Using established tank as QT?

[TheStrangler]

Ahoy all, I'm in the process of upgrading to a larger tank. I am not in any huge hurry to take down the smaller display tank. As I'll be purchasing additional fish for the larger tank, some of which are notoriously not great with unestablished QT tanks like wrasse, I was thinking that after moving my current fish to the larger tank, I could use my established smaller reef tank as an observation/QT tank before moving them into their final homes. Am I overlooking anything in assuming I could do that? I know the live rock and sand would interfere with copper treatment. I was thinking that I could just hold off on copper treatment and observe for the QT period and skip it assuming that over the 45ish days at 81 degrees there is no sign of marine ich/velvet/flukes etc. Am I correct in assuming that diseases would present in that period of time, or is it possible that it could go unnoticed? I would still treat for internal parasites and ailments without the rock/sand being an issue. The second concern is that if that is all feasible, I'd be doing multiple batches of quarantine as not all of my stocking plan would take kindly to sharing a 30 gallon tank. Assuming the first fish are healthy and move to the larger tank, would I need to let the QT tank remain fallow before bringing in the next fish?

I quarantine corals without any issue, but I'm a little hesitant to attempt to QT in a fresh uncycled bare bottom tank, I feel as though mortality would be equally likely from disease as from a mistake on my part. I typically buy fish pre quarantined, but some species this time around are either unavailable or prohibitively expensive.

Thanks for sanity checking my plan and contributing thoughts/ideas

 

[Spare time]

The best thing to do is QT with a hob filter with biomedia/sponges, pvc, and if you want, silica based sand since it will not adsorb copper. Waiting to treat can lead to things slipping by or leading it to be too late to treat. You don't have to worry about ammonia if you add a big ol' bottle of fritz or biospira.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Ahoy all, I'm in the process of upgrading to a larger tank. I am not in any huge hurry to take down the smaller display tank. As I'll be purchasing additional fish for the larger tank, some of which are notoriously not great with unestablished QT tanks like wrasse, I was thinking that after moving my current fish to the larger tank, I could use my established smaller reef tank as an observation/QT tank before moving them into their final homes. Am I overlooking anything in assuming I could do that? I know the live rock and sand would interfere with copper treatment. I was thinking that I could just hold off on copper treatment and observe for the QT period and skip it assuming that over the 45ish days at 81 degrees there is no sign of marine ich/velvet/flukes etc. Am I correct in assuming that diseases would present in that period of time, or is it possible that it could go unnoticed? I would still treat for internal parasites and ailments without the rock/sand being an issue. The second concern is that if that is all feasible, I'd be doing multiple batches of quarantine as not all of my stocking plan would take kindly to sharing a 30 gallon tank. Assuming the first fish are healthy and move to the larger tank, would I need to let the QT tank remain fallow before bringing in the next fish?

I quarantine corals without any issue, but I'm a little hesitant to attempt to QT in a fresh uncycled bare bottom tank, I feel as though mortality would be equally likely from disease as from a mistake on my part. I typically buy fish pre quarantined, but some species this time around are either unavailable or prohibitively expensive.

Thanks for sanity checking my plan and contributing thoughts/ideas

Assuming your water is free of bacteria and protozoans, you can. Observation allows a given issue to take hold of a fish making any needed treatment more difficult. Often when we see signs of disease, they have been established and more visible to the naked eye

 

[TheStrangler]

My current display tank has never had any fish diseases in it. The issue I am hoping to fight against is managing stability in my current 20g QT tank for sensitive, larger, or multiple fish. I may be able to put two wrasse in QT together (thought they don't handle QT well) but a tang, foxface, cbb, etc will likely go in on their own to prevent aggression and decrease the need for water changes to something manageable. All in, I'm expecting something like a year of back to back QT if doing one fish at a time, though I will source what I can pre QTed. I'm mentally weighing the risk of reactively treating with copper if disease presents versus the risk of error on my part. I personally think the risk of the fish having the disease in the first place is lower than me not missing a daily water change and ending up at the very least stressing the fish with poor water parameters. My main concern was with a fish coming in with a mild case of a protozoan infection and not being able to visibly see anything for 45-60 days, moving it to my larger tank, and two months later everything is infected.

I suppose I could clean out my existing tank of rock/sand and use it as the QT for a bit more room/safety factor.

 

[Spare time]

My current display tank has never had any fish diseases in it. The issue I am hoping to fight against is managing stability in my current 20g QT tank for sensitive, larger, or multiple fish. I may be able to put two wrasse in QT together (thought they don't handle QT well) but a tang, foxface, cbb, etc will likely go in on their own to prevent aggression and decrease the need for water changes to something manageable. All in, I'm expecting something like a year of back to back QT if doing one fish at a time, though I will source what I can pre QTed. I'm mentally weighing the risk of reactively treating with copper if disease presents versus the risk of error on my part. I personally think the risk of the fish having the disease in the first place is lower than me not missing a daily water change and ending up at the very least stressing the fish with poor water parameters. My main concern was with a fish coming in with a mild case of a protozoan infection and not being able to visibly see anything for 45-60 days, moving it to my larger tank, and two months later everything is infected.

