Quarantine Tank?

[MidnightPyro]

Hey everyone, I currently have a 29 gallon setup with 3 zebra danios and a clown pleco. I'm looking to add some fish (specifically maybe an angel fish, or some assorted platies or tetras), and I was wondering about a quarantine tank. I don't currently have one, mainly because I don't have enough room. I have an empty 10 gallon tank, but it'd need some stuff to work and it'd just kinda sit in the basement, given I don't have even close to enough room in my room for a quarantine tank at this point.

I know having a quarantine tank is a good idea, but I'm not too sure how it'd work in the basement where I rarely lurk...

Is a quarantine tank always needed? If a quarantine tank is not used, is there any precautions that would be recommended in order to prevent an outbreak of some sort of 3rd world flesh-eating disease in the aquarium?

Thanks!

 

[liv2padl]

the reason for a quarantine tank is to prevent the transfer of diseases from a new fish, into a tank of established fish. it's difficult to know whether or not any new fish have parasites or pathogens, but it's a safe bet that establishing a quarantine tank is considerably cheaper than wiping out an established tank through the transfer of disease.

the question then, is not do you have the room or can you afford a Qtank .. the question is can you afford not to have one.

 

[echoofformless]

It's a generally good idea, but not a necessity.

That being said, here are some reasons to have one:

It ensures that you won't introduce any unwanted diseases or parasites into your main aquarium via newly purchased fish. That is to say, you can bring fish home, pop them into the qt, and wait a few weeks to make sure nothing like ich or velvet appears. If anything like that does, you can simply treat the new fish in this tank until all is well. The fish is added to your established aquarium in perfect health, and at no risk to the others.

It gives you a seperate place to treat problems like bacteria or fungus. Say you notice one of your fish has some cottony growths on him. Well you can just net him, put him in the qt (which in this case would be labelled a "hospital tank" and treat him. This is especially good with certain medications, as they can stain the contents of the aquarium, or kill scaleless fish.



I would work perfectly well in your basement, as when it's being used for qt all you need to do is feed and check up on the fish for the few days or weeks you're keeping them in there. Though I would make sure to keep adding a bit of ammonia in order to maintain the bacteria.

Hope this helps.

 

[rrkss]

I am sure you could find a place for the 10 gallon tank to use as a QT. What I would do is get a sponge I use the aquaclear sponge and put it in your 29 gallon tank's filter. Let the bacteria colonize it for a week or so. Then get a heater and a sponge filter for your 10 gallon. After a week fill it up, dechlorinate and set the temperature on the heater. After 24 hours when things stabilize, transfer the sponge from your 29 gallon into that tank's sponge filter and then you can go out to buy fish. Put the fish in that tank and watch them very closely over then next few weeks for ich and other diseases. If they are perfect after 3 weeks, acclimate and introduce them into the main tank. I've lost fish because I did not QT and since you have the tank why not use it.

Once you are done sanitize the tank with a mild bleach solution (I use 4 cups of bleach per 10 gallons) and let everything except the filter sponge soak in the bleach for 2 hours. Then drain and wash out the tank very well. Let it airdry. The next time you set the tank up, just hit it with a double dose of dechlor and all should be well. For the filter sponge, I usually boil it for 15-20 minutes and then just replace it in my main tank's filter that way I always have a cycled sponge ready for use if I need the hospital/qt tank.

 

[MidnightPyro]

Thanks for your help guys I'll definatly have to consider setting up the quarantine tank before I do anything else. I was thinking about buying a new filter - it wouldn't be a big deal to put this Penguin into a quarantine tank. It wouldn't be very good if I introduced some disease into my main tank.

 

[liv2padl]

the way to maintain a Qtank in "ready to go" mode, is to put a sponge filter in your 'main' tank and leave it there until you need the Qtank. this way, you've always got a "cycled" filter. otherwise, you've got to keep fish in the Qtank so the filter is always in a cycled condition.