QT question

[bjoiner]

Hello All,

I'm somewhat new to this and had a number of questions about a QT tank. I've had a 20 gallon FOWLR that's been going for a couple of years now. I just purchased a 50 gallon with 30 gallon sump for the purpose of starting a reef tank. I've never really had much issue with diseases in the fish-only tank, but since I'm putting (quite a bit) more money into the bigger tank, I want to do things right.

1. Since it seems like you want your QT tank parameters to be as close to the display tank as possible, do you always keep your QT tank running and do water changes on it when you change your display tank? Or do you only set it up just before purchasing a new animal?

2. Is it worthwhile to medicate all new fish for the common diseases, like ich, just to be safe, or is this hard on the fish?

3. Say you have a fish that ended up with a disease in the QT tank, after the fish is cured (or dies) how do you clean out the QT tank so that the next fish doesn't catch the quarentined diseases? (Do you empty the QT tank or just continue doing normal water changes?)

Thanks in advance!

Ben

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Ben,
:welcome:

Since I usually have my fish held at the LFS for several days (if not several weeks) and observe them there, I don't usually use a QT tank. But I'll try to lend my help regardless..

1: I leave it dry until needed then fill with tank water making an approximation of the water change that will occur in the main tank. (In other words, if you have a 20 gallon main and a 20 gallon QT, take half from the main tank to fill the QT and top off both off with new mixed water so that both wind up with an effective 50% water change.)

2: I would only medicate if needed to avoid stressing further. - Instead, I would just FW dip and QT / observe for a week or so.

3: If a diseased fish is cured in QT, you shouldn't have the disease in the QT water column any more, otherwise its probably not really "cured"... - If it dies in QT, I would empty it, bleach it and rinse/scrub thoroughly.

Hope that helps!

Norm