Qt

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

I know there is another thread going like this but I just wanted to remind everyone that not QTing is not a good idea...Im sooooo frustrated right now and my poor fish are now dealing with my bad judgment.

Make sure you QT...I made the very stupid mistake last week of adding a fish without QT because I bought it from a friend who has had it in his tank for almost a year and claimed his tank is ich free...Well my fish all have ich now and I will have to take them all out of the tank and QT all of them! Im talking about many big fish. So I have to buy several rubbermaids to QT them in and deal with water changes and water quality in all of those rubbermaids for 6-8 weeks now :(

My point is that if I had just QT'd like I usually do, I would have one small fish in a 10G QT right now for 6-8 weeks...instead I will have many unhappy fish in QT who don't feel very good. This really sucks and I hope people remember to QT and do things right. If not for your sake, for the sake of your fish. I feel so bad for what I am now putting my Puffers through because I figured "well he was in someones tank and looks healthy enough...may as well just get him right in the display"...SOOOO stupid :cry:

[Phanman]

Sorry to hear that man... that blows!

Question for ya...

For my new setup im planning to quarantine everything, but not quite sure if my planning is sound or not. So if i get a QT tank and run a skimmer, powerhead, short pvc pieces, and heater will this suffice? I was planning on dosing copper to this tank to kill off any ich and other parasites and quarantine the fish for 6-8 weeks. Now i know this hospital/quarantine tank will never be able to hold a reef tank and thats fine by me. Is there any other precautions i should be taking?

I see Golds has green water for their hospital tanks, but always forget to ask them what they are adding to them.

[ElGuappo]

should you e QTing your inverts as well? is all that is needed for a QT tank jusat the tank heater and skimmer? do you need bio media in your filter? i saw live rock is not suggested. i have not QT anything and after six monthes am noticing ich on one of my true percs. should i QT all my fish at this point? sorry i am a newbie at SW and am always looking for some sound advise.

unfortunatly i dont reallly have room for a qt tank 10 g maybe.

Hope im not encrotching on your thread.

[michika]

Yes, everything should be QTed, although HOW you QT can change with each fish.

Some people QT and do a hyposalinity treatment, others treat with medication. It comes down to what you are QTing. Normally I QT all tangs/angels/etc. however there are some tangs that don't do hyposalinity well, powder blue & brown. As well some fish are such picky eaters that a traditional QT might not be for them, e.g. Copperband Butterflies.

A 10g tank is fine, its what I use for my nano. Just be aware that sometimes a 10g is too small for 6-8 weeks.

[ElGuappo]

i am not liking my 25 g fw right now as it is tall and i would prefer long. thinking of using this. finding room may be an issue as i want to get a 33 long for my barbs. it sin my BR and would be willing to move a book shelf to keep the 25 if it wouldnt make too much noise. not too worried about the wieght as it is on second level but the wall its on is above anther wall. the cost is my issue right now as this would mean i would have to by another skimmer, heater, chiller?, pump, powerhead.

[michika]

To QT? I just run mine with a couple of power heads for flow, a heater, a piece of PVC pipe for a hiding place, and a HOB skimmer with some PC lights. It was a cheap set up, and I could go without the skimmer, and just to manual water changes everyweek.

[ElGuappo]

so the floressant lighting thats there would be enough? would a trickle(waterfall ?) filter be good enough ? i guess you wouldnt run carbon thou?

Essentially all you need is saltwater, something to keep water moving and a heater?

lighting quality doesnt matter as ther is no corals right? a skimmer would be a good option thou right? What about filtering? Bio media?

[michika]

It depends on what you are QTing. My SPS QT system has MH lights and a skimmer. I have no idea what a trickle/waterfall filter is...sorry. You can run carbon if you like, but I don't unless I'm using medication and its recommended afterwards.

Yup, all you need is water movement, a hiding place for fish, a heater, and some light. I find lights help get the fish into a routine, and they seem to respond better when they go into the display. I try to do things around the same time for both fish in QT, and in the display.

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Glad people are learning and hopefully Qting too!

Its really not very hard. Its kind of the sad how many fish die because people refuse to QT. I have never lost a new fish in QT...ever. I have lost them in QT once they are already sick though. Its so easy to avoid them getting sick in the first place. Choose healthy looking, strong fish from the store and then QT them to make sure they stay healthy and strong.

To really be sure your safe, you really should set up a new tank with your LR, inverts, and corals first and wait 6 weeks until you add any fish. That way any ich living on corals, inverts, LR, ect. dies off. Then add only QT'd fish, inverts, corals, LR, macro algae, ect. ect. to your system. My brother does this and I have never heard of him ever having any disease in his tanks in about 8 years now. He is WAY more patient than me though :) But it pays off in the end.

