Quarantine Tank Plumbing

[FishyFishy!]

I'm finally getting around to plumbing my 155 and all the sumps, frag tanks, water changing system etc etc. I'm wondering if I should plumb in my quarantine tank to the main system, or leave it stand alone.

I've read a few different opinions on this so far. The first being that you should plumb in with the main tank, because it will always share water perameters with the main setup, minimizing stress levels when transferring the fish in or out of the QT.

Next opinion is make it stand alone because it's tougher for acclimation to the new tank, but helps in the hospital/disease side of things. This is due to possible water bourne contamination, that might make is back into your display from an ill fish. A stand alone system will also make it easier to dose with medications so that is does not get into the main tank.

Whats everyone's position on this? I'm leaning towards stand alone, but as far as water perameters and ease of maintenance, it would be a lot easier to just plumb it in.

[tim the toolman]

It would depend on the size of the qt tank I think. You can always plumb a shutoff valve between the 2 tanks so you have the option of isolating the qt water if meds are needed and then you can just do a total water swap out at the end of the qt. But once again that would only be a good option if you are using a small qt.

[FishyFishy!]

The tank I will be using is fairly large, its a 4 foot 70 Gallon tank.

[Nano]

I thought the idea of QT was to deal with diseases and what not with out infecting the DT, IMO i'd keep it separate. but thats just me and I'm a noob

[tim the toolman]

Yeah a 70g would be a bit much to deal with IMO. Best of luck lol

[marie]

A quarantine tank should stand alone. If a new fish turns out to have a disease, the shared plumbing could send the disease/parasite into the main tank.

[FishyFishy!]

Originally Posted by marie

A quarantine tank should stand alone. If a new fish turns out to have a disease, the shared plumbing could send the disease/parasite into the main tank.

Yeah that would be my idea as well. I think i'll stick to the stand alone ones. So far I have been running a set up that I completely drain when not in use, so maybe i'll set up a smaller tank to make it easier.

[gregzz4]

Originally Posted by FishyFishy!

Yeah that would be my idea as well. I think i'll stick to the stand alone ones. So far I have been running a set up that I completely drain when not in use, so maybe i'll set up a smaller tank to make it easier.

That's what I've always done with FW and will do with my new SW setup.
Depending on how large your new guys are, or the ones you have that may get sick, a 20 or 30g isn't so bad to deal with when you need to fill it.

Think of it this way;
Isolation tank is tapped into the DT
Quarantine is not

[Reef Pilot]

I actually have 2 tanks that I can use as QT's. One is a refugium that I can connect or disconnect to my main sump. The other is stand alone, but I still have it plumbed so I can send DT water to it with a water change, to get the new fish acclimatized to the DT.

It really helps to have the DT upstairs, and my sump and other tanks all downstairs.

I use hypo salinity when quarantining new fish. Have never used copper or other chemicals.

[jostafew]

I think the conclusion has been made above to keep it stand alone (which I think is the right thing to do) but regarding the dissimilar water conditions there's a really easy way to deal with that. When you're doing water changes in the DT, use the water that you pull out of there to do a water change in the QT. That way you're always cycling water from the DT through the QT and the params will be very nearly identical so there's no acclimation stress going from one to the other, asside from the trauma of being cought of course!