New to QT how should I go about

[EastCoastJon]

I have nano reef tanks (10 gal and a 20 gal currently) so my QT tank will be relatively small 5-10 gal how should I go about it what meds should I dose the fish with generally what should I dip my corals with how long should I QT for and should I QT snails and inverts? (there will never be more than 2 fish at a time in QT) sorry if these are obvious questions a bit new to QT tanks

 

[Fish Fan]

You'll get some differnt opinions here, but I use the R2R approved method because the maintainer of the thread and its other authors are here on R2R to help if you need it:

Current Quarantine Protocol

2024 Quarantine Procedures Jay Hemdal David Scarborough Protozoans (Cryptocaryon/ich, Amyloodinium/velvet) and Metazoan trematodes/flukes are by far the most common parasites found on newly acquired fish. A carefully managed, proactive quarantine process can effectively eliminate these...

www.reef2reef.com

Good luck!

 

[TacticalBacon]

I have nano reef tanks (10 gal and a 20 gal currently) so my QT tank will be relatively small 5-10 gal how should I go about it what meds should I dose the fish with generally what should I dip my corals with how long should I QT for and should I QT snails and inverts? (there will never be more than 2 fish at a time in QT) sorry if these are obvious questions a bit new to QT tanks

Following along as I have similar questions.

Also, can I use my already cycled water that I remove for a water change in my QT. Was thinking about a 60/40 New salt/Cycled water.

Great question.

 

[EastCoastJon]

You'll get some differnt opinions here, but I use the R2R approved method because the maintainer of the thread and its other authors are here on R2R to help if you need it:

Current Quarantine Protocol

2024 Quarantine Procedures Jay Hemdal David Scarborough Protozoans (Cryptocaryon/ich, Amyloodinium/velvet) and Metazoan trematodes/flukes are by far the most common parasites found on newly acquired fish. A carefully managed, proactive quarantine process can effectively eliminate these...

www.reef2reef.com

Good luck!

awesome thank you. I will check it out but also excited to hear people's opinions on how they QT!

 

[Fish Fan]

Following along as I have similar questions.

Also, can I use my already cycled water that I remove for a water change in my QT. Was thinking about a 60/40 New salt/Cycled water.

Great question.

It's not a bad idea to use your old water, this will help keep parameters consistent across your tanks. But, your old water doesn't really contain the nitrifying bacteria necessary to process ammonia. Those bacteria largely live on your rocks and sand and other surfaces.

You can use some pre-cycled media from your main tank to get your QT tank going and quickly cycled. Use plastic or a sponge type material, you want to avoid using sand and/or rock in your QT because the copper medication will interact with the rock, causing the level of copper to drop bellow where you need it to be so that it's effective.

You can also use a bottled bacteria product like Fritz TurboStart to help quickly seed nitrifying bacteria.

You can also monitor and mitigate high ammonia by doing water changes in your QT tank.

 

[PotatoPig]

General comments on QT:

You’ll likely need either separate systems or a full clean out between QT to use the tank for inverts and fish, because one of the primary medications for fish QT is a copper compound that’s lethal to corals, snails, crabs, etc.

No harm in using tank water from water changes to make up water changes in the QT tank. This is what I do. It’s economical and has the benefit that your fish in QT won’t have to go through multiple parameter changes - they’ll be accustomed to your tank water by the time you add it.

A fish QT tank normally uses copper (see the guide already posted). This binds to live rock so it’s hard to use rock to provide a cycle as it’ll mess with the copper levels. One way to provide a cycle is to cut a fabric filter sock to the same size as the insert in the HOP filter. Put this in an area of the tank with a lot of flow where it’ll also pick up detritus and so on and it’ll pick up bacteria. Or you could cycle the tank with added bacteria and the sock piece already in the filter.

Make sure you verify the cycle is working before adding copper. The copper compounds commonly used give false positives in a lot of ammonia tests, so once you add the copper medication it’ll look like you have high levels of ammonia. Verify the cycle is working and then trust it stays working. Do not add ammonia removing chemicals while using copper - these will react with the copper compounds and poison the fish.