I suppose I could clean out my existing tank of rock/sand and use it as the QT for a bit more room/safety factor.

You can also use a bin for a QT. It doesn't necessarily need to be a tank. PS I think petco has their 50% tank sale rn

 

[TheStrangler]

I'm looking at a 40 gallon stock tank now. I don't have any room for glass tanks, but I could find a place to set a plastic stock tank and store in a shed when not in use. I'd imagine observation would be tough when you can only view from the top though.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Ahoy all, I'm in the process of upgrading to a larger tank. I am not in any huge hurry to take down the smaller display tank. As I'll be purchasing additional fish for the larger tank, some of which are notoriously not great with unestablished QT tanks like wrasse, I was thinking that after moving my current fish to the larger tank, I could use my established smaller reef tank as an observation/QT tank before moving them into their final homes. Am I overlooking anything in assuming I could do that? I know the live rock and sand would interfere with copper treatment. I was thinking that I could just hold off on copper treatment and observe for the QT period and skip it assuming that over the 45ish days at 81 degrees there is no sign of marine ich/velvet/flukes etc. Am I correct in assuming that diseases would present in that period of time, or is it possible that it could go unnoticed? I would still treat for internal parasites and ailments without the rock/sand being an issue. The second concern is that if that is all feasible, I'd be doing multiple batches of quarantine as not all of my stocking plan would take kindly to sharing a 30 gallon tank. Assuming the first fish are healthy and move to the larger tank, would I need to let the QT tank remain fallow before bringing in the next fish?

I quarantine corals without any issue, but I'm a little hesitant to attempt to QT in a fresh uncycled bare bottom tank, I feel as though mortality would be equally likely from disease as from a mistake on my part. I typically buy fish pre quarantined, but some species this time around are either unavailable or prohibitively expensive.

Thanks for sanity checking my plan and contributing thoughts/ideas

Skipping copper really circumvents the active quarantine protocol. What happens is that a low level, chronic infection gets carried on the fish into your main tank where it can develop into a full blown infection.

You might be able to use hyposalinity instead of copper.

 

[TheStrangler]

Skipping copper really circumvents the active quarantine protocol. What happens is that a low level, chronic infection gets carried on the fish into your main tank where it can develop into a full blown infection.

You might be able to use hyposalinity instead of copper.

Understood. This was my primary concern. I think I'll go with a larger stock tank and a canister filter so that I can have a reasonable amount of ceramic/plastic bio media to seed with bacteria. The little bit of seeded sponge in a hang on filter makes me nervous. I'll skip using my old established display and just take it down when my current fish have been moved over.

 

[MnFish1]

Ahoy all, I'm in the process of upgrading to a larger tank. I am not in any huge hurry to take down the smaller display tank. As I'll be purchasing additional fish for the larger tank, some of which are notoriously not great with unestablished QT tanks like wrasse, I was thinking that after moving my current fish to the larger tank, I could use my established smaller reef tank as an observation/QT tank before moving them into their final homes. Am I overlooking anything in assuming I could do that? I know the live rock and sand would interfere with copper treatment. I was thinking that I could just hold off on copper treatment and observe for the QT period and skip it assuming that over the 45ish days at 81 degrees there is no sign of marine ich/velvet/flukes etc. Am I correct in assuming that diseases would present in that period of time, or is it possible that it could go unnoticed? I would still treat for internal parasites and ailments without the rock/sand being an issue. The second concern is that if that is all feasible, I'd be doing multiple batches of quarantine as not all of my stocking plan would take kindly to sharing a 30 gallon tank. Assuming the first fish are healthy and move to the larger tank, would I need to let the QT tank remain fallow before bringing in the next fish?

I quarantine corals without any issue, but I'm a little hesitant to attempt to QT in a fresh uncycled bare bottom tank, I feel as though mortality would be equally likely from disease as from a mistake on my part. I typically buy fish pre quarantined, but some species this time around are either unavailable or prohibitively expensive.

Thanks for sanity checking my plan and contributing thoughts/ideas

No worries you seem quite sane

some of which are notoriously not great with unestablished QT tanks like wrasse,

They all tolerate quarantine. Any sense that they do not may be a bit of a myth - and also depends on the quarantine projected.

Am I overlooking anything in assuming I could do that? I know the live rock and sand would interfere with copper treatment. I was thinking that I could just hold off on copper treatment and observe for the QT period and skip it assuming that over the 45ish days at 81 degrees there is no sign of marine ich/velvet/flukes etc.

Any quarantine is best done in a separate tank.

