land_lubber Posted October 3, 2006 Report Share Posted October 3, 2006 I am just curious to know if I have a Hospital/Quarantine Tank with sand and saltwater in it and say I had it going for a bit then didn't have it going for 2/3 weeks then wanted to start it up again due to wanting to quarantine a fish would that be alright? or would it have to have new water in it and would it have to cycle? even if I used water from my main tank? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDM Posted October 3, 2006 Report Share Posted October 3, 2006 take all the sand and rock out of the qt, use water from your main tank and throw in a rock or two from the main tank as well. why do you need a qt? is it for a fish you are about to purchase or a sick fish you already own? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
land_lubber Posted October 3, 2006 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2006 Well due to me not having a qt and buying a powder blue tang over the weekend that got whitespot the next day then died last night I'm pretty keen to get another little tank so I can treat something if it happens again. And no it didn't look like it had whitespot when I brought it but that may be because it was in a tank with 2 fire shrimp and 4 cleaner shrimp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stompa Posted October 3, 2006 Report Share Posted October 3, 2006 what size tank do people recomend for a Hospital/Quarantine???? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDM Posted October 3, 2006 Report Share Posted October 3, 2006 GUTTED i have a qt set up and running, just a 2ft with some live rock and a cheepie skimmer, no sand, only 3 2ft fluros, although i have only used it once for qt a new fish. i did a 100% water change just prior to adding the fish. im sorry for your loss, but im not sure a qt would have helped him, would have been hard to treat him that quickly without the treatment itself causing harm. if you have a spare tank sitting around a qt can be set up in very quickly when a new fish is purchased, just add water and a rock from your display a heater and a small power head, done, now ready for the new guy. im not sure what the reccomended time for qt is but i did mine for 6 weeks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
land_lubber Posted October 3, 2006 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2006 Yeah I am pretty gutted I've always wanted a powder blue and when I finally found one I was stoked anyway I won't be getting anything else until I get a qt tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suphew Posted October 3, 2006 Report Share Posted October 3, 2006 personally I wouldn't add any rock to the QT because if you have to treat the fish (esp with copper based meds) the rock wont be able to go back in your tank. Also I don't see the need, anything will do for cover, plastic plant, fake coral etc, but I wouldn't bother, the importers tanks are completely bare. plus since its a small tank you can do lots of large water changes (which would be a good idea anyway) so the biological function of the rock wont be doing anything. I wouldn't use a light either or if I did a very weak one, it just extra stress for the fish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
land_lubber Posted October 3, 2006 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2006 Yeah I was thinking of just getting one of those 23/40 litre aqua one tanks and having maybe sand in it and thats it but I think I won't have anything in it now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDM Posted October 3, 2006 Report Share Posted October 3, 2006 personally I wouldn't add any rock to the QT because if you have to treat the fish (esp with copper based meds) the rock wont be able to go back in your tank. Also I don't see the need, anything will do for cover, plastic plant, fake coral etc, but I wouldn't bother, the importers tanks are completely bare. plus since its a small tank you can do lots of large water changes (which would be a good idea anyway) so the biological function of the rock wont be doing anything. I wouldn't use a light either or if I did a very weak one, it just extra stress for the fish. if you were doing large water changes it would be very important to make sure the water you are adding has the same parameters as the water you removed, more smaller changes would be less time consuiming and less stressfull on the sick fish. i have used a copper based treatment and after using it for 2 weeks i through the bottle out, it did work, but i did not like the effect it had on the fish and i beleve there are better safer ways to help a sick fish now. the rock will provide a bio filter, weather or not it is going to help with water quality will depend on many things, but if you have some spare peices then you could have them as part of the qt and leave them in there. having never seen an importers tank set up i am assuming they have a sump with bio filter media? i cant imangine an importer doing huge water changes on their fish only set ups due to waste from feeding, not to mention the extra costs and time involved. home qt tanks ive seen do not have a sump, and all have had at least a small peice of rock. i have lighting over my qt as it has corals in there as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trinity Posted October 3, 2006 Report Share Posted October 3, 2006 MY hospital tank is kept pretty basic, no sand and just a rock display for the fish to hide in, luckily I have never had to dose the tank yet with any medication. I have a divider for the tank which was used when I was mating my Maroon clowns. Currently the tank has 2 occupents, Highfin blennie and blackbar Filefish they will stay there until the big tank is ready. 