Quarantine Tank

[RyanR]

I'm setting up my first quarantine tank.  I only use HOB filters on my other aquariums, but for simplicity and cost I want to use a sponge filter on the QT.  I already bought the filter and pump from ACO and the 10 gallon aquarium, etc.  My primary use for the tank is to use the med trio when I get new fish and secondarily for treating fish I currently have.  I'm going to be adding a couple of more tanks in the house and I get nervous that a new $5 fish could possibly wipe out an entire aquarium.  Here's my question\dilemma.  I've never setup a QT before because I don't want to break it down every time after I put fish in it.  I know depending on the situation, I will have to occasionally break it down and clean it.  Does anyone keep their QT running full time?  If so, how do you keep it cycled so it doesn't crash when you add a few fish?  I was thinking of adding one or two snails and shrimp to help a little with the bio load and they are cheap, so if something happens to them, it's not too big of a deal.  Any thoughts or suggestions or am I completely off base with wanting to keep it running full time?

Ryan

Edited August 19, 2020 by Rouxster

[StephenP2003]

You don't have to run it full time. For mine, I use two sponge filters. One sponge filter lives in a nearby aquarium as secondary filtration. When I am ready to quarantine, I put that sponge filter, which has been accumulating beneficial bacteria, in the quarantine tank. I put a fresh sponge filter back in the other tank so it can spend some time accumulating bacteria. After quarantine, I clean that sponge filter and it's back in rotation for the next time I need to quarantine.

[MickS77]

I run two 10 gallon tanks for quarantine with a sponge filter in each and a heater. The tanks are bare bottom with fake plants. I keep them running all the time and I keep the cycle going with a few Zebra Danios in each tank. When I get a group of fish in to quarantine I'll move the Danios to other tank or just leave them in. 

[Brandy]

Fun quarantine tip that I just stumbled on an hour ago...

I keep my QT bare bottom, for a variety of reasons, primarily to make ich easier to fight. I still wanted plants for water quality and fish cover and I always have floaters I can throw in, so that took care of that, but I had no solid decor to break up sight lines... I have 4 small cichlids in my tank right now, and two of them have decided they are going to pair off immediately. They are stressing everyone out.

What to do?

3 Coffee cups. 

The stress level in the tanks has dropped to negligible. I hate to admit it, but I need some plastic plants, I guess. 

Ugly but effective:

Edited August 18, 2020 by Brandy

[RovingGinger]

32 minutes ago, Brandy said:

Fun quarantine tip that I just stumbled on an hour ago...

I keep my QT bare bottom, for a variety of reasons, primarily to make ich easier to fight. I still wanted plants for water quality and fish cover and I always have floaters I can throw in, so that took care of that, but I had no solid decor to break up sight lines... I have 4 small cichlids in my tank right now, and two of them have decided they are going to pair off immediately. They are stressing everyone out.

What to do?

3 Coffee cups. 

The stress level in the tanks has dropped to negligible. I hate to admit it, but I need some plastic plants, I guess. 

Ugly but effective:

When I finally set mine up, I was happy I hadn’t managed to get rid of some of the incredibly ugly plastic plants that came with my used tanks. Coffee cups is brilliant! 
 

 

[RyanR]

1 hour ago, MickS77 said:

I run two 10 gallon tanks for quarantine with a sponge filter in each and a heater. The tanks are bare bottom with fake plants. I keep them running all the time and I keep the cycle going with a few Zebra Danios in each tank. When I get a group of fish in to quarantine I'll move the Danios to other tank or just leave them in. 

Thanks for the help.  I wasn't thinking about moving the healthy fish out of the QT before putting meds and sick fish in it.

 

One question, when you are done with the  QT, before you move the Danios back in, do you do a 100% water change?  What's your process?

[Leo2o915]

1 hour ago, StephenP2003 said:

You don't have to run it full time. For mine, I use two sponge filters. One sponge filter lives in a nearby aquarium as secondary filtration. When I am ready to quarantine, I put that sponge filter, which has been accumulating beneficial bacteria, in the quarantine tank. I put a fresh sponge filter back in the other tank so it can spend some time accumulating bacteria. After quarantine, I clean that sponge filter and it's back in rotation for the next time I need to quarantine.

When you switch the sponge filter how do you disinfect the sponge you had in ur QT? 

[MickS77]

22 minutes ago, Rouxster said:

One question, when you are done with the  QT, before you move the Danios back in, do you do a 100% water change?  What's your process?

Probably just a 50% change and rinse the sponge. I treat these tanks like any other tank, keeping up with maintenance and water changes. 

[RyanR]

Sorry for the multiple questions.  I just question my normal fishkeeping because it's a QT tank.  Do you have any snails, shrimp or plecos? I was planning on putting snails and shrimp only because I think they are a little more hardy than a pleco.  Thanks again.

[StephenP2003]

4 hours ago, Leo2o915 said:

When you switch the sponge filter how do you disinfect the sponge you had in ur QT? 

A 10% (roughly) bleach solution, soak overnight. Then I soak in dechlorinated water for 24 hours (or whenever I remember to put it back in the tank). I use the same method to refresh purigen, clean used 50 micron filter material, and my daughter's fake plants when they get dirty.

[RovingGinger]

9 hours ago, Rouxster said:

Sorry for the multiple questions.  I just question my normal fishkeeping because it's a QT tank.  Do you have any snails, shrimp or plecos? I was planning on putting snails and shrimp only because I think they are a little more hardy than a pleco.  Thanks again.

I put in snails I don’t care about. 
In the current one because the baby cichlid I was isolating was timid I put in some of the uglier male guppies to act as a dither. Unfortunately I think one may have also become lunch. 
 

if it has a name probably don’t put it in unless it’s sick would be my advice. 

[RyanR]

Replying a little late, but I setup my QT a couple of weeks ago.  I had a little bit of leftover gravel, cut some Water Sprite from another tank and I'm letting it float and a rock for a security blanket for the fish.  I grabbed some pond snails out of another tank also and they are going crazy.  Waiting for the nitrites to go down and I'll be done cycling. I'm going to put some Zebra Danios in there like someone said above and move them around as I need to.  Sorry for the dirty tank, forgot to clean the glass before the picture.

[Alesha]

This was a very interesting thread, y'all! I learned a lot. Thanks for sharing & thanks, @Rouxster, for starting the thread. 🙂

[Mmiller2001]

I use a 20 gallon  medium planted tank with 1/4" inert sand substrate. It is fully cycled and has pond snails to keep the cycle going. The plants control any spikes that might occur. Most of the diseases we face have a life cycle. Why break it down and sterilize it when I can just run the tank fish-less to break the cycle? Out side of Hemorrhagic septicemia, I feel there's no reason to "bleach" it.