Running A Quarantine Tank Questions

thinking about upgrading my 55 gallon to 125gal and and making the 55gal a quarantine tank. The tank will be established. Do I need to do water changes if they are no fish in the tank? and is there anything else I need to do?

 

thinking about upgrading my 55 gallon to 125gal and and making the 55gal a quarantine tank. The tank will be established. Do I need to do water changes if they are no fish in the tank? and is there anything else I need to do?

No, you won't need to do water changes once there aren't any animals in there creating waste. Just keep in mind that the beneficial bacteria will start to starve at some point, so you may want to add some waste from time to time.

 

No, you won't need to do water changes once there aren't any animals in there creating waste. Just keep in mind that the beneficial bacteria will start to starve at some point, so you may want to add some waste from time to time.

okay so just throw a little food in there

 

You could put food in, or better yet, pure ammonia solution if you want to tank to be running at all times.

But many people just keep extra filter media in their main tank and when they need to use a QT they just fill it with water, put the "seeded" filter media from the main tank in the filter and put the fish in. This way you do not need to have fishless tank set up at all times.

 

I will be completely honest here. Unless you buy a steady stream of fish maintaining an empty qt tank is just a pain. It was just as much work as one of my display tanks. You need to still add something to feed the bacteria just as you would fish. That food makes waist and the cycles still produces nitrates so water changes are needed. If you neglect your qt your water conditions will be very different from both your tap and main tank

 

oh okay woulnt the tank have to be cycled again if I empty it and put established media in it? I don't mind running it all the time ill probaly just throw some large sponge filters in there and keep it running, shouldnt use up to much energy

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I will be completely honest here. Unless you buy a steady stream of fish maintaining an empty qt tank is just a pain. It was just as much work as one of my display tanks. You need to still add something to feed the bacteria just as you would fish. That food makes waist and the cycles still produces nitrates so water changes are needed. If you neglect your qt your water conditions will be very different from both your tap and main tank

oh hmm, I would probaly have the quarantine next to the main tank or close to it so I could change the water every time I do water changes on the main tank, but I don't want it to be as much work as the main tank aha

maybe just have one or two fish in the quarantine tank?

 

I use a 20 gallon tank as a qt. when I set it up I just fill it with tank water, cut a piece of sponge from my main filter and throw it in the little filter. I only use old tank since its up to temp and if used for hospital purposes its the water their used to so less stressful.

 

Quarantine tanks are essential if you have multiple tanks and have a lot of fish, and expensive fish. Protect your investments. Peopls don’t even realize how often their fish die simply due to adding a new fish that has a parasite/infection.

If you care about your fish, get a 10 gallon quar tank, it’s not that hard to maintain, and for someone like myself who have big cichlids/expensive fish quarantining is essential and any good hobbyist will tell you this.

 

do you quarantine every new fish you get? if so for how long?

 

Ideally you should qt every new fish. Time wise varies between two weeks and a month and that depends on a few factors. How much you trust were you got the fish, which fish since some are known to have a higher rate of problems and preference.

 

ive never quarantine any of my fish, but I did I get all the fish from lfs that I trust never had any problems. but I do think its a good idea to have one which ill get setup soon