Quarantine Tank Q's

S

SaltyScotty

Member
I'm setting up a 20g quarantine and I curious if there is a cycle time to worry about before throwing fish in there/using it.

It has no sand or rock, and I used a little water from my existing setup, a little more water from my cycling 220, and the rest is fresh mixed RODI saltwater....

Any thought and suggestions would be appreciated!

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2
 
SaltyScotty said:
I'm setting up a 20g quarantine and I curious if there is a cycle time to worry about before throwing fish in there/using it.

It has no sand or rock, and I used a little water from my existing setup, a little more water from my cycling 220, and the rest is fresh mixed RODI saltwater....

Any thought and suggestions would be appreciated!

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...

U should b ok. People suggest taking ur filter and keeping in ur sump of tank u will b placing fish for a couple days... In order to get bacteria in tank. But the water from ur tank should be ok
 
I like using cured liverock from my tank to keep my QT tank cycled, since I don't really use chemicals in my QT, hyposalinity only.
 
I always do a water change when I need to start my QT. I use the water I took from my DT and drop it into my QT. Plenty of nitrifying bacteria in there and it kills two birds with one stone. I also have dedicated marco rock for my QT too. I use copper in my QT.
 
There isn't really any bacteria in water so unless u use lr or a filter sponge from your other tank your going to risk cycling and losing your fish.
 
Joe5688 said:
There isn't really any bacteria in water so unless u use lr or a filter sponge from your other tank your going to risk cycling and losing your fish.
Click to expand...

There's tons of nitrifying bacteria in the water column. How do you think it spreads and travels through the sump and that tanks? It doesn't take long for it to reproduce either, as long as there is food for them consume. As long as you aren't throwing 50 fish in the QT, your QT should easily handle the bioload of a fish that needs QTing. I'm sure there is more bacteria in 20 gallons of tank water than there is in a filter sponge that is sitting in a sump.
 
KeishaKornbread said:
There's tons of nitrifying bacteria in the water column. How do you think it spreads and travels through the sump and that tanks? It doesn't take long for it to reproduce either, as long as there is food for them consume. As long as you aren't throwing 50 fish in the QT, your QT should easily handle the bioload of a fish that needs QTing. I'm sure there is more bacteria in 20 gallons of tank water than there is in a filter sponge that is sitting in a sump.
Click to expand...

Sorry, but I totally disagree. There is a minimal amount of bacteria in tank water and using cycled tank water in a QT tank does not mean the QT tank is cycled too. Bacteria grows on surfaces, like rocks and sponges. There is certainly not enough bacteria in free floating water to control ammonia. That's why they sell live rock, if it was as simple as adding cycled water then they wouldn't sell LR, they would only need to sell live water. Having the forethought to put a sponge in the sump of your DT is the BEST way to have an instantly cycled QT tank. Of course you can use a piece of LR but that rock should never go back in your DT, so you're basically wasting the LR rock unless you cook it afterwards. If you're not using some type of sponge filter or don't have one on stand-by in your sump you MUST test your ammonia several times per day and be prepared to do WC's daily if needed in the QT. This is the only way to guarantee your fish will survive in a non-cycled tank.

Personally, I always keep a sponge in my DT sump and can setup a fully cycled QT in minutes, as-needed. Sponges are dirt cheap, so never throw one back in your DT sump once you break down the QT. The sponge will be saturated with bacteria.
 
KeishaKornbread said:
There's tons of nitrifying bacteria in the water column. How do you think it spreads and travels through the sump and that tanks? It doesn't take long for it to reproduce either, as long as there is food for them consume. As long as you aren't throwing 50 fish in the QT, your QT should easily handle the bioload of a fish that needs QTing. I'm sure there is more bacteria in 20 gallons of tank water than there is in a filter sponge that is sitting in a sump.
Click to expand...
So in your theory if i remove my filter sponge in my qt that has a bb my tank will be fine?
 
Joe5688 said:
So in your theory if i remove my filter sponge in my qt that has a bb my tank will be fine?
Click to expand...

Every QT tank needs a filter. If the goal is to prepare a QT tank, it must be seeded by something containing nitrifying bacteria. You said water from a fully established DT (20 gallons) will not have a sufficient amount of this bacteria to handle the bioload of a QT tank because there is not enough free-swimming bacteria. This in incorrect. My QT tank holds 15-20 gallons and all of that water comes from my DT when I set it up. Freshly mixed saltwater goes into my DT to replace the water removed to start a QT. The water from my DT will seed my HOB filter and the marco rock in my my QT.

I think you are misunderstanding me. I'm not saying a QT tank with nothing but DT water is enough to perform the biological filtration. The bacteria will need surface area to colonize and perform that function, whether it is a sponge or live rock. No QT tank should ONLY have water in it, and nothing else.
 
Sk8tr has a great article on RC about it. There's still an argument of whether you want a qt to cycle or not...craziness I tell ya!
 
DrewF said:
Almost every episode of tanked they dump in tons of bottled batteria. If they trust that it works with those very pricey setups, i'm sure it'll work fine for a QT.
Click to expand...

I've never used this specific product, but I have used Dr. Timms One and Only Bacteria with great success. I've used it to seed my setup twice and for QTs. I've never had an initial setup hold ammonia readings longer than 24 hours. I've successfully cycled both times and had fish and corals in the tanks a couple days later after a water change to remove nitrates. I discovered it by watching Mr. Saltwatertank. He interviews Dr. Timm who explains in-depth how the product works and it makes absolute perfect sense if you have a better than average understanding of biology.
 
jayjigga said:
Sk8tr has a great article on RC about it. There's still an argument of whether you want a qt to cycle or not...craziness I tell ya!
Click to expand...

It depends on the user. It's easier to maintain parameters once it's cycled, but there is no need to cycle if you plan on doing major water changes daily. The purpose of cycling a tank is only to keep water parameters in check by natural means, but you can also manage the numbers by those huge water changes.
 
KeishaKornbread said:
Every QT tank needs a filter. If the goal is to prepare a QT tank, it must be seeded by something containing nitrifying bacteria. You said water from a fully established DT (20 gallons) will not have a sufficient amount of this bacteria to handle the bioload of a QT tank because there is not enough free-swimming bacteria. This in incorrect. My QT tank holds 15-20 gallons and all of that water comes from my DT when I set it up. Freshly mixed saltwater goes into my DT to replace the water removed to start a QT. The water from my DT will seed my HOB filter and the marco rock in my my QT.

I think you are misunderstanding me. I'm not saying a QT tank with nothing but DT water is enough to perform the biological filtration. The bacteria will need surface area to colonize and perform that function, whether it is a sponge or live rock. No QT tank should ONLY have water in it, and nothing else.
Click to expand...

But in this person scenario, they have no lr or sand so water alone will not work in his qt.
 
Joe5688 said:
But in this person scenario, they have no lr or sand so water alone will not work in his qt.
Click to expand...

I never said water alone will work in his QT. I said water alone will seed his QT. Scott will still need filtration performed by live rock or a sponge/filter floss filter unless he plans to do manual water changes when he notices ammonia readings creeping up.
 
Walt Mr. Saltwater is coming out with a book on fish diseases and qt setup on Thursday. Just a FYI n I also use Dr. Tim's one and only.
 
I love that guy! He advised me on my skimmer and he always responds to my emails personally. I need to buy his guides and support him. Where do you buy your One and Only? I always have to order it from DFS. I just found out Xzotic sells it for $17.99 so that's the only place I know for sure that carries it. I'm all out of the stuff.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top