Medications for a LR tank with no fish yet? Quarantine tank questions as well!

[quicklynx]

Hey guys! I see a bunch of stickies with that give great detail in proper acclimation, quarantining, and medicating your coral and fish tanks, however, I am curious if there is any treatment I should do to the tank BEFORE I add any livestock, and in my case after inverts, before fish?

My tank is still going through the cycling process. I have a deep sand bed in a 55g with about 80-100lbs of live rock. I have a bunch of hitchhikers including snails (turbo, cerith, nas from what I've noticed) and hermits (different colors.) I also had one brittle starfish that hitchhiked on a rock! Was cool to find him. Freaked me out when I grabbed the rock and his leg grabbed me! I was at MrCoral today and they have such a great sale going that I decided to buy 2 more brittle stars, a pencil urchin, and a rock-boring urchin. ($13!)

I currently have a Ruby Scat and a Scribbled Rabbitfish that are quarantining. I'm doing the deworming, de-iching, etc.. treatments to make sure they are clean.

Getting to the questions!

1.Before I add them to the tank are there any medications I can add/run to make sure the tank is disease free?

2. My fish quarantine tank only has a tetra whisper filter and a powerhead running in it with different size of pvc piping in it for them to hide in. The filter isn't even filtering anything, doesn't have any carbon or anything in it. It's mainly to get the water current broken. Do I need a skimmer or anything or is it fine the way it is? I'm going to set up a 2nd 10 gallon quarantine so I can split the fish up and not quarantine 2 in the same tank. I'm transferring all my 24g fish to the 55gallon so it would go quicker if I have separate tanks.

Thanks for the help guys!

 

[quicklynx]

no one has any opinions?

 

[leebca]

Essentially and briefly:

1. No.
2. Follow the guidelines in this sticky: http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums.../23584-fish-quarantine-process-step-step.html

A powerhead in the QT is not recommended. Too much circulation for what may be a sick fish.

You should always have a mechanical filter going. The recommended sponge filter does the proper filtration AND the proper circulation. You can use a chemical filter, such as carbon and even a skimmer UNTIL the tank needs treatment, at which time these things will need to be stopped/taken out according to the treatment procedure(s).

The separation for quarantine is good, unless your fish are all infected with a single disease that needs treatment. Like for instance if your display tank gets infected with Marine Ich. In this case, all fish can be quarantined and treated together (providing the QT is sized properly). For new acquisitions, the separation is the best approach.

 

[quicklynx]

Thanks Lee! I appreciate the answer! Mainly I just wanted to know if I should treat the tank before I start putting fish in.

Question about quarantining something like a Achilles Tang. I have a 20 gallon and now a 10 gallon setup for quarantine. I'm not saying I'm getting an Achilles, but when the fish requires so much room to swim, etc., couldn't quarantine in a small tank be more stressful to it if it's in there for 4-6 weeks or even more?

 

[leebca]

The answer depends on the size of the fish. In general, though the Tangs do require length, they will be okay in a smaller-than-ideal space for a few weeks.

Don't forget how they were handled since caught. Most are kept in small containers, bags for shipping, and small tanks at the LFS.

Space stress is a chronic stress, not acute. It adversely affects the fish, reducing life span and increasing stress over time. In the excpected 20 year life of such a fish, the few weeks will be a small influence. But a long time in the wrong sized tank will shorten their life span considerably.

You can usually count on the recommendations given in the QT post regarding sizing.