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.