Quarantine ?

[donlankford]

im looking to get a quarantine tank setup. tank, filter, some pvc pipe for hiding spots and heater is all i need or is there anything else i might need? Now the qt size i want to get is a 20 gallon to hold a clown, firefish, prawn goby and springers dottyback. Is that big enough for those 4 or could i get away with a 10gal? they all are no bigger than two inches. Cant treat the display tank cuz it has snails and hermits and im ready to rid the dt of the ich. Also has some shrooms. Do the inverts and corals carry the ich? Just dont want to leave the dt with just corals and inverts for 2 months while im treating the fish and have the fish get ich again when i put them back in the dt. now not all fish have ich. just my nemo. but i want to rid the dt of the ich. will it be ok to qt all fish and treat all fish even if they all dont have ich? what should the light schedule be for the qt?

 

[little_fish]

That is all you need, but make sure you have water on hand to do a water change because I think you need to do daily water changes if you are doing a copper treatment. I would also go with the 20 gal. I would keep a normal lighting schedule for the DT.

And you have to treat every fish, even if you dont see the visible ich spots ever fish has it. They are just healthy (ie not stressed) enough to keep the parasite at a manageable level.

Corals and inverts dont carry ich, but part of the ich lifecyle lives in the substrate, which is why need to leave the DT empty for several months so that that lifecycle can die off without a host for next lifecycle.

You are going to have to treat every fish you get with copper/hypo from now on, otherwise you will introduce ich back into the tank. Most of us live with ich in our tanks, we just feed our fish high quality foods, keep good water quality and stock so that our fish arent in a stressful situation, and ich isnt an issue

 

[donlankford]

everybody is eating and swimming fine i just know its there and i want it out. but i also want the qt for when i get new fish for my 55 gal when i get it setup. so i wont be putting anything thats not supposed to be in there and if i accidently do i have a hospital tank to treat them.

 

[donlankford]

with filling the qt can i just seed a filter in the dt and then fill the hospital tank with fresh saltwater or just fill it with water from the dt without seeding the filter. how long should i seed the filter if i went in that direction? i know its gonna go through a cycle just want to know which way will help it go through the cycle?

 

[little_fish]

using copper or hypo will kill off most bacteria, so there really isnt a point to cycling the qt

 

[justanotherfishhead]

I just wanted to add that Cupramine is what I'm using and I did a lot of research and would recommend it. It does not kill all of the bacteria like the original copper. It might kill some. But IMO you should put the filter media in your DT for a few weeks so you have some type of bio filter,then put that in your QT filter. Also the ammonia alert that sticks on the tank is very helpful in a QT tank because you can tell at a glance if there is any ammonia and make a water change if you need to. Yes you can fill the QT with water from the DT the first time, but for all future water changes you should use new water.

 

[justanotherfishhead]

Also I'd recommend when you first put the fish in the QT to let them adjust and make sure the bio filter is good for a week or so before adding the cupramine. Especially since it sounds like your fish are not severely sick, you can wait a week or two to make sure they're doing okay. and if I were you I would go with the 20 gal.