in.

Some of the filter media i placed inside my sump for easy access to when i need to setup my QT tank.

[Guest]

A good link HERE to diagnose various types of common fish diseases .

[yikai]

err.

depending on the fish you qt, temperature is super important.

some fish cannot tolerate anything above 27C. so be sure of that.

many angels, butterflies and some anthias need cool water. otherwise the temp will kill them faster than anything else.

[Guest]

err.

depending on the fish you qt, temperature is super important.

some fish cannot tolerate anything above 27C. so be sure of that.

many angels, butterflies and some anthias need cool water. otherwise the temp will kill them faster than anything else.

Yes lemon, thanks for the correction on that. It should depend on the species as well.

[yikai]

Yes lemon, thanks for the correction on that. It should depend on the species as well.

yep.

normal fishes should be ok but those expensive ones that require cooler water must be taken into consideration.

[xeneryx]

hi bro. can i ask. you mention that i can keep the quarantine tank if not in used. but i dont get how we set up in the water part.

shouldn't we cycle the quarantine tank also ? and we have to keep running the water.

or we can just buy nsw to put into the tank everytime we buy new fish ?

its quite troublesome to run the quarantine tank when its fishless in it. i want to keep it but im afraid everytime i buy new livestock i have to repeat the cycling process.

pls advise

[[V]tEc]

hi bro. can i ask. you mention that i can keep the quarantine tank if not in used. but i dont get how we set up in the water part.

shouldn't we cycle the quarantine tank also ? and we have to keep running the water.

or we can just buy nsw to put into the tank everytime we buy new fish ?

its quite troublesome to run the quarantine tank when its fishless in it. i want to keep it but im afraid everytime i buy new livestock i have to repeat the cycling process.

pls advise

May not be the best way but this is what i do if i need to QT or treat fish. get a tub, mine can hold about 50L. Use water from main tank, put in some media like biohome. my biohome is place in my sump to house bacteria. After treatment, just keep the tub. media if kiasu, wash then put back to main tank. So far after QT i just throw back to my main tank without issue.

U can also purchase nsw to be used for QT. If i am doing qt for expensive fish, i will do 50% water change everyday. if cheap fish, i change water once a week. As long as it is not fresh salt mix water, it should be ok.

[CFOh]

hi bro. can i ask. you mention that i can keep the quarantine tank if not in used. but i dont get how we set up in the water part.

shouldn't we cycle the quarantine tank also ? and we have to keep running the water.

or we can just buy nsw to put into the tank everytime we buy new fish ?

its quite troublesome to run the quarantine tank when its fishless in it. i want to keep it but im afraid everytime i buy new livestock i have to repeat the cycling process.

pls advise

I suggested full cycled quarantine tank with plenty of live rock in filter system. Normally some sensitive fishes we may need QT around 3-4month b4 transfer to main tank.

If fish not doing well. Will transfer to Hospital tank with treatment.

The QT process below:

QT Tank (make sure no disease carrier) -> link Tank (environment acclimatise) -> Isolation box (reduce aggression)-> Main Tank

You will save more trouble or low risk to existing live stock with above process.

Cheers and Happy Reefing..

[blusafe]

You forgot to talk about freshwater dip procedure. You can google, but here is what I do.

Tools: small container for water, flashlight, net (optional), clock/watch

Materials: RO water (tap is fine), methylene blue

*Ensure dip water is same temp as fish water. I really should check pH (all the procedures tell you to) but I don't have a meter. For temp you can float the fish bag inside the dip water. For pH use any commercial acid/base buffering solution.

*Add a few drops of methylene blue to dip water until it turns moderate-dark blue.

*Hand carry the fish (if able) into dip water.

*I dip fish for five minutes or whatvever they can tolerate - whichever is less. The trick is to closely monitor for distress. If they are "playing dead," lethargic, laying on side - this is NOT DISTRESS. The fw is having a soothing, calming effect. If darting around continuously, attempting to jump, extremely rapid gill movement, and sucking air at the surface - THIS IS STRESS. Also, do NOT dip fish if they appear weak or dip for a shorter time (60 secs or so). I would still use the methylene blue for sick/weak fish.

*The flashlight is a MUST!

*Move fish to QT. Observe for any blue "staining" as this will give you a hint to tissue damage. Only weak tissue should stain.

*Observe the horrendous amount of baddies that fall off!

Other stuff

*Try to use separate dip water for each fish. There are bad guys that merely "fall off" but survive the dip. You may be contaminating the QT.

*Inverts can not tolerate dips. But strangely I hear corals can? <-not sure on this one.

[vidios]

What salt level should we keep in qt? And after recovered, how do we introduce the fish back yo the main tank? Thanks

Edited January 11, 2016 by vidios