Newbie to Quarantine, Looking for Comments on Setup

[stevenp]

I've got a new fish being delivered Thursday morning via airmail and I'm setting up a proper quarantine for the first time. After much research online, it seems that there are more opinions on this than there are on acrylic vs/ glass...

So here's my plan, let me know what you think.

10 gallon
Penguin with Bio-Wheel
Visitherm Heater
Shoddy plastic hood with shoddy flourescent light
Bare bottom with a 10 LB chunck of cured LR (in my lighted LR holding holding tank for 3 months now so it's 100% cured).

I have a couple of sponge pieces that have been sitting in my fuge so they're nice and nasty with bacteria. I will place these in the Penguin 170.

I'm filling the tank with 50% aged seawater and 50% water from my display tank and keeping SG at 1.025 and temp at 80. Because of the LR, sponges and display water I do not anticipate any cycle.

I do not plan to use hyposalinity or medication. Basically, this is a nano with crappy lighting.

I've read that many people use this type of quarantine procedure because it's less stressful on the fish and after six weeks or so, you've got a pretty good chance nothing will go wrong when you add the fish to the display tank.

Anyone have a similar system?

Looking for comments

Steve

 

[starrfish]

Overall, it looks like a pretty good setup. Here are some suggestions. How big is the fish that you are getting? IMO, 10g is big enough for smaller fish, but not so for larger ones. When I got my CBB, it freaked out in my 10g QT. But my smaller fish were fine in there. One thing you might want to do is paint the bottom of the QT with white spray paint so you can easily see fish poop and left over food. I suction out all food and poop every day - doing a 5% water change as I do it. You might want to get an ammonia badge - they are about $5 and have a suction cup. You attach it to the inside of your tank and it changes color if ammonia goes up. This is a great way to keep an eye on the parameters.

Also, you really don't need the LR if you're using a sponge that's been in your show tank for a couple of weeks. You'll have to toss the LR after the quarantine because you don't want to risk putting it in your show tank or even in the QT again when you get new fish. PVC pipes work great - the fish use them for hiding places and you can easily re-use them after each QT with a thorough bleach washing.

Finally, you should get some Prime or Amquel for emergencies - just in case the ammonia climbs up. It's very difficult to keep the parameters stable in such a small tank.

Hope this helps.
Daire

 

[wrassefan]

I use LR in my quarantine...even when I hypo. I do use 2 large pvc elbows for hiding also. The 10 might be a bit small but as Daire said...depends on the size of the fish. I just finished quarantining a majestic angel in a 30 with hypo and have LR in it. Just before I introduced the majestic...I bumped up the salinity over the last week...easy transition to the display.

 

[stevenp]

Oops, forgot to mention the type of fish. It's a Red Sea Mimic Blenny. It should be about 1.5" in length. I've been looking for this fish forever now and the good doctors finally got them in.

Starfish, I already painted three sides and the bottom black. Hope the stuff shows up against the black... I'll take the LR off of the list.

Good tip on the amonia patch. I was planning on changing a few gallons every couple days. What are your thoughts on using water from the display as replacement for the q-tank? Trying to get the most mileage out my RODI water and salt...

Hypo scares me since I'm on the road a lot for work; only for a couple days at a time, but, it seems that you can really screw things up quick with hypo and medication.

Steve

 

[starrfish]

Hey Steve - I only do water changes in my QT with water from my display the last week of my quarantine period. This is to bring the two tanks into equilibrium which should [theoretically] make the transition for the fish easier. I prefer to use fresh saltwater during the first 3 weeks of QT. Not sure if it makes a difference, but I figure if I'm removing it from my display tank it must not be good for my QT.

To be honest, I've tried hypo and medications in the past when it looked like my fish in QT were scraping, breathing heavy, etc - without much success. My new strategy is to fatten them up with good food soaked in garlic and selcon 2x/day. If they are strong, they should be able to fight off most things. If not, then so be it. Sometimes the cure is worse than the illness.

Hope this helps.
Daire

ps...your blenny will be fine in a 10g QT.

 

[Jill & Brian]

Hi Steve,
We have a very similar setup with a 40G long that we got from a friend for free. Same cheap single strip light hood, and a penguin 330. We have no live rock, Just 3 PVC elbows and some plastic plants for hiding spots. We have used this for all of the new fish except for the first 3. It has worked great.
We keep the water at the same PH and salinity as the main display, and it has worked very well for us.
Good Luck!!
-Brian