Quarantine Tank

[lilacamy931]

Hey guys, I will in a couple of weeks be setting up my cube to be fourway divided as my last tank, it is going to have four bettas in, Enigma my white CT will go in one compartment when I have it cloned cycled and padded out. I have been lucky with my boys and got some classy ones, not sure what I am going to go with with the other three but Pets at Home near me get the occasional beauts in so was going to keep an eye out for a bargain whenever.

Because the fish won't be all from the same seller or going in all at once, this time round want to do a quarantine tank. Not done one before but once Enigma is moved have a 5g fully filtered ready for it which can keep cycled by feeding the filter. Is this all the prep I need and then to put the new introducees into that tank for say two weeks to see if any lurgies?

Thanks guys!

 

[jasminekiddell]

Sounds like a fab idea, remember to show us when its all done! How many litres will be in each compartment?

 

[Honeythorn]

You can keep the filter fed by using pure ammonia ( make sure it is pure and contains nothing else ) , or if you have other small fish in any other tanks you have, like guppies or your lampeyes , you could pop these into the tank ( no more than 5 or 6 and make sure they are all healthy ) to keep it going until you need to use it for quarrantine.

 

[loraxchick]

why not save yourself the hassle of running the tank empty and feeding with ammonia, or having live fish feed the filter (and then having to be rehomed from the qtank and/or treating THEM with meds or exposing them to illness)...make a small DIY sponge filter and run it IN one of your current tanks and pop it in Qtank if needed. they are small and easy to make.
just another idea

 

[lilacamy931]

No probs keeping filter fed, Im not too bad with the cycling side and cloning and keeping alive (probably jinxed myself now! doh).

Each compartment will be about 23 litres / 5 gallons UK. Got to wait for payday to pad and set up etc in two weeks and probably take this tank slow to get dividers right etc.

p.s. thanks loraxchick! Good idea as well.

Two weeks good for quarantine??

 

[Assaye]

Two weeks should be great for QT.

As for QT set up, I'd either run it 'pure' without anything other than the glass, heater and any required aeration (all of which would be sterilised between use) but no filter so I didn't transmit any infection in the filter media or I'd just keep the tank empty unless I needed it and run the filter in another tank. If just for normal QT, I think I'd use the second method and have a second bare tank for severe illness.

 

[lilacamy931]

Thanks Assaye. I will end up having a 2.5g and 5g spare, the 2.5 I was going to keep for hospital emergencies as most my fish are betta and this would be ideal for air surface situation. The 5g I will keep as the quarantine. It will have its own complete separate heater, have just considered the contamination thing with the filter and may just have filter running in another tank for now until decide what is best in that regards. I could always just fill each time need with some spare mature media (there are 3 largish cycled tanks to pick from that would easily fill the small filter). This way I can use as and when and not worry too much. There should only need to be 3 times for quarantine until any current stocking passes away and replace. Thanks very much Assaye and everyone for the guidance!

(p,s, hoping that I will not have to replace too soon, though 3 of my boys are about a year old...)