What do i need in a quarantine tank

james123

james123

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Dec 23, 2008
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so i want to set up a quarantine tank. i've lost 3 banner cardinals and a naso tang in the past month and i cant figure out why...my water parameters are always spot on and everything in my tank is doing great. i've added several corals, all of which are doing fine, but when i add a fish it mysteriously dies after about a week.
I realize i should have had a quarantine tank all along, but i have been trusting my LFS and lately, as far as fish goes, it hasn't been working out. I have an empty 20 gallon tank and I need information on what equipment, lighting, etc. i need to have in order to have a quarantine tank. Do i need live rock, skimmer, substrate, etc??
What kinds of quarantine tanks to you guys out there have??
 
In a QT, where you face the possibility of having to treat fish with chemicals you wouldn't want in your reef tank, keep it simple. Lighting is not required if it's going to be a QT for fish, but it can be helpful to have light if you're treating for something you can see or there's a lack of enough other light in the room where the QT is. No substrate, no live rock -- both can harbor certain stages of the life cycle of some potential ailments. PVC pipe and/or fittings are pretty commonly used to provide hiding places for fish, and can easily be cleaned if there's ever a need to "sterilize" the QT. A suitably sized HOB filter will do for filtration, and media for it can be populated with bacteria by putting the media in your main system for a couple weeks before using it on the QT (I would not suggest ever moving it back, though out of fear of spreading ailments to your main system). A powerhead or two will work for circulation, and a heater.

Keep in mind that fish that have larger tank requirements or are larger themselves can be stressed more by going through QT in a tank too small. A 20g will work fine as a QT for many fish, but I'd be cautious putting a tang in a 20g QT if you purchase another one with any size to it. You wouldn't want the QT to stress the fish, opening it up to be more likely to contract some ailment... kind of defeats the purpose of QT to begin with.
 
so lrt me be certain about this. I have live rock rubble in my CPR Bakpak on my main tank. so i can just put that in another filter of some kind and not have to cycle at all?? this seems logical because if there is nothing in the tank to grow any bacteria, the already cured live rock rubble from my DT would be the filtration, correct??
 
That would only be the case if there's enough bacteria on the LR rubble you're taking from your main tank to process all the waste created by the fish going into the QT. If it's only a handful of rubble and you're putting more than a single small fish in QT, I doubt there'll be enough bacteria to handle the waste load, and you'll end up going through a cycle.

While I do not do so, I have heard of people keeping a filter pad in their sump with the intent of putting it in a HOB on a QT when they need to QT. They otherwise keep the QT empty and dry -- adding water and the HOB with the "seasoned" filter pad only once the QT becomes necessary.
 
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