Decided Im Ready For A Quarantine Tank

[poopsydrew]

Hey guys,
Im pretty new, but learning a lot and definatley know the basics..well maybe not as you will see with my question..
I have four tank..a 2.5 gallon, 5 gallon, 10 gal, 55gal (my profile says 50 but it was a gift and the guy couldnt remeber, its huge and i think it is bigger than 50, thats besides the point. Seeing as i have this many tanks i want to set up a no substrate, quarantine tank. Im thinking 10 gallons, will this suffice? My biggest question is since theyre wont be any fish in it how will it stay cycled? whats the point of cycling it if it wont have fish but once in a blue moon. Or does it just not matter since they are there for a short bit of time? please give your advie or input

 

[iairj84]

I use a 10 gallon for my QT tank but you could use the 5 if you wanted. As long as it's filtered you should be perfectly fine!

You do want to keep it filtered it at all possible, you can go without filtering but that means changing the water more often which puts a little too much stress on the fish especially when they're sick or stressed from transport.... I just constantly leave a fish in there. I keep swordtail fry so it's not hard for me to put 2-3 fish in there at any time. It keep the filter cycled and going... If you don't want to worry about keeping the tank running you could throw an extra sponge in one of your other filters and then just transfer it to the QT when needed... I find that I have a neverending quarantine since i've gotten a lot of new fish lately.

 

[Tolak]

Keep the qt filter running on the 55, it will stay cycled. When you need the smaller tank, fill with half water from another tank, and half fresh. Add the filter, heater, & fish.

 

[poopsydrew]

Cool! thanks for the input guys...I think i will just keep one or two small peceful, and cheap fish in there, that way i can just keep the filter running, do a water change weekly and it will stay cycled for when i need it...plus its an excuse for just one more tank and just one more fish I am so addicted...

 

[iairj84]

Haha that's a good way of looking at it! throw a feeder guppy or two in there and see what kinda colors they get!

 

[poopsydrew]

You should read my post in the tropical chat section labeled "An ethical question" its about my enounter with walmart and feeder guppies...anyway, i think they are actually pretty, do they shift color or something???

 

[pica_nuttalli]

here's a post detailing how i always quarantine: http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=98545

another thing that i do that isn't mentioned in the topic is that i only feed once every couple of days while quarantining. i do this because it reduces the bio-load on the filter and also because it lightly stresses the new fish's immune systems. if they're sick, then i want it to show up and not lie dormant for two weeks until i put the fish in the main tank.

 

[mcdanielnc89]

what's it mean to quarentine our tanks....

 

[poopsydrew]

Pica,
thanks for the link, you have been helping me out a lot lately thanks for that. Also, thats a good idea with slightly stressing the fishes immune system to "force: any disease or virus to show before spreading through your tank later...very creative thinking Mcdaniel, my missouri friend lol, a qt tank is a tank used for sick fish or new fish that you bring home and want to make sure arre healthy before moving in with other fish, also can be used for breeding and rearing fry...
Thanks again everyone,
Drew

 

[iairj84]

I read the post on feeder guppies... The reason I said see what colors come from them was because more often than not you buy feeder guppies at a really juvenile stage and their colors really haven't developed yet. I've seen feeder guppies that end up with endler like colors to them and they can be really cool and a really cheap way to stock a tank. No guarantees as far as colors go but they will keep the tank cycled. You've saved a few little fishies lives too!

The practice of having a quarantine tank is like he said to keep sick fish away from the rest. Or to keep fish you just got away from the fish to make sure they aren't going to get sick. Fish that have just been shipped or been in a fish store tank can often times bring disease with them. It's much easier to have a quarantine/hospital tank to take care of such problems. It is also good to have one around just in case you get fry, or someone offers you a fish that you don't have space for yet. The tank can be a temporary home for new fish.

 

[DevUK]

I wish I'd had a QT tank when I bought my last group of fish. Not long after introducing them to my main tank all of my fish started behaving odd. It seems the new fish bought some little parasite "friends" with them

Live and learn I guess

 

[iairj84]

Yep, I had the same thing happen with a bunch of guppies I added one time... every one of them got sick and died... Luckily I only lost one other fish!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

i wouldn't advise using a few fish to keep a Q Tank cycled, it'll only keep the filter mature enough to cope with the bio load that's already in there then when you add new fish to the Q tank it's likely to start cycling again to catch up with the bio load.

run the filter in the 55 gallon tank and leave the q tank without any water or anything in, then you can just set it up as and when you need it, also it then gets sterilised between uses as leaving it dry for a couple of days would get rid of anything lurking

 

[iairj84]

Well more than likely one fish isn't going to set your bio load off the charts where it can't cope, but yes if you plan on getting a lot of fish at one time then this is a good idea. Or just add more media from another tank when you add new fish. It's easy enough to do.