50/60 litre tank cannister filter heater (heater guard) lighting from my old aqua one tank I use it for new fish, to make sure they are nice and fat before they go in the display tank and they are used to my feeding regimen. Also to make sure they are healthy before adding to my display. I also use it for any fish that get a bad attitude :evil: I have been using the tank for 8 months and it has paid for itself many times over. A very successful mating of my maroons clowns is my happiest moment :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drifty Posted October 4, 2006 Report Share Posted October 4, 2006 even with a qt tank what is going to stop a pb getting white spot once its moved again. The only time I have had any parasites that were noticable on my fish was after moving them, my blue tang has moved 3 times and has broken out each time. soory about your loss Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suphew Posted October 4, 2006 Report Share Posted October 4, 2006 even with a qt tank what is going to stop a pb getting white spot once its moved again. Agree, its the stress that causes it, I'm not sure any one has actually managed to get rid of white spot from their tank, they just never see it because of low stress. if you were doing large water changes it would be very important to make sure the water you are adding has the same parameters as the water you removed, more smaller changes would be less time consuiming and less stressfull on the sick fish. The best water to use is straight from your main tank that way you know it is the same every time, plus will cause far less stress on the fish when it goes in there. If your doing this it would be safe to do 100% changes if you wanted. the rock will provide a bio filter, weather or not it is going to help with water quality will depend on many things, but if you have some spare peices then you could have them as part of the qt and leave them in there. Part of the white spot life cycle is on the substrate (rocks sand etc) the less of this in the tank the easier it is going to be to get rid of. Also there will be a lot of life die on the live rock when it first goes into the QT and you add treatments, in this sense the live rock will make the water quality worse rather than better. And lastly you would have to have a way of knowing the rock never made it into a display tank again, imagin putting it aside once you stopped using a QT and then selling it by accident to someone else who didn't know and put it in their display. having never seen an importers tank set up i am assuming they have a sump with bio filter media? i cant imangine an importer doing huge water changes on their fish only set ups due to waste from feeding, not to mention the extra costs and time involved. The importers I have seen change all their water every shipment, I'm not sure but think this might be a requirement, they also run skimmers. But no other filter systems that I can remember. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wasp Posted October 4, 2006 Report Share Posted October 4, 2006 A cannister with biomedia is acceptable for a QT tank, because it will adapt much quicker to the changing bioloads a QT tank will likely experience. Of course it will not process nitrate, that would have to be dealt with by water changes. When my own QT tank was a big tub with a cannister it could still go quite a long time with several fish before nitrate built to levels needing something doing about. If a copper treatment is done, the biomedia will not remove the copper from the water nearly as much as coral rock & aragonite (both based on calcium carbonate) will. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cookie extreme Posted October 4, 2006 Report Share Posted October 4, 2006 any one has actually managed to get rid of white spot from their tank what's white spot again? The best water to use is straight from your main tank that way you know it is the same every time plus you would be adding a constant supply of new white spot to your qt tank unless you use copper, unless your tank is WS free. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suphew Posted October 4, 2006 Report Share Posted October 4, 2006 plus you would be adding a constant supply of new white spot to your qt tank unless you use copper, unless your tank is WS free The fish is going to be exposed to it as soon as it gets back in the tank anyway, IMO the idea is to get the fish healthy so it can handle it, not stress it trying to cure something that it is going to get right away again anyway. I haven't had W/S for a year or so, but I'm pretty sure if my fish got stressed it would come back. It did when I moved tanks and I hadn't seen it for months before that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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