Show off your quarantine system!

BaghdadBean · Mar 1, 2022

So, for those of you with quarantine systems, what does it look like? Anybody keep a rack for quarantining multiple fish at a time? I’m thinking about doing a box order of fish from the Red Sea, but I’d like to set up the quarantine system in advance. Any advice for quarantining larger groups of fish? With flighty community fish, do you quarantine them together for stress reduction despite the risk of one causing illness in all, or do you use a beta cube type approach where they can see each other but are still separate? Please share your photos and experiences!

Also: Can you use one air pump and a manifold to run multiple bubblers in different tanks, or is there a possibility of cross contamination from that?

Thanks!

JumboShrimp · Mar 2, 2022

Back when I was adding a lot of fish to my Display Tank, I used a pretty simple set up like this.

RobB'z Reef · Mar 2, 2022

I do tank transfer method for quarantine, but my setup can also handle copper as well. This is my setup (a bit dated, I've cleaned it up a bit but it's still in use).

BaghdadBean · Mar 2, 2022

JumboShrimp said:
Back when I was adding a lot of fish to my Display Tank, I used a pretty simple set up like this.

Did anybody ever make it out past the eggcrate tops to carpet surf?

BaghdadBean · Mar 2, 2022

RobB'z Reef said:
I do tank transfer method for quarantine, but my setup can also handle copper as well. This is my setup (a bit dated, I've cleaned it up a bit but it's still in use).

Whoa, that’s a sweet set up. How did the ammonia rises go? Were you swapping sponges in or anything?

RobB'z Reef · Mar 2, 2022

BaghdadBean said:
Whoa, that’s a sweet set up. How did the ammonia rises go? Were you swapping sponges in or anything?

no ammonia issues (ive tested with a badge and red sea test kits early on), with TTM they aren't in there long enough for it to become a real problem. Also not jamming too many fish in each one is a consideration when running things thru. I also keep some prime onhand just in case though I've yet felt the need to actually use it. The volume is decent yet small enough to minimize water waste, and I use IO for salt because it's cheap as ****, and the fish dont care.

dmsc2fs · Mar 2, 2022

Here is mine. First 2 are 10 and a 40 breeder. Currently at day 24 of copper.

10G with a Blue-Head Fairy Wrasse

40 breeder
Tail spot blenny
5 zebra goby
3 Clowns
Yellow band fairy wrasse

This one isn't easy to take a pic of so I will explain it. This is a 20 tall. I spent 2 months culturing pods and seeding this tank weekly with pods. I heavily feed it phyto so it's cloudy, dirty and hard to photo. After 3 unsuccessful attempts to QT Ruby Red Dragonette's (14 days, 2 days, 12 days) I have given up on them. This tank currently houses a brown scooter blenny. He has been in it for 20+ days and is strongly eating.

Scooter is right in front of the piece of rock if you look closely.

BaghdadBean · Mar 2, 2022

dmsc2fs said:
Here is mine. First 2 are 10 and a 40 breeder. Currently at day 24 of copper.

10G with a Blue-Head Fairy Wrasse

40 breeder
Tail spot blenny
5 zebra goby
3 Clowns
Yellow band fairy wrasse

This one isn't easy to take a pic of so I will explain it. This is a 20 tall. I spent 2 months culturing pods and seeding this tank weekly with pods. I heavily feed it phyto so it's cloudy, dirty and hard to photo. After 3 unsuccessful attempts to QT Ruby Red Dragonette's (14 days, 2 days, 12 days) I have given up on them. This tank currently houses a brown scooter blenny. He has been in it for 20+ days and is strongly eating.

Scooter is right in front of the piece of rock if you look closely.

Yeah, quarantining obligate eaters is a tricky, brutal bit of business. Given that the dragonets/mandarins have a slime coat, I know a lot of folks just don’t bother at all. I’m going to opt for the Biota mandarins to assuage my dragonet love. I never had issues in the past with mandarins, but I didn’t put them in a regular quarantine tank. What I did do was leave a permanently established 29 gallon observation aquarium with (at the time) cheap gulf coast cultured rock, raw ceramic fake rocks, play sand, live Ogo and live Ulva algae. TBH I always hated chaeto and it hated me back, refused to grow no matter what I did, but Ogo and Ulva kicked butt for me. I supplemented with live cultured pods, phyto, and lots of baby brine shrimp.
I just observed, didn’t have plans to treat unless I saw something wrong. I never did end up treating a single mandarin, they always seemed healthy. I guess it was more of an observation tank than anything.

