Best way to setup a new QT Tank (cycle / etc...)

[nuxx]

Just curious what the best way of setting up a new QT tank is.

I have a 20L, small powerhead, heater and Marineland HOB 350 filter.

Curious how to speed up the cycle time, etc...

[dc5842]

I bought a HOB filter for my QT and I let it sit on my main display tank for a couple of weeks before I put it on the QT. I never saw an ammonia spike at all once I did that. However, I did let the QT sit empty for about a week with the HOB still running on the QT while I waited for pay day. I didn't think it would hurt the bacteria populations that much. I was wrong though and my beneficial bacteria must have dropped because I saw a nitrite spike once I added fish. I lost a firefish goby to it. The key is to always be testing your water every two days or so and do partial water changes once you see any ammonia or nitrite.

Also, don't forget to add your PVC elbows and such for hiding places. My new arrivals would be quite distraught without them.

Edited February 7, 2012 by dc5842

[nuxx]

Thanks!

I was actually thinking of doing a little live rock in there as well... I don't plan on doing copper... but maybe Hypo if ich pops up.

Will treat for flukes with PraziPro and just get them nice and fat if I can. Looking at 3-4 week time, and will probably end up letting the tank just run all the time.

[dc5842]

Live rock works great but once you have to dose the tank, it's trash. I don't like spending money and time on something I'm just going to throw away. I always start my QT in Hyposalinity (1.010) and only temperature acclimate fish. Then I just net them and dump them directly into the hypo QT tank. This immediate change in salinity I think really helps any parasites that are currently on the fish. I saw some white patches on a clown I purchased dissapear in a day and never return in 4 weeks. I usually QT a fish for at least 4 weeks. If anything pops up in that timeframe, the clock starts over :-(

[+Jakedoza]

A QT tank for me would be bare bottom and clean salt water from my main display.. Nothing special.. put a circ pump or airstone in there and dump a portion of the water every couple of days and top off with display tank water..

[nuxx]

Was going to leave the bio wheels in the DT filtration system to get some bacteria going.

Then I'll just fill the QT tank up with DT water.

Guess I'll toss the LR idea

Will the QT keep bacteria going even if it's fallow?

[dc5842]

No, it won't keep bacteria if it's fallow. I'm not sure how long it takes to die off, but I left mine fallow for a week waiting to buy more fish and I had a nitrite spike when I added more fish. It took a 50% water change daily for about a week to get it back under control. I've read that if you get some dither fish to keep in the QT it works quite well. Get a small clown or something to stay in there all the time so that way the new fish have a fish to teach them about when it's time to eat. The fish will also keep the bacteria colonies alive so you can take some time between fish if you need to.

i also forgot to add that after about two weeks of running hypo I usually start topping the tank off with salt water. This raises the salinity slowly and makes the change to the DT a little less stressful on the new guys.

[SoggyDollar]

I agree with dc5842. Run the HOB filter on the DT for a while or what I did is put the bio-wheel in the refugium of the DT for a couple of weeks. I also saved the water from water changes on the display and used that to fill the QT and dosed with Stability. There is really no cycle then. After that, drop the salinity in the QT with RODI water changes slowly to where you want to keep it. I have a 29 gallon QT with a homemade stand, a 100W heater, HOB filter rated for a 50g tank, various PVC pieces for the fish to hide, and an air pump with battery back-up with two bubble wands; that's it, no live rock or sand. I keep the salinity at 1.010 to 1.015 and dose for parasites watch the parameters and do water changes weekly. I haven't lost a fish in it yet nor seen any Ich (knock on wood).

After I get all the fish I want, I'll empty the QT but keep the bio-wheel in the DT sump for a quick QT if I need it.

[nuxx]

GoinfishN - you keep the QT tank at 1.010-1.015 the whole QT time?

Edited February 7, 2012 by offshore

[+Hydro]

Keep in mind that if you change your water often enough you don't have to worry about cycling it. If you are only QTing one fish at a time then I wouldn't worry about it, I think having your biowheel seeded with bacteria will help for sure. I would put a thin layer of sand in the bottom with some rock to give them somewhere to hide. This is the most natural way to do it, I have seen fish have problems with the bare bottom. They see their reflection in the bottom and can't leave it alone and it stresses them out even more. People recommend bare bottom when you are dealing with ich, this is so you can vacuun out the dormant cysts on the bottom of the tank. If your fish aren't having problems with ich then bare bottom doesn't really do much for you. IF the fish do have ich remove the carbon and biowheel (leave rock and sand) and add some cupramine in the tank. This will get rid of the ich in just a couple days (treatment is 2 weeks) and cupramine isn't supposed to leech in to the rocks and sand, so once you drain the tank and add new water the cupramine should be gone.

I commend you for QTing your fish!

[+Hydro]

BTW I say sand I mean coarse sand or aragonite, its easier to clean and doesn't make as much of a mess when its only a thin layer.

When QTing wrasses you will always want a place for the wrasse to bury itself. I've used a thin layer on the whole tank bottom and then in one corner piled up the coarse sand for it to sleep in.

[nuxx]

Thanks guys

I think I'm just going to setup a "new" tank for the QT 20L. Probably just a little bit of LR, thin layer of crushed coral, some PVC and maybe some fake plants.

Going to use the little power head, hob filter, heater/therm, eggcrate for jumpers and where I want to place it is right under a cabinet in our upstairs office which has some decent under cabinet lighting. Have some normal instant ocean I don't want to use on my DT, so I might just start it up with new salt water and mix in DT water as I do changes. I'll just wait for it to cycle on it's own then start with QTing fish.

