Guide: How to quarantine fish

spit.fire · #1 02-22-2016, 02:58 AM

My main system has been running for somewhere around a year and a half now, i have never had ich, velvet, or any other illness run through my system.
I credit this to a strict quarantine routine for any new fish going into my system.

I havent had to quarantine fish in quite some time as i havent made any new fish purchases in quite some time.

Ive decided to add some fish recently so i set up a quick and easy qt tank.

Equipment used:
20g aquarium with all but one side painted black(depending on the size of your fish but i wouldnt reccomend going any smaller than 20gallons)
Some sort of filter (i prefer to use an aqua clear as they're easy to clean and change media)
flower pot (the red ones)
fake plants
a heater
a small powerhead (not to big as you dont want to stress the fish out)
some sort of top (im using egg crate, glass is better)

I find painting the sides and using fake plants helps reduce stress in the fish and the flower pots give them somewhere to hide

As for the filter, leave the sponges in your main system in order to seed them with bacteria, when you need your qt, throw some new saltwater in the tank and throw the media in the filter, voila, your tank is cycled enough for 2-4 fish. When your done with your qt, bleach them or boil them and put them back in your sump

DO NOT USE SUBSTRATE and I would not recommend using liverock, if you have to medicate the tank, they all make it more difficult.

My schedule:
1. Impulse buy some fish.... EVERYONE DOES IT DONT HATE
2. Fill qt tank with water, throw in media, plug everything in
3. Throw some fish it
4. Keep fish in qt for 3-4 weeks and monitor for problems
5. If no problems arise, skip to step "8"
6. If anything pops up (ich, velvet, infections, etc) then medicate appropriately
7. Once whatever it is clears up, monitor for 3-4 weeks
8 After 3-4 weeks of being clean, catch the fish, acclimate to the display and pop it in
9. Clean and dry qt system out, put away

A few tips:

You dont need to run full salinity: fish do perfectly fine at 1.018, saves you money and its less stress on the fish (their bodies dont have to work as hard to process the salt)

Ambient lighting is plenty: Fish dont need light, its good to have a day and night cycle but ambient lighting is plenty. (mine has a par 38 because i had it laying around) if you dont have ambient lighting, a screw in compact fluorescent is plenty or screw in led bulb

Have a few different medications on hand, i personally try to keep Kanaplex, sulfaplex, chloroquine phosphate, prazipro, and furan 2

Dont add more fish once the qt process has started or you have to restart from the beginning