Starting a QT

Gildurath said:

Hello,
Well I have a small chromis that had it's tail bitten off, I think by my dottyback. So I was thinking of starting a QT, where I could let him heal up and acclimate my new fish to the tank, hence the reason I thought using my water change water would be a good idea.

I bought a 10g tank that came with a small filter and such. If I just use my Water Change water to fill it up from my 55g, would that be a good start for a QT? With a few pieces of LR into it? I was not planning on putting any corals into it, and basically using my water change water to fill it.

Is this a good idea or a bad one? If it is bad, how should I go abotu creating a QT tank, right from scratch?

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you can certainly use your water from your display tank to easily fill up your 10 gallon QT. However, obviously I wouldn't siphon the dirty water into your QT. If you just siphon the clean water it should be okay. Or you could just start with brand new freshwater and add the salt. Either way.

From what I've read and understand, its not neccessary for live rock to be in QT tanks. You just need the basic stuff, ammonia, salinity, those types of things to be correct. Get a simple heater to do the job and a HOB filter. This will be used for filtration and circulation. You don't even really need a light. Substrate is not needed either. Get some PVC, fake plants, something to give the fish a few little hiding spots.

If I'm incorrect someone chime in, but I believe QT tanks to be quite basic. :headbang2:

I read somewhere that you could keep a sponge filter in your display tank sump (not on, just sitting there) and let the bacteria grow on that. Then, when you need to set up the QT all you have to do is add it to the QT (running) and you're all set to go. No cycle needed.

Can anyone confirm?