Quarentine Tank Question

[ALEXF]

I get the point of a quarentine tank and am planning on getting one soon but i had a question.... how do you keep the bacteria alive when you dont have anything isolated??? do i just daily add amonia for it, im not exactly sure how tht works... or is it once the bacteria has grown it will always bethere provided i dont kill it. I just want to have a cycled tank up and running for emergencies. So let me know what you think/know.


Thanks,

Alex

 

[Mikaila31]

Well if i'm quarantining fish and they are all healthy for two weeks. I normally go get some new fish, when I get home I take the old fish out of the q-tank and put them in their respective tank, then I add the new ones to the q-tank.

If I don't need the q-tank for anything I normally let it uncycle(leave it fishless). When I need to use it again I add either some new fish or sick/ injured fish to the tank. As soon as they are released in the uncycled tank I pull some mature media out of my 55gal and stick it in the q-tank. Monitor the water for a few days after, if anything shows up I add more mature media, but that rarely happens. If done right the tank should instantly cycle. Done this many times with many different fish and haven't had problems. But, this method does somewhat limit the number of fish you can quarantine, since it all depends on the bioload of your other tanks.

Adding ammonia to the tank while your not using it would work too!

 

[Tolak]

If I need to quar fish I just pull cycled filters from mature tanks, and set up another tank. Many of my tanks have spare filters running.

The tank doesn't cycle, it's nothing but a glass box. The water doesn't cycle, it holds very little beneficial bacteria. What does cycle is the filter media, this is all you need to have a cycled tank.

 

[ALEXF]

but what if i wanted to keep it constantly cycled???

 

[Scotty001]

but what if i wanted to keep it constantly cycled???

My quarantine runs off of a fluval 2 or fluval 3 filter, i have a batch of spare media for these filters which i have put into my main canister filter for my main tank.

When i need to get the quarantine tank running i take out either the fluval 2 filter media or the fluval 3 media and put them in the respective filter, fill the tank half with main tank water then half with conditioned tap water, keeping to the same temp as my main and I'm all ready to go.

When done and everything was all good i take the filter media out of the fluval and back into the canister of the main tank to keep the media cycled, if it didn't go well (sick fish fish that didn't make it through quarantine) i bin that media and put a fresh batch into the main canister to cycle up for next time or for the hospital tank.

Ive always got 2 spares of media ruining in my 2 main tanks.

Scott

 

[waterdrop]

Clever how these old pros quietly ease us newbies into ever greater levels of the complications of fishkeeping, isn't it Alex?

 

[Tolak]

Either way you have to fill the tank, whether when you initially set it up & keep it running, or set it up when needed. Same goes for the filter, heater, and whatever else you add to it. The work is the same.

Keeping the tank running makes for more work. You either keep a few fish in it, now it must be treated like any other tank. You add ammonia daily, which means you will still be doing water changes.

There is one problem with keeping a quar tank running; temptation. You will be tempted to stock that tank, even more so if you only have a few tanks. Nothing really wrong with that if you have the space, money & time for yet another tank. This is how MTS starts, there is no cure.

 

[ALEXF]

Clever how these old pros quietly ease us newbies into ever greater levels of the complications of fishkeeping, isn't it Alex?

there killing me lol. when i first started i was dumb... fish+water=happy tank errrrnnn WRONG ! its ok its a bit of a pain but its very rewarding.

 

[ALEXF]

There is one problem with keeping a quar tank running; temptation. You will be tempted to stock that tank, even more so if you only have a few tanks. Nothing really wrong with that if you have the space, money & time for yet another tank. This is how MTS starts, there is no cure.

how do you know me so well... i was just thinking that to myself. Exspecially seeing how i saw some dwarf opuffers in a store today i want the but cant.... arg.


UMM on the q.tank thou... on my 55 gallon tank i run 2-Marineland Pengiun 350's Which have space for 4 filters each but i only use 2 in each which leaves a gap in there..... now with that gap would it just be a good idea to toss in a filter for my q.tank until i need it even thou it will be small and not made for the big filters???

 

[Tolak]

As long as it fits in there & water runs through it reasonably well it will work. I used to double up AC mini sponges in AC 200's, and run them in the smaller filters when needed.

 

[ALEXF]

ok then when im ready, pop it in for a few hrs ahead of time, test the water, then i should be good to go???

 

[Tolak]

Pop the filter on, it should be ready for fish. No reason to wait. Whenever I quar new fish I don't feed at all for the first day, then feed lightly for the next 5-7 days. I also light the tank with room light only. These things help prevent stress, which lowers immune response.

 

[ALEXF]

welll i was planning on putting it on the shelving underneath the cabinet i have for my 55 gallon so i figured it would be dark enough. with only light for me to feed and observe a few hrs a day. or do you think that might be to dark?

 

[Tolak]

As long as the cabinet doesn't have closed doors, making it really dark. I usually use a 10 gallon for quar, they are both beneath a 15 gallon, lit only by room light.

 

[ALEXF]

As long as the cabinet doesn't have closed doors, making it really dark. I usually use a 10 gallon for quar, they are both beneath a 15 gallon, lit only by room light.

yea it has closed doors.... damn.... well if i add a strip light under it keep it on for a while each day would that be ok?