Qt's On Standby

While setting up my rack my Wife decided that she also was interested in adding to her tank. Of course, I am all for this. Happy Wife = Happy Life (and less arguments when I go and spend money LOL)

We know from past experience that not using a QT can be a huge risk so we grabbed a 4 pack of 12 liter Sterilight boxes (about 3.5 gallons) and took some old heaters and sponge filters we had laying around to make some standby QT tanks.

In the first picture, you can see that we are storing these on the top of my rack for future use and they will not get used for anything else since all the needed supplies are stored inside.



In each box we keep a preset heater and the body of a sponge filter. The filter foam is in my wife's tank to keep it seeded. It has been in there for 3 weeks and should be ready to go when needed.
If there is a need for chemical filtration a small air driven box filter with carbon etc will be put in there also. once QT is over the sponge can be cleaned (or replaced) and placed back into one of our tanks for seeding again. since we have two of these setups we should have no problems keeping one on standby and one in use. Unless of course she and I get fish at the same time!!


Down the road, I intend to have more sponges on reserve in one of my tanks so that the rotation can be made a little simpler.

 

Nice idea. I used a water bridge between my main and my quarantine and just took it out when I added new fish.

 

I have seen those bridges on YouTube, but I have never tried to make one. At the risk of sounding a bit more inexperienced than I am - Wouldn't that Bridge defeat the purpose of the quarantine?

I have always made sure that my quarantines (ok well every tank actually) were separate 100%.

I even clean my gravel vac between tanks, just to be certain there is no cross-contamination.

 

I actually keep fish in my 5 gallon QT when I'm not using it for QT, always something that can be moved out to the other tanks when we need to use it. (Lots of Bettas have lived there).

That said... it seems as soon as I move one occupant out there's something new coming in.

But this way the tank is always cycled and established and ready.

 

for the next few months, I imagine that will be the case here also. Once I do the initial stocking on the main tank I will be using one of these for additions. The other will be for additions to the wife's tank. Since I am already planning on set up 2 more 20 longs I don't think I can set up another tank "just in case" right yet.. (yet)

 

Yeah I am in the midst of planning a new tank for my office and my daughter is starting her own tank though at least with a new tank once cycled the first fish can go straight in usually.

We actually have planned out the next 5 fish purchases so hopefully no one is sick and needs an extended QT stay! (Eyes the mystery snail who get gets released to the bedroom tank on Sunday, just in time for the guppies to come take his place!)