Im setting up 3 QT tanks now and all are set up a little different because the fish all have different needs. All are being treated with hyposalinity though.

QT#1 is a 40G rubbermaid for my puffers. This one needs good filtration because the load of these guys on a 40G will be heavy. So I have a cycled sponge from my sump ready to go along with a bag of carbon from my sump...both will have a decent amount of bacteria to keep their new home somewhat cycled. Im using a canister filter on this set up. Weekly water changes and Amquel will be needed as well. There is PVC for them to hide in.

QT#2 is another 40G rubbermaid set up basically the same but with a HOB filter instead of a canister. This one will have 5 medium sized fish and be fed every 2nd day, so the bio load will not be too crazy. In this QT though I have my goby who needs sand. So I have a bit of new dry sand and even some old dry and clean LR. This needs to be clean and dried out for a long time so that your not getting a bunch of die off and creating a big cycle. Don't use sand or LR from your display if you pan on doing hypo...it will die off slowly. But a QT should not have either of these things anyways unless its needed.

QT#3 is a 10G tank for a few of the smaller fish I have like my hawk.


I am also going to set up one more rubbermaid QT for 2 new fish I had planned on adding at some point in the future. They are the last 2 fish I plan on adding and I think I will QT them now while I have "tanks" all over the place anyways. That way they can go in the tank with the others and I can take down all the QT's.

Im not sure about others here but I continue to "feed" the display tank lightly while its fallow just to keep the bacteria colonies going. Not enough food to notice an ammonia spike or anything but enough to keep all my levels where they usually are. The one other time I had a fallow tank I was not feeding at first and I noticed that my corals started to look bad. I started feeding and they looked great again...this kind of goes more for softies though I think.

Anyways...hopefully there will be no loses due to my stupidity!

[spoot]

Ouch, that sucks! Hope people will learn from this! I've got and extra 75g that I QT all new additions in, right now there is a baby tomini tang :D

Hope it all works out Justin!

[Lance]

I use 2 QTs: a permanent (cycled) 20 gal with sand, live rock, good lighting, canister filter (carbon only), PVC pieces, and decent water flow. All new fish go in this tank for 6 weeks. If a fish develops a problem I set up a 10 gal BB with power filter and PVC. I treat with hyposalinity and or copper depending on the fish.
This way a perfectly healthy fish need not undergo treatment, and I can QT inverts in the 20 gal and not worry about copper in the tank.

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

I use 2 QTs: a permanent (cycled) 20 gal with sand, live rock, good lighting, canister filter (carbon only), PVC pieces, and decent water flow. All new fish go in this tank for 6 weeks. If a fish develops a problem I set up a 10 gal BB with power filter and PVC. I treat with hyposalinity and or copper depending on the fish.
This way a perfectly healthy fish need not undergo treatment, and I can QT inverts in the 20 gal and not worry about copper in the tank.

This is a great way go. If I had the room, I would also keep a QT always up and running for everything new I buy but its just not possible right now. For now its going to be a few months of QT and then nothing added to this tank! I am going to add the last two fish to the tank after this QT, so QTing new fish will not be an issue but I think I will need to set up a small coral/invert QT tank. I don't want to take any more chances in the future. Im heartbroken to see my puffers like this... :(

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Ouch, that sucks! Hope people will learn from this! I've got and extra 75g that I QT all new additions in, right now there is a baby tomini tang :D

Hope it all works out Justin!

Thanks...It will work out, they are tough fish and the ich is very mild. Im just really mad that I let my guard down with this new addition. Before this, all fish had been QT'd for at least 6 weeks. All that work for nothing!!!

[mark]

That's too bad.

I would suggest a NH3 test kit. It's amazing how fast it can build up to deadly levels.

[Lance]

Thanks...It will work out, they are tough fish and the ich is very mild. Im just really mad that I let my guard down with this new addition. Before this, all fish had been QT'd for at least 6 weeks. All that work for nothing!!!

I did the very same thing. A new fish that I was sure was clean wasn't. Infected another fish in the display and I had to QT the whole bunch. 8 weeks looking at an empty display really sucks. Good luck!

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

That's too bad.

I would suggest a NH3 test kit. It's amazing how fast it can build up to deadly levels.

Yeah I have one...this is another must with a QT. I test ammonia, nitrite and PH twice daily during QT and more if the fish look stressed. I do use amquel though which can screw up ammonia readings a bit.