New Quarantine Tank

So I'm planning on setting up a new quarantine tank today as a couple of my neons have cotton wool mouth.

I was going to put the filter sponge in with my existing filter to build up bacteria etc...how long should I stick it in there for before adding to QT.

Should I move the neons asap into QT or build up bacteria 1st...what's the priority?

 

Do you have any sponge in the cycled tank you could take out and put in the QT filter, because that would be quicker. I think it takes a few weeks for bacteria to establish on a new sponge.

 

Do you have any sponge in the cycled tank you could take out and put in the QT filter, because that would be quicker. I think it takes a few weeks for bacteria to establish on a new sponge.

Yes I have... so just cut some of that off and put in the filter of the QT?

 

Yes that would do it. Cut off a same size peice from the new sponge and pop it in the old new filter too.

 

Cheers.... all done now just leaving to heat up.

Would you go no gravel? Ive been given some but thinking will be better without,?

 

Easier to keep clean without in my opinion.

 

Many medicines whomp beneficial bacteria pretty hard.

Also - many quarantines and medicine treatments are 1-2 weeks and then done unless the treatment is unsuccessful. .

As such - you could probably just skip the whole "beneficial bacteria" thing and do big water changes every couple days or as indicated on the medication....

What I would do instead is to stock up on conventional aquarium filter elements with charcoal for the filter as well as a stock of fine filter media with no charcoal because the typical treatment course requires removal of charcoal for the treatment, then you put the charcoal in at the end to remove the medication.

Decoration and substrate wise... Zero. I want cleaning as easy as possible - aka dump it out and wipe it down.