Am I correct in assuming that diseases would present in that period of time, or is it possible that it could go unnoticed?

It is possible they could go unnoticed

The second concern is that if that is all feasible, I'd be doing multiple batches of quarantine as not all of my stocking plan would take kindly to sharing a 30 gallon tank. Assuming the first fish are healthy and move to the larger tank, would I need to let the QT tank remain fallow before bringing in the next fish?

No -usually a quarantine would be - take a group of fish, do the protocol. Then do another - probably not the best to mix the method

 

[TheStrangler]

Thanks everyone for the sanity check. So what I've ended up doing is getting a 40 gallon stock tank from Chewy thats 38 inches long, 27 inches wide, and 13 inches tall. Seems like it'd make a killer frag tank too. By all description it should be reef safe non reactive plastic. I'm going to get a canister filter so I can throw a bunch of non porous media in it that'll not causes an issue with the copper while still giving me a good amount of flexibility due to size, volume, and nitrifying ability. I've got a spare ATO, heaters, powerheads, and light which I'll keep pretty low. Only downside is that I can't see from the sides, but maybe that'll give the fish a little extra privacy and make them feel more secure.

Can you reuse QT equipment after its been dry so long or sanitized? The tub I could use for QTing coral when I'm not QTing fish (assuming I can completely purge any trace of copper). Canister filters can be used as a media reactor for carbon/GFO on the display tank assuming its safe to do so. I figured I'd just wash everything with citric acid or bleach and allow it to airdry a few days or a week before repurposing anything.

 

[MnFish1]

Thanks everyone for the sanity check. So what I've ended up doing is getting a 40 gallon stock tank from Chewy thats 38 inches long, 27 inches wide, and 13 inches tall. Seems like it'd make a killer frag tank too. By all description it should be reef safe non reactive plastic. I'm going to get a canister filter so I can throw a bunch of non porous media in it that'll not causes an issue with the copper while still giving me a good amount of flexibility due to size, volume, and nitrifying ability. I've got a spare ATO, heaters, powerheads, and light which I'll keep pretty low. Only downside is that I can't see from the sides, but maybe that'll give the fish a little extra privacy and make them feel more secure.

Can you reuse QT equipment after its been dry so long or sanitized? The tub I could use for QTing coral when I'm not QTing fish (assuming I can completely purge any trace of copper). Canister filters can be used as a media reactor for carbon/GFO on the display tank assuming its safe to do so. I figured I'd just wash everything with citric acid or bleach and allow it to airdry a few days or a week before repurposing anything.

You can re-use QT equipment. Usually it's said 72 hours of drying for Ich - but if you're going to bleach there is no reason to dry things beforehand. I do not recall for velvet/brooklynella. However, I would soak your equipment (you can run your canister filter without media as well to sterilize). Make sure that any bleach you use is non-scented, non-splash-less Bleach. 8.25% sodium hypochlorite is the recommended percent - you can dilute per the chart below. Note - that 100 ppm is recommended here (of 8.25% bleach) other articles/sources suggest 200 ppm - see the chart at the link below. I would leave the tank/equipment with bleach for 24 hours personally.

https://dec.vermont.gov/sites/dec/files/dwgwp/DW/chlorinedosageemergencydisinfection.pdf

 

[Jay Hemdal]

You can re-use QT equipment. Usually it's said 72 hours of drying for Ich - but if you're going to bleach there is no reason to dry things beforehand. I do not recall for velvet/brooklynella. However, I would soak your equipment (you can run your canister filter without media as well to sterilize). Make sure that any bleach you use is non-scented, non-splash-less Bleach. 8.25% sodium hypochlorite is the recommended percent - you can dilute per the chart below. Note - that 100 ppm is recommended here (of 8.25% bleach) other articles/sources suggest 200 ppm - see the chart at the link below. I would leave the tank/equipment with bleach for 24 hours personally.

https://dec.vermont.gov/sites/dec/files/dwgwp/DW/chlorinedosageemergencydisinfection.pdf

Is standard bleach 8.25% sodium hypochlorite? I always thought standard bleach was 5.25%

 

[TheStrangler]

This is what I've got. It's just regular unscented bleach with no other non standard additives besides the buffers and such. I've got no doubt it'll work just fine.

 

[MnFish1]

Is standard bleach 8.25% sodium hypochlorite? I always thought standard bleach was 5.25%

Yes - I believe it is. Supposedly, it was changed in most solutions to 8.25%.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Yes - I believe it is. Supposedly, it was changed in most solutions to 8.25%.

I looked into it a bit - the 5.25% used to be the standard. The range is 4 yo 9% now though. Some "spashless" bleaches and some with other adjutants can't be used for disinfection (as we knew) and these may have lower concentrations.

The main issue for me is that I'll need to adjust my diluting ratios to reflect what the actual concentration is. A 1:10 ratio works for the 5.25% product....