Live Rock In Quarantine?

[MarkoD]

ok so i set up a 25 gallon quarantine tank with a 15 gallon sump.

in the quarantine tank i have a powerhead, a few pieces of PVC pipe for hiding spots and a few fake plants

in the sump i have my heater and i transfered a few pieces of liverock from my main display's sump. the one piece of liverock has a bunch of sponges on it

is this ok for now? i have a bucket full of bioballs but i dont know what to use.

if i medicate the tank, will the good bacteria die or just the sponges and whatever little bugs are on the rock?

[sgreen]

The live rock will hold the medication and it could kill whatever is in the rock, I would take the rock out.

[MarkoD]

ok thanks for the advice. ill remove the rock before medicating.

but what about having bioballs in the sump? would the medication kill the beneficial bacteria on the bioballs?

[phi delt reefer]

marko - get an AquaClear HOB filter and throw it on the back of the tank to filter the quarantine water. Take the filter pads from the hob and throw them in your "display tank" or display tank sump for a couple days to start accumlating the beneficial bacterial. Do a water change in your display tank and throw that water into your QT tank and put the filter pads into the HOB. You should be good from there :)

Bioballs are too much work to keep clean.


once you are done with the QT you can just empty the tank and throw out the filter pads. When you need to QT again just put some new filter pads back in your DT and reapeat the process i mentioned above.

[MarkoD]

i cant use water from the display tank because im afraid that theres ich still in the water (which is the reason for the QT)

i set up the QT few days ago and have had a few pieces of LR in there.

and im going to be using the QT for the next few months while i stock my 180 gallon. im not sure that a filter pad is going to help me out long term.
plus i already have everything setup with the sump

[MarkoD]

maybe i can just put filter pads in the sump and change or clean one every week or so

[phi delt reefer]

have a read of this thread and ICH;

http://www.reefland.com/forum/marine-fish-care-health-disease-treatment/20280-marine-ich-help.html

the ich parasites can latch onto anything (ie live rock/sand from you display)

with that said maybe run the QT with nothing more than a fresh set of filter pads (to keep the tank clean) and regular water changes to export the waste.


are you removing all of your fish to QT them?

[MarkoD]

No only new fish. The 3 fish I have left in my display are no longer infected

[Myka]

This is how I do a QT.

Equipment:
~ Tank
~ Heater
~ Powerhead
~ AquaClear power filter
~ PVC pipes
~ Carbon
~ Seachem Prime
~ Seachem Ammonia Alert; and/or
~ Salicylate ammonia test kit (API is preferred, Elos and Salifert not compatible with Prime)


Use water from the display tank to fill up the quarantine tank (doesn't matter if the water is infected because apparently so is the fish, right? hehe). The filter floss media I use in the sump in my display tank fits into the AquaClear with a bit of trimming. I use the used media from the display tank to "seed" nitrifying bacteria to the QT. Use two pieces of media, one new one and one used one. Once a week replace the older one with a new piece.

If medications are being used I will dose the QT with Prime. Most medications will kill nitrifying bacteria so the seeded media is a moot point in the power filter - just use new media.

For Ich I don't medicate, I use hyposalinity so a refractometer is required. Google "marine ich hyposalinity" for more info on that.

The Prime is to de-toxify ammonia. The Ammonia Alert is to indicate if you need to add more Prime (or do a water change) to lower the ammonia. Ammonia is you biggest concern in a QT, and is why a person would be concerned about nitrifying bacteria. No nitrifying bacteria (due to "freshness" of tank or because of medications) and ammonia will be soon to come. You need to use a salicylate test kit to test for ammonia as the Nessler types will give you a "false" ammonia reading when using Prime. i like to use the Ammonia Alert (which I find is surprisingly accurate) in addition to daily testing for ammonia.

Use carbon in the power filter to remove medications when finished so you can monitor the fish's health post-medication for a week or two sans medication before re-introducing to display.

[MarkoD]

thanks for the great write up.... but im not going to be quarantining fish that are already in my tank.... im gonna be quarantining new fish before introducing them into my tank.

[bvlester]

ok so i set up a 25 gallon quarantine tank with a 15 gallon sump.

in the quarantine tank i have a powerhead, a few pieces of PVC pipe for hiding spots and a few fake plants

in the sump i have my heater and i transfered a few pieces of liverock from my main display's sump. the one piece of liverock has a bunch of sponges on it

is this ok for now? i have a bucket full of bioballs but i dont know what to use.

if i medicate the tank, will the good bacteria die or just the sponges and whatever little bugs are on the rock?

I have a QT with LR in it if medication is needed then I isolate in a separate hospital tank. QT is for isolation and observation before they go into the DT not medicating fish. Medicating fish a whole different world you can set up a hospital tank in about 10 mins . I have a 5g tank for treating fish and a 10g tank. run a air line and water you have to do water changes every day but they are not that huge.

I make my QT so there is hiding spots that are near normal for the fish they don't get as stressed out before they go into the DT. the only fish I lost in the past 6 months was a blond Naso tang from a power outage in the night. only 1 fish out of three tanks I would say that is a good ending considering the power was out for 8 and half hours. I guess I could have fired up the generator but didn't want to wake up the neighbors

Bill.
Bill

[Myka]

Oh, I read this part:

i cant use water from the display tank because im afraid that theres ich still in the water (which is the reason for the QT)

...and thought you were treating fish with Ich from your display. Either way, quarantine before introduction or quarantine for treatment...the same steps apply. If you're worried about contaminating the quarantine tank with Ich because you recently had Ich in your display then use the Prime as I described above.

[mark]

No only new fish. The 3 fish I have left in my display are no longer infected

if they were infected with ich, might want to check up on it's life-cycle, as doubt it's really gone. QT is still a good idea for new fish as there's more than ich out there, but don't be surprised when you take your new fish out of QT and introduced into the display you see signs of ich again.

[bvlester]

For Ick I use garlic extract and selcon soaked food. You can look at Ick like shingles and a person it is caused by stress and is a nervice system disease. the garlic and selcon boosts their ammune system and then they can fight it off with ease. I have not seen Ick in my DT for over a year and a half.

Bill

[asylumdown]

to answer your question about medications killing the bacteria in your rocks/filter - the answer is only if you use medications that kill gram negative bacteria. The nitrobacter and nitrosoma bacteria families are all gram negative, so broad spectrum anti-biotics that are lethal to both (like tetracycline) can shut down a bacterial filter. Erythromycin is only toxic to some gram negative bacteria and is specifically targeted to gram positive bacteria, so it can be dosed with a measured sense of security that it won't reset your bacterial filter to zero, though it might cause some instability.

I'm not aware of any common ich treatments that fry beds of nitrosoma and nitrobacter bacteria, though some of the more noxious ones might just kill everything except the fish. I don't think most copper treatments affect the bacteria bed either.