Doing things right this time (QT tank)

Talon33

Talon33

Active Member
I am starting up a 125 gallon FOWLR. My last tank had ich in the system and I always hated that. Anyways I think it is just an overall better idea to send fish through QT. However, I have a few basic questions and hopefully you guys can get me in the right direction and see that I am prepared to properly QT these fish. Quick Stocking idea so you can get an idea of what will be in the tank.
A tang or two.
Flame Angel
Couple of butterflyfish
Two Occ. clowns.
Royal Gramma
May try some sort of semi predatory fish like a Dwarf lion or Harlequin tusk. Although not sure.
So I have some larger fish. Thinking maybe like a 20 gallon long QT tank. What other equipment do I need to have. Obviously a heater and PVC pieces.

What about for water movement? Sponge filters, Airstones, HOB, Powerheads, combination of those?

Medications I need to have? Cuppramine, melafix, Praz, metro. Something like that?

A good QT procedure?

Should I treat fish even with no symptoms like the tangs for ich or butterfly for flukes?
 
nanoreefing4fun

nanoreefing4fun

Well-Known Member
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Coraljunkie

Coraljunkie

Well-Known Member
What I've been doing for a while now is making sure I inspect the fish before I buy it. Make sure it eats and make sure it's acting normal. Your better off starting out with a healthy fish. Then I acclimate it to my qt tank witch is a 29 gallon. I run a hob filter with sponge and a few marine pure bio spheres. That helps with beneficial bacteria so your tank won't have any ammonia or nitrite issues. I also run an air stone and a 300 gph powerhead. I treat the fish with seachem paraguard for 30 days and during the qt process I get the fish eating a variety of foods. My display tank had ich or marine velvet so left it fallow for about 11 weeks or so and started to restock the tank one by one. I've had a female clown in my display for about 6 weeks now with zero signs of any parasite and today I just added a second fish into my display that had been quarantined for 30 days with seachem paraguard. I'm not saying this is the best way or the only way but it's working for me.
 
jaws789832

jaws789832

Member
Don't mean to hijack the thread but how old is your lab. It kinda freaked me out when I saw your picture cuzz its almost identical to mine
 
Talon33

Talon33

Active Member
jaws789832 said:
Don't mean to hijack the thread but how old is your lab. It kinda freaked me out when I saw your picture cuzz its almost identical to mine
Click to expand...

Haha no worries. I always love a chance to talk about my boy. In that picture he was right around 8 months old. Now he is about 15 months old. Real live wire lol. His name is Reece. I also have a yellow female named Lilly. She is about a year old. Reece is an angel and Lilly the devil.

And yeah our pups look really similar! lol
 
Oxylebius

Oxylebius

Well-Known Member
Didn't read the links Glenn posted, but I'm sure they are super informative. As for me. I QT all fish.

You don't need to go all out with a QT. A simple tank will suffice. Since you are considering larger fish you may want to be looking at getting a larger QT tank. I use a 40g breeder. To give you an idea of what you may need, I've usually follow that a 4 inch fish is fine in a 10 gallon QT tank. I picked this up from somewhere a long while ago, seems arbitrary, but has worked fine for me.

All you really need is a bare bones setup with the following equipment. This is what I usually have on hand for QT:

* Some type of filtration (a hang on the back of the tank power filter will work, just use filter floss without the carbon since carbon will remove medication from the water, being counter productive)

* Heater and a thermometer for obvious reasons. I recommend not using the same one you use for your main tank since all it takes is a single drop of water containing a contaminant (ich) to transfer back to your main tank.

* Aquarium test kits for pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. QT swings of these can be fast and severe b/c you won't have the rockwork or bacteria in there to breakdown ammonia into less toxic compounds.

* An ammonia alert badge, this will give you constant readings on your ammonia levels which need to be monitored frequently, the QT is not an established bio system and you will see ammonia levels creep up on you. This item is super simple and easy to use, it will indicate if you have ammonia and will need to do a water change. Once you see this indicate you have ammonia, then use the test kit to confirm level of ammonia. This will save you having to test daily.

* Fish Net - don't use the same net for your main tank (you don't want to transfer disease between the main tank and QT, best to have dedicated nets for each)

* A bottle of Seachem "Prime", in the case you have high ammonia and can't do a water change right away, this will lock up ammonia and keep it from becoming deadly until you can make up some new salt water for a water change to reduce the ammonia levels. NOTE: if you are going to use medication, please know that there are issues using PRIME and some medications, read here and here.

* Items for fish to hide in. Go to a local hardware store and buy a couple of large diameter PVC pipes or corner elbow bends for the fish to hide in. Having hiding places keep fish stress down. Do not use rocks in the QT, rocks can absorb any treatment chemicals if their use is required.



Good Luck!
 
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