Do I Really Need A Quarantine Tank?

I am starting to populate my tank with fish. I have been acclimating them and not quarantining them. I am debating whether or not to invest in a quarantine tank.

1-Is there really a need for a quarantine tank if you have a reputable LFS and the prospective new fish has been in their tanks for several months?

2-If I go the route of a quarantine tank, is a 20 gallon with a bubbler/filter pad, light heater, water from the tank, and some PVC pipe sufficient for juvenile tang or lionfish?

 

Hi,
The short answer is absolutely yes, QT is required for SW. Unlike FW, many Saltwater specimens are hand caught from the wild, not bred in captivity.

The longer answer is, no, but highly recommended. In Australia, we have strict quarantine rules requiring any foreign animal (e.g. wild caught) must be quarantined prior to release into the market, which lowers the risk, but does not eradicate it.
My LFS quarantined the fish again before selling them, so I was comfortable to put the fish straight in the display. But that was a risk I was prepared to take.

When I look back, I guess I was a bit foolish to do so, but thankfully nothing bad happened.

Additionally, it's very difficult to catch a fish amongst the rock work of the display, so it's much easier to QT before a problem can arise than trying to catch and treat.

Your proposed setup will work just fine, you don't necessarily need the bubbler. The rest looks good. The size is not as important for QT, as the fish won't be in there permanently, nor long enough to do any real damage. I would use fresh saltwater for QT, but ex-display would still be ok, just be sure to acclimate the fish accordingly. Some species are more sensitive and really should be drip acclimated, others are more hardy (particularly captive bred), and can be acclimated using the floating bag method.

 

Hi,
The short answer is absolutely yes, QT is required for SW. Unlike FW, many Saltwater specimens are hand caught from the wild, not bred in captivity.

The longer answer is, no, but highly recommended. In Australia, we have strict quarantine rules requiring any foreign animal (e.g. wild caught) must be quarantined prior to release into the market, which lowers the risk, but does not eradicate it.
My LFS quarantined the fish again before selling them, so I was comfortable to put the fish straight in the display. But that was a risk I was prepared to take.

When I look back, I guess I was a bit foolish to do so, but thankfully nothing bad happened.

Additionally, it's very difficult to catch a fish amongst the rock work of the display, so it's much easier to QT before a problem can arise than trying to catch and treat.

Your proposed setup will work just fine, you don't necessarily need the bubbler. The rest looks good. The size is not as important for QT, as the fish won't be in there permanently, nor long enough to do any real damage. I would use fresh saltwater for QT, but ex-display would still be ok, just be sure to acclimate the fish accordingly. Some species are more sensitive and really should be drip acclimated, others are more hardy (particularly captive bred), and can be acclimated using the floating bag method.

-thanks....but how do I prevent the QT tank from cycling? Would 20 gallons of water from my display do the trick?

 

I use a 5 gallon bucket and stick in an extra sponge filter I always run in one of my tanks for that purpose.. no need for an actual tank

 

I use a 5 gallon bucket and stick in an extra sponge filter I always run in one of my tanks for that purpose.. no need for an actual tank

-how long do you leave the fish in there? do you need a light for a QT?

 

Do you need one? Nope, but let me tell you what happened to me once. It might help you to decide to set one up...
I had never quarantined my fish in my 125 FO tank. One fateful day I added a new fish. Long story short all but the fish I had just got died in a matter of weeks...from some thing the new fish had.

So do you need one. Depends on if your willing to kill your whole tank off. I learned the hard way.

My opinion is yes you need one

 

I have no idea when it comes to salt water, but as far as fresh water fish goes.... I have an extra tank not as large as my 55 gallon, but large enough to keep my fish in temporarily. With fresh water, you should be able to transfer your established filter to your temporary tank and as long as the temps and parameters are similar you should be fine. I keep one in case I develop a leak in my tank. As far as sick fish goes, I have a 5 gallon tank I could use for that. I don't quarantine fish prior to adding them to my tanks, although it is recommended. If they were healthy at the fish store they should be good enough to add straight away. Mind you, I do not own expensive fish. I believe transferring fish is very stressful for fish, stress kills fish and us too btw. The less stress I put my fish through, the better.

 

-how long do you leave the fish in there? do you need a light for a QT?

No light needed. but for tropicals you need to add a small heater. Ive found 3 days is usually long enough to see if any new diseases are going to pop up (but I don't have the patience for longer). The stress of the move from the store often makes the fish wiht low grade infections show signs of infection very quickly. I do this method for sick fish too that need quarantine and treatment.

 

I am starting to populate my tank with fish. I have been acclimating them and not quarantining them. I am debating whether or not to invest in a quarantine tank.

1-Is there really a need for a quarantine tank if you have a reputable LFS and the prospective new fish has been in their tanks for several months?

2-If I go the route of a quarantine tank, is a 20 gallon with a bubbler/filter pad, light heater, water from the tank, and some PVC pipe sufficient for juvenile tang or lionfish?

1- I would say it's best practice to have one. It gives you the opportunity to screen all your fish for disease and gives you a tank that is already set up for copper treatment (kills ich, velvet, etc.) if something comes up (no worries about copper killing inverts, corals, etc.). Ich is bad enough but velvet is downright nasty, your fish can literally go from perfectly fine to everything dead in less than 48 hours.

2- Sounds good provided the fish are small, but make sure that tang has PVC big enough to hide in or it will get super stressed. I would skip the bubbler and just get a cheap powerhead. I used one of these to cycle my live rock in a garbage can and although the mounts aren't the greatest, they will hold with a bit of effort and will do an amazing job for cycling rock or a QT tank:



There is a review of it here: