question about quarantine tank cycling

[yanbwohan]

Hi guys! quick question about quarantine tank cycling:

I am currently trying to set up a quarantine tank but I don't have any spare sponge filters at the moment. I have a pre-filter sponge on the HOB filter on my current display tank. If I attach it to another extra HOB filter I have and add some old decor, as well as performing daily water changes, would that suffice to prevent ammonia from building up in the 2 weeks I keep the tank running? Will doing daily water changes stress out the fish? I've also heard some say that it's not necessary to cycle a quarantine tank, is that true?

Any help is greatly appreciated! 🙂

[Kurt Brutting]

I would definitely add that pre-filter sponge and decor with beneficial bacteria on it, that will definitely help cycle the tank faster. I personally cycle my QT tanks. Make sure you are checking your parameters. Also Fritz products help cycle aquariums fast like Fritz Zyme 7 or Turbo Start. 

[yanbwohan]

On 10/22/2022 at 6:35 PM, Kurt Brutting said:

I would definitely add that pre-filter sponge and decor with beneficial bacteria on it, that will definitely help cycle the tank faster. I personally cycle my QT tanks. Make sure you are checking your parameters. Also Fritz products help cycle aquariums fast like Fritz Zyme 7 or Turbo Start. 

Thank you for your help! 🙏

[AllFishNoBrakes]

Agreed that the seeded sponge and decor will be a big help. Even squeezing the sponge in the tank would be a huge help!

Are you planning on running meds in the tank? I would suggest not doing water changes as you’ll need to re dose meds and that’s a pain. But test your heart out and make sure nothing spikes!

I keep my quarantine tanks cycled with either new fish I’m quarantining, starting to grow out fry, a fish or two, or snails. We put in so much effort to cycle them in the first place that I don’t want to lose that progress 

[yanbwohan]

On 10/22/2022 at 7:45 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

Agreed that the seeded sponge and decor will be a big help. Even squeezing the sponge in the tank would be a huge help!

Are you planning on running meds in the tank? I would suggest not doing water changes as you’ll need to re dose meds and that’s a pain. But test your heart out and make sure nothing spikes!

I keep my quarantine tanks cycled with either new fish I’m quarantining, starting to grow out fry, a fish or two, or snails. We put in so much effort to cycle them in the first place that I don’t want to lose that progress 

alright, will do! I'm not nessecarily planning on pre dosing meds unless I see signs of illness occur.

Edited October 23, 2022 by yanbwohan
Grammar

[yanbwohan]

On 10/23/2022 at 2:52 AM, Pepere said:

My experience has seen the quarantine tanks beneficial bacteria wiped out by quarantine trio meds more often than not.

As a rule when I get fish shipped to me I let them adjust for a few days and feed them. I will have 1 tablespoon of aquarium salt in 10 gallons of water.

 

Then after a few days of recovery from shipping I add quarantine trio meds and fast them.  I check for Ammonia and nitrites daily.  By day 3 I start seeing Ammonia.  Where I am not feeding them the building of Ammonia is slow.  A bit over 1 ppm by then end of the week.

 

I then do daily 30% water changes and put in a box filter with activated charcoal to adsorb meds.  I clean filters on some of my other tanks and add that in to quarantine tank to reseed bacteria.  i then lightly feed daily. So long as the quarantine tank is lightly stocked, 50% roughly, this will keep ammonia and nitrites to about 1 ppm max over the week or two it takes for cycle to recover with reseeding tank from filter cleanings.  Once salt levels are down after 3 days of water changes I add floating plants to tank.  The fish seem to love that being added…

my most recent cycle this way was with 6 American Flag Fish which was too much for a 10 gallon tank.  Once I started feeding them, 39% water changes twice a day was not enough.  I ended up transferring them to another cycle quarantine tank instead.

After initial quarantine meds I watch them daily. After 3 weeks if nothing crops up I dose with Paracleanse by itself for a week with fasting.   I then do water changes with activated charcoal in box filter to pull meds and watch them another 2 weeks.

my experience is that the second paracleanse dosing by itself does not cause the same level of problems as the intial trio does to tank cycling.

alright, thank you so much for the detailed info!