Clean Quarantine Tank After Use?

[Connor Elliott]

I just upgraded my tank to a 20 gallon and I used my quarantine tank to house the fish plants and wood while I was making the transition I’m planning on getting some more fish and my question is do I need to sterilize my quarantine tank before I get them or should it be fine? There is a bit of mulm and gunk in the tank from the plants and wood and I cleaned out the majority of it I just dont know if I need to sterilize it or not or would it not matter? Since I was just using it to temporarily house the things in my main tank.

[FlyingFishKeeper]

Hi, in my opinion since you already put your fish through qt and they were healthy they should be fine, and once you put the meds in to qt the new fish anything in the water would probably die. This is just my opinion and it could easily differ from that of a nerm with more experience than me. Good luck!

Edited April 22, 2021 by FlyingFishKeeper

[Odd Duck]

If you were only holding plants/fish/wood/snails/shrimp/etc, to *watch* for sickness and there was no sickness showing during the quarantine, there’s no need to sterilize the tank.  I would clean out all debris between quarantine batches, though.  That mulm is not your friend if you need to medicate anybody.  Mulm can bind and inactivate medications if they’re needed.

If you were treating/using medication for an actual disease, I *would* disinfect the tank afterwards.

[Connor Elliott]

15 hours ago, Odd Duck said:

If you were only holding plants/fish/wood/snails/shrimp/etc, to *watch* for sickness and there was no sickness showing during the quarantine, there’s no need to sterilize the tank.  I would clean out all debris between quarantine batches, though.  That mulm is not your friend if you need to medicate anybody.  Mulm can bind and inactivate medications if they’re needed.

If you were treating/using medication for an actual disease, I *would* disinfect the tank afterwards.

I was just temporarily housing the stuff in my main tank in the quarantine tank because I was upgraded my tank size  and was just wondering if I need to sterilize the quarantine tank when I get new fish to quarantine