to quarantine or not to quarantine

prow · 03-07-2006, 01:25 PM

hey everyone. well this is the deal. i have been looking for some greenbanded gobies, come to find out they are somewhat rare. anyway a month ago i got my new lights and had a algea bloom, which was expected. still getting some nitro bubbles off my rocks and some, just a little algae left. all water parameters are good. about a week ago had a little heating issue and temps dropped, now i have only one female carpenter wrasse left. only had 3 wrasse in the tank. the tank has been going about 11 months. i have noticed the wrasse is scrapping up against the rock every now and then. also i notice he has labored breathing in the morning but is fine afte the lights have been on a while. i am thinking i have a dissolved O2 issue, could be do to the nitro bubbles and bloom i just had, getting a test kit today will put in a air srone if needed no worries here easy fix. i am a little worried about the wrasse. why, well not because of the wrasse but i came up on 6 of the greenbanded gobies. knowing how hard these guys are to find i took them. problem is i am not ready for them. i have no hospital tank set up. i am setting up one now, however, i dont want to put the new guys in a cycling tank. so with a possible infected fish with the wrasse and no hospital tank to use at this time i am planning on putting the new gobies in the sump. have a area about 12X10" in there for them. can put them in the refugium but they might dig (have a mud filter).
so the plan is to put 6 in this little area and keep them there for a month (they are only about 3/4" now), if one shows signs and looks bad will transfer that one to the hospital tank, just hope it will be cycled if i need it by then. so what do you guys think, cool to put in the sump and risk infecting them from the wrasse or take a chance with a uncycled hospital tank? dont care about the wrasse, will never be able to catch him for isolation, tanks 120gal with 150lbs LR. any thoughts??

Cougra · 03-07-2006, 03:43 PM

If you add them to the sump, it's the same as adding them to the main tank with the exception that it'll be a little easier to catch them.

Quote:

if one shows signs and looks bad will transfer that one to the hospital tank, just hope it will be cycled if i need it by then. so what do you guys think, cool to put in the sump and risk infecting them from the wrasse or take a chance with a uncycled hospital tank? dont care about the wrasse, will never be able to catch him for isolation, tanks 120gal with 150lbs LR. any thoughts??

If the wrasse has some type of pathegen then the main tank, sump and refugium will have pathegens as well. By the time you notice anything wrong the damage is done and EVERY fish in the tank will need to be treated. If you treat some and not the others then as soon as you add the treated fish back into the tank they will be reinffected with whatever pathegen you just tried to treat for!

A hospital tank should NOT have any live rock or live sand in it as if you need to do any sort of treatment then the live rock/sand will be a hinderance by affecting the ammount of meds in the tank and will be killed off by the treatment anyways.

A q-tank only needs to be a simple tank-container-pail with good water circulation, a heater and some "decorations" for the fish to be able to hide amongst. The best thing to use is larger PVC piping or unsuded clay pots. Ideally you should keep a sponge in the sump of your tank to use as a biological filter in case of emergency. If you don't have a simple filter (HOB, sponge, canister, etc) then you can still set up the q-tank/hospital tank without any advanced preparation however you will need to do large frequent water changes to keep the ammonia levels down. If you DO have a spare filter (HOB or Canister) then you can quickly set up a fairly well matured biological filter by simply adding some live sand, rock rubble or some live rock to the filter. The good bacteria will be there and a q-tank/hospital tank should only have a low bioload to begin with.

Dragon Wrasse · 03-07-2006, 03:51 PM

For the reasons that Cougra gave you shouldn't have to cycle a hospital tank, I use a canister filter on my 10 gal. hospital tank....filter, flow, heat and lights and you should be good to go.

prow · 03-08-2006, 12:50 AM

thanks guys, thats what i ended up doing. these guys came so tiny. like about 1/4" at best. wow, so so tiny. put them in a 15gal. for now. can already tell they have real cool personalities. just can believe the size. just a hair bigger than some of my mysids. good thing is a couple of them are eating already. thanks again.