I don’t know if something similar would help for your means if you ever tried it again. I figured if they needed treating, I could remove the rock, put it in a livestock trough, and treat with copper or whatever, and the play sand wouldn’t absorb any of the copper but it would still provide home for the comfort. Inverts wouldn’t last in the copper but baby brine shrimp are plentiful and could still be fed often with one of PaulB’s feeders, and I cultured my own phyto and copepods, so that was available for daily addition too. Luckily I never needed to test it. Back then I didn’t know about tank transfer methods, I still don’t really know how that would work for obligate eaters unless you’re adding pods to every tank as you go, and using some kinda substrate that can be rapidly treated and cleared. Glass beads maybe?

dmsc2fs · Mar 2, 2022

BaghdadBean said:
Yeah, quarantining obligate eaters is a tricky, brutal bit of business. Given that the dragonets/mandarins have a slime coat, I know a lot of folks just don’t bother at all. I’m going to opt for the Biota mandarins to assuage my dragonet love. I never had issues in the past with mandarins, but I didn’t put them in a regular quarantine tank. What I did do was leave a permanently established 29 gallon observation aquarium with (at the time) cheap gulf coast cultured rock, raw ceramic fake rocks, play sand, live Ogo and live Ulva algae. TBH I always hated chaeto and it hated me back, refused to grow no matter what I did, but Ogo and Ulva kicked butt for me. I supplemented with live cultured pods, phyto, and lots of baby brine shrimp.
I just observed, didn’t have plans to treat unless I saw something wrong. I never did end up treating a single mandarin, they always seemed healthy. I guess it was more of an observation tank than anything.

I don’t know if something similar would help for your means if you ever tried it again. I figured if they needed treating, I could remove the rock, put it in a livestock trough, and treat with copper or whatever, and the play sand wouldn’t absorb any of the copper but it would still provide home for the comfort. Inverts wouldn’t last in the copper but baby brine shrimp are plentiful and could still be fed often with one of PaulB’s feeders, and I cultured my own phyto and copepods, so that was available for daily addition too. Luckily I never needed to test it. Back then I didn’t know about tank transfer methods, I still don’t really know how that would work for obligate eaters unless you’re adding pods to every tank as you go, and using some kinda substrate that can be rapidly treated and cleared. Glass beads maybe?

If I decided to give them another try I have decided that I will not wait and observe. They will get hit with Prazy from day one. The three I tried I went with observe only. They went from eating strongly one day to not eating and moving the next. I have searched many times for any history with Ruby Red's and the conversations about people having success with them is hard to find.

BaghdadBean · Mar 2, 2022

dmsc2fs said:
If I decided to give them another try I have decided that I will not wait and observe. They will get hit with Prazy from day one. The three I tried I went with observe only. They went from eating strongly one day to not eating and moving the next. I have searched many times for any history with Ruby Red's and the conversations about people having success with them is hard to find.

Did you dissect the ones that croaked to see if you could figure out why? A little morbid maybe but I’m always curious about stuff like that.

dmsc2fs · Mar 2, 2022

Now that the sun is out. Here is a bit better photo of this pod based QT tank.

dmsc2fs · Mar 2, 2022

BaghdadBean said:
Did you dissect the ones that croaked to see if you could figure out why? A little morbid maybe but I’m always curious about stuff like that.

No, I was never able to see any indication. Each of them had been purchased within 1-2 weeks of coming into a LFS so I just chalked it up to they came into the hobby from the wild with parasites.

BaghdadBean · Mar 2, 2022

dmsc2fs said:
No, I was never able to see any indication. Each of them had been purchased within 1-2 weeks of coming into a LFS so I just chalked it up to they came into the hobby from the wild with parasites.

Do you run an air stone in that tank? I’m just asking because I did have problems with night time O2 levels dropping in my macro tanks back in the day, and it seemed like some fish were more susceptible to that than others. It took an embarrassingly long time to figure it out. You’re definitely feeding phyto heavier than I did, but I’m not sure if that could be a factor or not. Can’t hurt anything to try an airstone either direction, and I’m sure you’ve already thought of all that, so my apologies if I’m beatin a dead horse for you.

dmsc2fs · Mar 2, 2022

BaghdadBean said:
Do you run an air stone in that tank? I’m just asking because I did have problems with night time O2 levels dropping in my macro tanks back in the day, and it seemed like some fish were more susceptible to that than others. It took an embarrassingly long time to figure it out. You’re definitely feeding phyto heavier than I did, but I’m not sure if that could be a factor or not. Can’t hurt anything to try an airstone either direction, and I’m sure you’ve already thought of all that, so my apologies if I’m beatin a dead horse for you.

no airstone but it has a powerhead with the air intake hose thing sticking out the top, whatever that is called, air-injector hose-o-matic (TM). Plus a HOB that is dropping the water back into the tank. The scooter blenny was added a few days before the last ruby red came and went. He shows no symptoms of anything and just keeps on trucking along.

BaghdadBean · Mar 2, 2022

dmsc2fs said:
no airstone but it has a powerhead with the air intake hose thing sticking out the top, whatever that is called, air-injector hose-o-matic (TM). Plus a HOB that is dropping the water back into the tank. The scooter blenny was added a few days before the last ruby red came and went. He shows no symptoms of anything and just keeps on trucking along.

That TM made me laugh like crazy. Fingers crossed for the blenny to keep on keepin on! I never tried with the ruby reds, and it sounds like I was blessed with stout mandarins and spotted dragonets in the past.

MBinNY · Mar 3, 2022

I bought a pair of 30 breeders when a LFS was closing those are what I QT small fish in as they are divided and there is a 40 breeder below for medium sized fish there are 3 33 longs for corals and anemones on the other side of the basement.