Picking up the pieces of a crashed tank?

[cynster]

So I have a well crashed tank sitting with water, sand, and filters still. I'd like to make it into a quarantine tank, but I've got some really newbie questions for marine QT setups.

First - what should I do with the stuff in it? I have a piece of liverock in that tank too. I know I should make it bare-bottom - but how should I fill it with water? Should I? Or just wait until it is needed?

I'm assuming I would want to fill it with tank water, however, it's about the size of my tank now, so that might be a problem.

I used to just fill with tank water and use a secondary filter that had been started in the display tank when I did a freshwater QT with a 40g DT, but with such a small tank - is this different? Is there a better way to do this?

 

[little_fish]

I would take everything out. If you want to keep the live rock, put it in your other tank. I cant think of a single medication that wont take out your biological filter so keeping it cycled is kinda pointless.

I would instead find some nice fake plants to put in there if you need it, and just keep it dry. Have some water on hand so that it can be quickly set up if need be.

If you do end up using it, you have to do tests daily to see if the water needs to be changed.

 

[cynster]

Thank you :) When I add new water, do I add fresh water or does it have to be from my main tank?

 

[little_fish]

I would use totally fresh water, but if in a pinch you could use water from your tank. Just make sure that the fresh water has been mixing for at least 24 hours and has similar parameters as your main tank (ie salinity and temp)

 

[cynster]

oh okay thank you :D I really appreciate the advice! That should be no problem at all.

 

[Smitty]

+1 lil fish.

 

[AmberSunrise]

I agree with LF with everything but the 24 hours on the salt mix I never do this I make up my salt right when I need it for water changes or QT. Not sure what the benefit is to keeping it for a day.

I keep a small sponge in my HOB skimmer or filter that I can use for bacteria in a QT if needed but like LF said if you are going to be medicating it would be pointless since it would kill the bacteria. It would only be if you needed to separate babies a new fish or something of that sort.

 

[little_fish]

You want to mix the salt for 24 hours because newly made saltwater is very caustic and can damage your fish's gill and coral flesh

 

[AmberSunrise]

You want to mix the salt for 24 hours because newly made saltwater is very caustic and can damage your fish's gill and coral flesh

Would you say this is an issue when doing water changes where you are just adding a portion or just when you are doing a whole tank of new water?

 

[little_fish]

Both.

 

[marcah]

yeah I found that out the hard way when I first started out in the hobby didnt realize the salt had to sit a bit to totally settle in..Had a ricordea that took the brunt of my inexperience.. didnt kill it but came really close..

 

[cynster]

Wow I didn't know that either - I always mixed right in too. I'll start letting the mixture sit for 24 hours from now on before a water change.