Quarantine Tank Help

[mikeclarke]

Hi there,

In the summer I upgraded my 20gal tank to a 100gal+50gal sump system. My 20gal had been a FOWLR with no skimmer, no UV... just basic. It went really well which is why I was excited to upgrade. I removed all but one little tiny piece of LR and all the live stock to the big tank. I left about 1cm of sand at the bottom of the QT and bought a big pirate ship as I couldn't convince my wife to leave pieces of PVC in a bare bottom tank when it is in the den off the kitchen. I've been taking 10gal of water out of the QT tank almost weekly (even when there is nothing in it) and replacing it with water from the big system. Then I use new make-up water in the big system.

A month or two ago I got a kole eye tang, yellow sailfin tang, and a copperbanded butterfly. I had them in the QT tank and seemed to be doing well. After a week both tangs died. I tested the water and the PH was really low. Like 6.4 or something. I can't remember. All I dosed was herbtana and artimiss as everyone looked good until they were at the bottom. I took the CBB and acclimated to the big tank and he has been thriving. He eats all the mysis and cyclops eeze that I give him.

So I'd like to get a tang for the 6' 100 gallon but I don't want to waste my money. How do I keep a QT tank looking nice but keeping the water quality high?

[daplatapus]

Congrats on the upgrade.
My first question would be how often did you do water changes? Is there any type of filtration on the QT? One of the big killers in a QT will be your Ammonia. The more fish in the QT the faster your ammonia will climb. Having a filter system that's got the bacteria you need to process that ammonia is the key. Or using something like Amquel to treat it.

[gregzz4]

My QT is a bit overboard for equipment :wink:

20g QT has;
ATO
RKL w/SL1 and pH probe
100w Eheim
Aquaclear 50 with surface skimmer attachment
Quiet One 1200 w/8w HOB UV ( UV turned off for first week or so )
Ammo Alert
Air pump and stone ( back up in case pH dips below 7.8 )
15w T8
Eggcrate
Computer fan on the eggcrate, and controlled by the RKL

Chems;
Stability
Am Guard ( just in case )

Brad's great suggestion of putting the AC foams in my sump to seed bacteria was probably the biggest reason for my QT success
The foams were in the sump for probably 2 months in the first chamber, before my socks

The QT water level is about 1/4" below the trim so the filter and HOB sterilizer splash return water for aeration

I fill the QT with new water, but have used DT water in the past
When the new fish are coming home, I put the foams in the AC
Once the fish are in, I start using Stability as per instructions
I monitor ammonia, both with the ammo badge and a test kit. If I see any high ammonia, I dose Am Guard and continue monitoring

Once I'm past the initial Nitrate cycle, I turn on the UV, keep monitoring params, and usually do a weekly 50% WC. I rinse the foams in the old water and swap them top to bottom

My pH was never low enough to worry about, even during Hypo, so I've never had to use the air pump yet

The WCs are done with new water until I'm ready to transfer the fish, then I use DT water for a change or two to ease acclimation

[jostafew]

I also have a 20gal QT tank which held a Kole tang for a month before going into DT. In fact its condition improved during its stay in there. I have a very basic setup, PVC for the fish to hide in, heater, Bio-Wheel filter, small Koralia powerhead, CF light fixture. Same routine as you, take about 5 gal out of the DT and use it for water changes in the QT, done every week or so while there is livestock in there (less frequent when it's sitting dorment). During extended periods without livestock I just shut the QT down and move the filter over to the sump on the DT so it can maintain its bacterial population.

I think daplatapus hit it on the head, too big a bio-load too quick. I probably wouldn't have tried to QT all three of those fish at the same time in such a small tank, even with the good water change schedule. Sorry to hear that you lost those two tangs.


P.S. if anyone is looking at my signature and wondering if there is a Kole tang in a 35gal tank, rest easy as that was in a previous (larger) tank.

[daniella3d]

This stuff seem to kill more fish than it save. Did it ever work for someone? I keep hearing horror stories about Herbatana.

You should use Paraguard in quarantine, and after that, Prazipro. That's what I did with my copperband and it worked very well.

For the QT, I use liverock and I kept a Magnum HOT running with a micron filter. Never had a problem with water quality. Never lost a fish in QT.

Don't use Herbatana, use Paraguard as recommanded first as a dip when you get the fish, do a one hour dip at the dip concentration, then use paraguard at normal concentration for a few weeks, then do prazipro. All these are quite gentle on the fish and control parasites quite well.

Hi there,

All I dosed was herbtana and artimiss as everyone looked good until they were at the bottom. I took the CBB and acclimated to the big tank and he has been thriving. He eats all the mysis and cyclops eeze that I give him.

So I'd like to get a tang for the 6' 100 gallon but I don't want to waste my money. How do I keep a QT tank looking nice but keeping the water quality high?

[asylumdown]

+1 on this sounding like an ammonia problem. Based on your description, it sounds as though this tank has had no livestock in it in 6+ months, has very little (none?) filtration, and the only input of organic material is whatever has been in your display tank water. Does this tank have a canister or HOB filter? Since your display tank is cycled, there won't be nearly enough ammonia in the water you're adding to your QT to keep a bacterial bed large enough to process the waste of three medium sized fish. In the 15 gallon tanks I use for the tank transfer method (which are filterless), 3 fish is enough to bring the ammonia levels to measurably dangerous levels in 48 hours. I have to keep that under control with rigorous testing and liberal use of Prime.

If you want to keep a QT tank ready to add fish at a moment's notice with little daily work required on your part, you need to keep it's cycle going while it's fishless. That means either tossing in a cocktail shrimp every so often, or dosing ammonia directly. Even then, you'll need to test for ammonia daily when you add fish, as the bacterial population will only grow to the size of it's food source, so there's a good chance adding fish will cause a mini-cycle no matter what you do.

Were you testing for ammonia? Did you test for ammonia when the fish died? Ammonia suppresses pH, so I'm not surprised your pH was low. In fact your low pH was likely why the fish lived as long as they did, and why one survived, as low pH keeps most of the free ammonia in it's non-toxic NH4 state. At normal reef pH, almost all free ammonia in the water would be in the super deadly NH3 state.

For a QT tank it's a good idea to have a quick and dirty API test for ammonia sitting right next to it, and the biggest bottle of prime you can buy on stand-by.

Also +1 on Prazipro. Best investment you can make I think.