Two more questions:

1. For new coral... what should I do QT wise... since the light will not be very strong in the QT tank, how do I make sure nothing comes in with the coral, but it'll survive some time in QT? Maybe just put the coral in for a very short time 2-3 days?

2. What are some good fish to leave in the QT tank to coax picky eaters (achilles tang) to eat and trust us? Also, I want them to stay small and be peaceful (no damsels/clowns).

Thanks

Edited February 8, 2012 by offshore

[+Hydro]

When you say 20L I'm assuming that you mean a 20 long and not a 20 liter (5 gallon) right? I'm sure that's what you mean I just wanted to double check.

1. Good luck on Qting corals, some are hard to keep unless you have proper lighting and flow. Softies are easy and IMO don't need to be QTed as long as SPS. SPS parasites are much harder to get rid of since AEFW are egg layers and you must make sure the eggs have time to hatch while still in QT. I never had much luck QTing sps, the stress was usually to much for some of the harder to keep corals. I usually dip the sps once a week for a month and put it away from any other sps. If in any of these dips you find aefw then throw it in a QT or throw it away. I can't say this is the proper way to do it though.

2. Timfish recommended yellow tailed damsels and I have to agree. I have 5 of these guys and they are easy going and I've never seen one be aggressive and they stay pretty small. A single chromis would probably be fine too. A small cardnial fish would probably be fine too.

[nuxx]

Haha yeah... 20 gallon long

1. Maybe buying coral from LFS that keep corals in coral only tanks might reduce the possibilty of parasites?

2. I actually have a YT Damsel in my DT right now, it was a present....... Might be a good candidate for moving and might go get him a friend or two

What would you run the salinity at?

[Timfish]

If you're going to keep inverts/corals in your QT you should keep it at the same salinity as your reef system. I haven't done hypo in a long time for that reason but if I remember correctly you can keep it below 1.010 SG. A lot of the time I use the ol' eye ball but especially when you first set it up you want to test pretty frequently and the more often you do water changes the better.

[+Hydro]

1. Maybe buying coral from LFS that keep corals in coral only tanks might reduce the possibilty of parasites?

2. I actually have a YT Damsel in my DT right now, it was a present....... Might be a good candidate for moving and might go get him a friend or two

What would you run the salinity at?

1. NO!!!!! Just as risky, coral only tanks is a great place for parasites to spread.

2. Excellent

I keep mine at DT salinity level. I have not tried hypo myself but I've read a lot about it and it seems pretty safe for fish, not safe for any inverts or corals. If I chose to use hypo salinity I would specifically look up each fish to make sure that particular fish can handle the treatment. For example some fish can't handle copper treatments very well, most likely there will be some fish that can't handle hypo too.

[SoggyDollar]

GoinfishN - you keep the QT tank at 1.010-1.015 the whole QT time?

I'm not an expert. But like Hydro said, I keep it somewhere within those parameters with fish that can handle that low of salinity, not coral or inverts. A SW fish's internal salinity (depending on the fish) is somewhere near this (what I've been told) thus reducing stress. 1.009 is the lowest I've read to go. How much stess is reduced by hypo-salinity (HS) may be miniscule but it makes sense to me and the fish I have QT'd did just fine. In my HS higly oxygenated QT, I also treat for parasites, feed garlic soaked food, and treat for infections.

FYI, when putting a fish into a HS environment from normal salinity, I've read some people just toss the fish in since it is a less stressful environment and can shock parasites off the fish (similar to a FW dip). I haven't tried that since other parameters could be different, I still drip acclimate but at a faster rate. Going the other way HS to saline, you will definitely need a slow drip acclimation so the fish can adjust back to the "harsher" environment.

[Woods]

If you really want a bare bottom tank without the reflection that stresses the fish out. I suggest painting the outside bottom of the tank with spray paint. Back in my FW days when I was breeding African Cichlids in 26 tanks, I did this for the same reasons and never had a problem after that. I chose a bright blue color but most colors should work fine.

[+Hydro]

If you really want a bare bottom tank without the reflection that stresses the fish out. I suggest painting the outside bottom of the tank with spray paint. Back in my FW days when I was breeding African Cichlids in 26 tanks, I did this for the same reasons and never had a problem after that. I chose a bright blue color but most colors should work fine.

I agree, I have done this in the past too. Another thing that works good it to put a towel underneath the tank, as long as the towel it touching the glass it will take out the reflection.

[nuxx]

Finally got the tank setup...

I'm going to probably add another piece of live rock, some PVC, few fake plants and a tiny bit of crushed coral. Also will get around to making an egg crate top.

Edited February 11, 2012 by offshore

[+Hydro]

Tank looks great

Looks like its in the kitchen? If so that's a busy place for it, I usually go for a low light, quiet, low traffic place out of the way.

[nuxx]

It's in our office upstairs... it's pretty relaxed actually.

From 7pm til 9am it's empty.

When we're up there during the day, we're pretty laid back and don't move around too much. Our puppies come up here, but just sleep on the couch the whole time lol

Also, the office is the only room upstairs. I think it's a "media room", so only one window on the other side of the room. I'm not a big fan of going to a different room to watch tv. Also it's a good way to seperate work from the rest of the house

Edited February 11, 2012 by offshore

[+Hydro]

Perfect!

[nuxx]

What's the best way to transfer a fish from the QT tank upstairs to the DT downstairs? Trying to get ditch nets...

[dc5842]

I have my QT upstairs in my house as well. I have a large specimen container I catch them in and then acclimate them next to the tank downstairs using drip acclimation. Once that's done I want to make sure I don't transfer any QT water to my display so I pour the fish out of the specimen container, through my net and then put the fish in the display with the net.