Question about QT after use

platytetrafan

platytetrafan

AC Members
Jan 20, 2007
1,563
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NY
Hi I am down to the last few new fish that have a few more weeks of quarantine to go through & if all goes well they can be transferred into my established tanks. What do members here do with the cycled QT once they are done with it for the process for new fish? Do you break it down after you’re done or do you keep it running in case an issue pops & if you do with an empty QT how do you keep it cycled? I have been restocking my 36g for months quarantining fish and almost done just wondering what other members do.
 
A QT is typically a setup you use temporarily and on an as-needed basis.

You set it up instantly with an established filter (or just some media) out of one of your long established, healthy tanks.
 
So what you’re saying is once I am done with this QT break it down & if god forbid something happens set it up again with a seeded filter from another established tank? I have used a QT before to restock if I have s fish loss due to illness etc I was just wondering if members keep one already set up for use.
 
platytetrafan said:
So what you’re saying is once I am done with this QT break it down & if god forbid something happens set it up again with a seeded filter from another established tank?
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Yes
 
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I should have told you, ptf, that even when I took it down to live in the basement I could set it up in no time, lol. I kept a small filter, heater & light in the empty 10 or 20g QT. I, more than once, bought fish on impulse oops. Within 15, 20 max minutes I could have it set up with cycled media or filter from a going tank while acclimating new fish to my water. I usually use 2 filters on all but the smallest tanks.

This was in many ways better than leaving it going all the time where it might become a permanent home for shrimp or small fish. It wasn't until I got to 9 or 10 tanks that I realized I had a part time job taking care of all of them & no room or time to just sit back & enjoy, buy cool new fish, or treat unhealthy 1s, rare as that is.
 
fishorama said:
I should have told you, ptf, that even when I took it down to live in the basement I could set it up in no time, lol. I kept a small filter, heater & light in the empty 10 or 20g QT. I, more than once, bought fish on impulse oops. Within 15, 20 max minutes I could have it set up with cycled media or filter from a going tank while acclimating new fish to my water. I usually use 2 filters on all but the smallest tanks.

This was in many ways better than leaving it going all the time where it might become a permanent home for shrimp or small fish. It wasn't until I got to 9 or 10 tanks that I realized I had a part time job taking care of all of them & no room or time to just sit back & enjoy, buy cool new fish, or treat unhealthy 1s, rare as that is.
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Thank you I actually just took the last 4 fish out of QT they were pretty much ready to go into other main tanks no disease & they look great had been in QT for approx 1 month had to make room for a sick glo lite tetra. So looks like QT will be up for atleast another month I posted pics of the fish on another post. Thanks for your advice! ???
 
There are other options to taking down a Q tank, but it only makes sense if one tends to add new fish with some level of frequency.

If you have a cycled Q tank from which you have removed the fish, you can maintain the cycle by dosing ammonia, adding a small bag of crushed coral and doing weekly water changes of 50%+.

You can rapidly cycle a new tank for fish by using either Dr. Tim's One and Only or Tetra Safe start to cycle a tank rapidly. For this or the option above, I suggest one use Dr. Tim's ammonium chloride.

For a Q tank with far from a full load of fish I would suggest dosing ammonium chloride to 1 ppm which would be drops of ammonium chloride per gallon. For maintaining the cycle I tend to use 2 ppm but will add ammonia less often, perhaps 2 or 3 times a week. This sort of pulse feeding actually makes the bacteria more able to cope with ammonia more rapidly than adding ammonia the way one would be doing in a fishless cycle.
 
TwoTankAmin said:
There are other options to taking down a Q tank, but it only makes sense if one tends to add new fish with some level of frequency.

If you have a cycled Q tank from which you have removed the fish, you can maintain the cycle by dosing ammonia, adding a small bag of crushed coral and doing weekly water changes of 50%+.

You can rapidly cycle a new tank for fish by using either Dr. Tim's One and Only or Tetra Safe start to cycle a tank rapidly. For this or the option above, I suggest one use Dr. Tim's ammonium chloride.

For a Q tank with far from a full load of fish I would suggest dosing ammonium chloride to 1 ppm which would be drops of ammonium chloride per gallon. For maintaining the cycle I tend to use 2 ppm but will add ammonia less often, perhaps 2 or 3 times a week. This sort of pulse feeding actually makes the bacteria more able to cope with ammonia more rapidly than adding ammonia the way one would be doing in a fishless cycle.
Click to expand...
Thank you for your advise but I think am going to be taking down the QT due to the fact that the last fish I put back into this tank had an illness I could not fully diagnose I did the best I could but to no avail the fish died last night. I posted several threads about the fish in the forum but appreciate your advise.
 
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