Quarantine Tank

[puckthefairy]

I have been in the tropical fish hobby for around 6 months things are going well but everyone i have spoken to has recommended i get a spare tank because new fish should be quarantined before putting them in the tank with the existing fish also sick fish should be kept seperate. I really would like to do this purely for the health of my fish but frankly i can't afford it. Is it essential and is it actually that expensive? Would i need to mature it, keep it filtered and heated constantly?
Advice please

 

[Miss Wiggle]

hi there, it's a very very good idea to have a Q tank, however I wouldn't say it's essential.

It does depend to an extent on some factors like the quality of fish shops in your area.

We're very pushed for space so we don't run a Q tank at all, but here's how you do it if you want to.

You need the usual equipment, filter, heater, lighting, you need a few bits of decor but generally no substrate and not heavy planting. Just some wood/rocks so there is some cover for the fish.

You don't run the tank 24/7, just run the filter from it on your main tank, then the morning before getting fish you fill the Q tank, rig the heater up and so on, move the filter over onto the Q Tank, go out to get your fish and just pop them in there. You then leave them in there for around 3 weeks, if no signs of disease have developed in this time then fine fish can go in the main tank, if something has developed then obviously you treat it thne leave it a few weeks until you are satisfied with the health of the fish. If there's been no problems then just move the filter back onto the main tank, clean the tank out and strip it down, if there have been problems then throw away the media and start with new (although this will need to run on the main tank for 4 weeks before it can be used in the Q tank) and sterilise all the equipment and the tank before it's next use.

 

[wayneski100]

I have asked a similar question as yours, and have been given the following advice...

You can buy your tank, filter, heater, etc... for a bargain if you shop around, obviously im not sure what size of tank you would be considering but ive seen an aquastart 320 tank (with heater, filter, thermometer and gravel) for less than £40.

Once you have the equipment I was advised to place the filter media (sponge, etc...) into the filter in my main tank, this would ensure that it collected the needed bacteria and hopefully would be that you could get your quarantine tank up and running, when required, very quickly...

So in short, no you don't have to keep it running all the time.

By the way I also want a quarantine tank but have not got one yet, I live in a small apartment and my girlfriend needs more persuading about the idea. Needless to say I think they are important.

 

[ox5477]

QT tanks are pretty important if your buying from shops such as petco and petsmart and the like. True, you dont need the tank up and running all the time but it is good to either have extra filter media running in the main filter (if you have room for it) or just another filter running on the main tank to keep the bacteria alive. To warn: if this filter is activly helping the main tank with the bioload then your going to have a minicycle and maybe inadequate filtration if the secondary filter is removed to be used on the QT tank so make sure your set without this secondary filter.


And as to whether its essential or not... I have used my QT 10G only once in about 2 years and it was because I bought a shoal of SD's to go into my new 125G. But this is really the only need for a QT tank... to make sure new fish are unneffected by illness. Once the tank is set and running, as long as you keep up on tank cleanliness then there should never be illness and no need to seperate a fish to treat them.

But, if you are a person who likes to buy new fish all the time and swaps fish out to keep things new and fesh, I would say a QT tank is as essential as a heater or filter as there is more chance that the new fish will have have a disease from the lfs then not....