03-07-2006, 01:25 PM	#1 (permalink)
prow Tridacna maxima Join Date: May 2005 Location: Redondo Beach, CA Posts: 4,373 View Gallery Karma Komment Add yours!	to quarantine or not to quarantine hey everyone. well this is the deal. i have been looking for some greenbanded gobies, come to find out they are somewhat rare. anyway a month ago i got my new lights and had a algea bloom, which was expected. still getting some nitro bubbles off my rocks and some, just a little algae left. all water parameters are good. about a week ago had a little heating issue and temps dropped, now i have only one female carpenter wrasse left. only had 3 wrasse in the tank. the tank has been going about 11 months. i have noticed the wrasse is scrapping up against the rock every now and then. also i notice he has labored breathing in the morning but is fine afte the lights have been on a while. i am thinking i have a dissolved O2 issue, could be do to the nitro bubbles and bloom i just had, getting a test kit today will put in a air srone if needed no worries here easy fix. i am a little worried about the wrasse. why, well not because of the wrasse but i came up on 6 of the greenbanded gobies. knowing how hard these guys are to find i took them. problem is i am not ready for them. i have no hospital tank set up. i am setting up one now, however, i dont want to put the new guys in a cycling tank. so with a possible infected fish with the wrasse and no hospital tank to use at this time i am planning on putting the new gobies in the sump. have a area about 12X10" in there for them. can put them in the refugium but they might dig (have a mud filter). so the plan is to put 6 in this little area and keep them there for a month (they are only about 3/4" now), if one shows signs and looks bad will transfer that one to the hospital tank, just hope it will be cycled if i need it by then. so what do you guys think, cool to put in the sump and risk infecting them from the wrasse or take a chance with a uncycled hospital tank? dont care about the wrasse, will never be able to catch him for isolation, tanks 120gal with 150lbs LR. any thoughts??

03-07-2006, 03:51 PM	#3 (permalink)
Dragon Wrasse Harlequin Tuskfish Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Southern California Posts: 991 View Gallery Karma Komment	Re: to quarantine or not to quarantine For the reasons that Cougra gave you shouldn't have to cycle a hospital tank, I use a canister filter on my 10 gal. hospital tank....filter, flow, heat and lights and you should be good to go. __________________ *Member "Crabs Are Evil" Society* "A wise man learns more from a foolish question, then a fool learns from a wise answer" - Bruce Lee _____________________________ 75 gal SeaClear II Reef Tank (softy tank) - Coralife 125 Super Skimmer - Little Giant 2-MDQX-SC - Angstrom 2537 UV 15W - HOB Refugium - Eheim Pro 2228 - Red Sea Wave Maker w/Maxi-Jet 600 (X4) - 100 lbs Live Sand (DSB) - 100 lbs Live Rock - 260W PC lighting - 470nm lunar lights (X15) - AquaController II Custom 75 gal Starphire glass tank (SPS/LPS tank) - Custom 24 gal Refugium - Tuzne Wave box - JBJ Chiller - 390W PC lighting - 175W MH (X2) - Knop Cal. Reactor - AquaController 3 Pro - Aqua C Skimmer - Phosban Reactor - 18W Turbo-twist UV sterilizer - Sump - Sony Computer 5 gal Nano Hospital Tank - Eheim 2213 - Red Sea Prizm Skimmer - Live sand - Live Rock - Built in Refugium - 36W PC lighting

03-08-2006, 12:50 AM	#4 (permalink)
prow Tridacna maxima Join Date: May 2005 Location: Redondo Beach, CA Posts: 4,373 View Gallery Karma Komment Add yours!	Re: to quarantine or not to quarantine thanks guys, thats what i ended up doing. these guys came so tiny. like about 1/4" at best. wow, so so tiny. put them in a 15gal. for now. can already tell they have real cool personalities. just can believe the size. just a hair bigger than some of my mysids. good thing is a couple of them are eating already. thanks again.

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