quarantine tank question

[Baldy]

I am coming up to the point where I'm about to make my first fish purchase. have decided to set up a quarantine tank with an empty 10 gal that I have with a heater, powerhead, and hob filter. I will use water from the main tank to fill the qt and let the filter sit in the main tank for a while to establish more bacteria for the qt tank. my question is, am I going to need live rock in there as well? I have no sump that I can take rock from and replace later, and i would prefer not to take rock from the main tank each time i set up a qt tank. The same goes for sand as well. Will i be ok without rock or sand in a qt tank?

[Abe]

you don't need sand or rocks in there just in case you want to add meds. Just use some PVC pipping or something similar for hidding places.

[George]

Abe is correct. You don't need rock or sand in a quarantine tank because in case you medicate your fish in the quarantine tank and many of the medicine will kill off bacteria on rock and sand. Even worse is that those medicine will bind to rock and sand for a long time making them unsuitable for any display tank.
A HOB filter is good and make sure the filter pad is fully cycled because that will be your main biological filter. Put a NEW filter pad in your main tank to cycle the pad and put it in the HOB.
Good decision on the quarantine tank because not many people realize many benefits of a quarantine tank.

[ponokareefer]

Originally Posted by George

Abe is correct. You don't need rock or sand in a quarantine tank because in case you medicate your fish in the quarantine tank and many of the medicine will kill off bacteria on rock and sand. Even worse is that those medicine will bind to rock and sand for a long time making them unsuitable for any display tank.
A HOB filter is good and make sure the filter pad is fully cycled because that will be your main biological filter. Put a NEW filter pad in your main tank to cycle the pad and put it in the HOB.
Good decision on the quarantine tank because not many people realize many benefits of a quarantine tank.

What he said. I had started a post, but then realized George had hit all the points I was going to say.

[Baldy]

Thanks for the replies guys. I just wanted to be sure there was going to be enough bio filtration without the LR or sand. I will pick up some PVC piping today for hiding places. I have probably a week and a half yet before I buy fish I just want to cover my bases

[phreezee]

IMO dont waste your time with a QT. You will inevitably catch something that ends up in your display. Concentrate on diet and health and the fish will fight off most ailments. The process of quarantining usually just creates stress and the fish ends up dying anyway.

EDIT: I prefer Ozone and UV sterilization.

[VFX]

@phreezee

Each to his/her own with regards to QT.

I usually don't but once in a while really wish I did.

@OP

My QT tank is a 20 gallon breeder with air stone, korallia 2, some dead 'live' rock (that I only ever use in the QT tank or else leave dry) and egg crate on top so that it catches light from my main display tank.

I don't use sand, filters or skimmers. I just make sure I vacuum all the crap out each day & do 25% water changes every 2-3 days.

Works for me (whenever I can be bothered to QT.)

.

[daniella3d]

YES you do need CURED liverock in there to filter water and avoid ammonia especialy in a small tank as a 10 gallons. I currently have a blue hippo tang, a kole tang and a damsel in a 21 gallons in quarantine in hyposalinity treatment. They had ick when I got them so I am treating them to get rid of ick with hypo. I have absolutely no trace of ammonia although I feed them a lot twice per day.

Without the liverock I would have tons of ammonia and fish death.

No need to treat with medication unless you get marine velvet and then you can remove the liverock and treat with copper if you ever get that but it's still kind of rare. The most common, very common, is ick and that,s easily treated with hypo and does not destroy your bio filter.

That way it's really trouble free to do quarantine.

The only drawback is if you get marine velvet you must remove the liverock and raise the salinity slowly 0.03 per day and then add Seachem Cupramine.

While you have liverock in there, use some small filter with floss and that will build up a bacteria colony in case you have to remove the liverock to treat. I always use my liverock when doing quarantine and that always gave me instant cycle. I use Totoka liverock because it is a very porous and efficiant filter.

Originally Posted by TheNewGuy

I am coming up to the point where I'm about to make my first fish purchase. have decided to set up a quarantine tank with an empty 10 gal that I have with a heater, powerhead, and hob filter. I will use water from the main tank to fill the qt and let the filter sit in the main tank for a while to establish more bacteria for the qt tank. my question is, am I going to need live rock in there as well? I have no sump that I can take rock from and replace later, and i would prefer not to take rock from the main tank each time i set up a qt tank. The same goes for sand as well. Will i be ok without rock or sand in a qt tank?

[daniella3d]

wow, that's ridiculous.

I don't have anything in my display tank, never had. I always quarantine and always use hiposalinity to kill ick. Never had ick in my tank.

That,s such a BAD advise!

I recently quarantined a copperband butterfly fish that was very skinny. In quarantine I had the chance to acclimate the fish properly, treat it with prazipro for flukes and internal worms, and get him to eat food and fatten up, before I put it in my main tank. Without quarantine the fish would be dead. It is totaly ridiculous to assume that all tank have disease and that is a unavoidable thing. Can't believe this nonsense.

Not only quarantine does NOT stress the fish but it give the fish the possibility to acclimate withou being harrassed by other fish. Great time to get it to eat properly and to treat if needed and it is stupid to risk introducing marine velvet and kill ALL fish in the tank.

I have never lost a fish from quarantine! if you do, it,s probably because you don't do it right and have a tank that is not cycled and full of ammonia. There are ways to do it right.

Originally Posted by phreezee

IMO dont waste your time with a QT. You will inevitably catch something that ends up in your display. Concentrate on diet and health and the fish will fight off most ailments. The process of quarantining usually just creates stress and the fish ends up dying anyway.

[mark]

Amazing how fast ammonia can built up so test for, but easily handled by frequent water changes and again you don't need LR.