so what about a quarantine tank

S

Snarkys

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Apr 7, 2004
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so everyone tells me i need a quarantine tank . My question is how big of one do i need (my tank is 90 gal.) ? what kinda filters or skimmers will i need ? do i need to leave this tank up and running all the time ? if i do need to leave it up and running can i put a few fish in it without live rock ?

This is prolly wrong but i was thinking i could get like a 20 gal tank and leave it empty and if a fish gets sick i can do a water change and take 20 gal from the main tank and fill it ??? would that work ?
 
Here's what I do.
I keep a sponge filter running in my sump at all times.
When I need a q-tank I find an empty aquarium, fill it with display tank water (automatic water change day then, of course), throw in a heater, a powerhead, and some large PVC fittings for cover and I'm ready.

When quarantine is over I drain the tank and put everything except the sponge filter away. The sponge filter is (possibly) contaminated so it can't just return to the sump. I have spare sponges! I clean the filter housing, replace the sponge itself, and then it goes back into my sump.

I don't use live rock in quarantine- it limits the medications you can use. What I might do is bring an algae covered rock from my refugium over to the q-tank if I have a fish in there than needs to graze algae. But after that use the rock gets a 'time out' from any tank in case pathogens have taken up residence. I have lots of spare rock rubble in my refugium and this is where it comes in handy. I just keep switching out the odd piece when I need it.

There must be 100 ways to do this- this is mine.
 
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Tell me if there would be any problems with this way .

I have a extra emp 400 biowheel filter i am not useing . Could i use this in the main tank without the filters and only the biowheels , then when a fish gets sick drain 30 gal from the 90 gal main tank into the 30 gal quarantine tank , put filters into the emp 400 and transfer it to the quarantine tank for biological filtration.

I am a noob so this might be a silly question but the only problem i can see with this is maybe the biowheels are taking stuff out of the water that the 180 LBS of live rock and the 80 LBS live sand need to live on or maybe the biowheels have some sort of other negitive effect when used with LR/LS .

This just seems like the easiest way to set up a quarantine tank on the fly without having to keep a empty tank going all the time ...
 
That'd work.
I use biowheels in my goldfish tanks, and just take out one wheel when I need it for a new tanks filter. One old and one new on each tank.

Just remember that the biowheels often can't go back into your display after you're done with them when you break down the tank. It'd be a shame to let fully cultured wheels die if you had no where to keep them alive yet out of your display.

You could always keep the q-tank running all of the time and throw in a pinch of fish food once in a while when it isn't holding fish to keep the biofilter fed.

Then you get tempted to keep something in there just because... :D
 
lol Cearbhaill I've always been a proponent of the second method. hmm that explains why I've made it up to 5 tanks.

:laugh:
 
i was just worried that the biowheels might take food out of the water that the liverock needs or that the biowheels might produce to many nitrates
 
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