Q Tank

[ryknier]

How important is it to have a quarantine tank? I have a 20 gallon that hasn't been used inawhile with a filter, should I set it up as a Q tank next to my 72g bowfront? How many people have them and how often do you use them, and WHEN should they be used?

 

[ArkyLady]

Any time you purchase new fish they should be quarantined for a period of time. This is especially important if you have a disease-free established tank. If you quarantine any new fish before adding them to your established tank, you greatly reduce the risk of introducing any diseases or parasites to the healthy tank. A quarantine tank can double as a hospital tank if you have any sick or injured fish that need to be separated from the community for awhile.

Everyone has their own opinions on how long you should quarantine new fish before adding them to your established tank. I'm not patient enough to wait more than 4-6 weeks unless there are definite issues with the new fish

I don't keep my quarantine/hospital tank running constantly. If you'll keep either a sponge filter or some extra filter media running in your established tank, you can just move the sponge filter or filter media to the quarantine/hopsital tank whenever it's needed. This way you can have an "instantly" cycled tank ready for use whenever needed without having to worry about ammonia or nitrite spikes.

 

[ryknier]

any other comments? or recommendations?

 

[snafu]

What Arky said...
'Cept I'm not as patient - only two weeks in Qt

 

[Watcher74]

Imagine setting up a very nice tank, keeping healthy and happy a fine assortment of fish costing a total of well over a $100 or many times that, enjoying the peculiar habits and personalities of some of your more expressive fish...

Then you buy a $4 fish, plop him in, and a week later 4 in 5 of all your fish are dead.

I've heard of exactly that happening several times.

A QT tank is important.

Not only does it give you time to make sure your new additions are disease free, but it also gives the fish time to adjust to how you take care of it(food, maintenance, etc.) before you introduce it to the stress of cohabitation with the established occupants of your main tank.

 

[StreetCypher]

I learned the hard way that q tanks are important.
I bought a rare fish (rare up here) and i didn't have a q tank, so i plopped him into my main tank. A few of my fish got ick and i treated accordingly. Luckily i didn't lose any fish and they all made full recoveries, but from now on all fishies are getting quarantined.

 

[ryknier]

so setting up a brand new tank I should do what with the fish, I plan on getting like 2 at a time

 

[Remmy]

how do you maintain a Q tank
if its sitting with no fish in it, wont all the bacteria die off, and you'd have to constantly be cycling it?

 

[Kasakato]

Can you just add some filter media from another tank? Will that do it?

 

[saltydog]

LET ME TELL YOU>>>>DO IT.....i recently bought a baby common pleco(1 Inch) and put him in with my L200 and L66 plecos, German rams and other fishies......and they now have ich............arrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggghhhhhh. Q tank.....will always do it from know on. If i did... :bowing: i wouldnt be praying in hopes that my favorite fish survive. :thud: