Starting up a QT

Hey all! So I've never had a quarantine tank because I only had a 10g. Now that I have a 20L and a 29H I've had 1 experience too many where I loose fish from bad stock and infect all my other fish. I want to start a 10 gallon QT and eventually turn it into a betta tank when I'm done stocking both tanks.

My questions are:
-Barebottom or not?
-when I buy fish and put them in the QT: how long? Also should I be dosing a general medication?
-is there anything different from having a QT vs a regular tank other than what's mentioned above?

I will also be fishless cycling it with either a sponge filter or a small adjustable HOB. I've never had a sponge filter before so I'm not sure if this is the best choice. I'm planning to keep it running even when there's no fish in the tank. I'll be adding drops of liquid ammonia to keep the BB alive. If I'm planning to have different sizes of fish in there (ex: BN pleco, black phantom tetras, neon tetras, cory cats, angelfish) one to two species at time (3-6 fish), how much should I dose the ammonia to prepare for the bioload? 1ppm? 2ppm? Etc.

Add any advice and tips! I'm new to this part so I appreciate everything!

 

Yes, bare bottom. Easier to clean and you don't have to worry about things hiding in the substrate.

3-4 weeks minimum QT time. I don't dose prophylactically, but some people do. I will dose with PraziPro only if they're wild caught (because they likely do have parasites), but that's about it.

Not much different other than decor. I use PVC pipes (easy to clean if need be) and spawning mops (made out of yarn, so easy to make and throw away if I need to).

You'll need an adjustable heater. I don't use a light on my QT tank because it gets ambient light. I use a sponge filter usually, and as long as the fish weren't sick, I can put the sponge filter back into one of my other tanks to keep it seeded between uses. I have multiple seeded sponge filters at the ready if I have to throw one out due to disease (usually I don't throw it out - I let it sit out and dry out for a few weeks; if it's a serious disease, I'll throw it out).

Alternatively, you can use an HOB and keep extra filter material in your other tank to use in the QT tank when need be.

Personally, I wouldn't plan on putting a betta in when you're done with it. You'll never know when you'll need to use it again. When not in use, my tank is dry, empty and always ready for the next fish.

Rather than fishless cycling it and always leaving it running, I'd throw a sponge filter in your main tank for 3-4 weeks before you get new fish, that way it's ready when you need to use it. Alternatively, you can put extra media in your stocked tank's filter 3-4 weeks ahead of time, and use that in your QT HOB. When you're done QTing, if the fish weren't sick, put the media or sponge filter back in your main tank.

 

Texas covered it all

The only thing I would add is I do actually treat with prazI pro preventatively as the majority of fish have small amounts of parasites. The stress of being shipped to a store then to your tank makes them more susceptible to opportunistic parasites. I've had too many times previously where I end up treating the main tank after adding the new fish due to parasites so I find the preventative treatment for a couple weeks does wonders.

 

Thanks for the quick responses! The only thing I'm worried about is having a sponge or hob media back in my main tank when it was just in a QT or if it was used when treating with meds. Plus I'm not too fond of the look of sponge filters.

Thinking out loud here: I'm not sure how big they are and if I can fit it in my main tank. If it's small enough, I do have a tribal head looking decor I got from petco. Not sure if hiding it in decorations would be ok. Id be worried about taking hiding spots away from my fish. I'll attach a photo of the setup. What do you think?



I'll def do a bunch of fake plants with the bare bottom. I'll also look into pvc pipes! I actually want one in my 20 for my future cory cats. I've never heard of spawning mops. I'll need to look into that too. I'm converting my 10 to my 20 so I'll have an extra hood and light anyway.

I'll wait on that betta then. Maybe I can fit a 5 gallon next to the QT? Hmmm

 

Thanks for the quick responses! The only thing I'm worried about is having a sponge or hob media back in my main tank when it was just in a QT or if it was used when treating with meds. Plus I'm not too fond of the look of sponge filters.

Thinking out loud here: I'm not sure how big they are and if I can fit it in my main tank. If it's small enough, I do have a tribal head looking decor I got from petco. Not sure if hiding it in decorations would be ok. Id be worried about taking hiding spots away from my fish. I'll attach a photo of the setup. What do you think?


I'll def do a bunch of fake plants with the bare bottom. I'll also look into pvc pipes! I actually want one in my 20 for my future cory cats. I've never heard of spawning mops. I'll need to look into that too. I'm converting my 10 to my 20 so I'll have an extra hood and light anyway.

I'll wait on that betta then. Maybe I can fit a 5 gallon next to the QT? Hmmm

I'd stay away from decor and plastic plants just because they're not easy to clean if you want to put them in your main tank later. That setup looks a bit overcrowded to me too. I usually do 3-4 PVC pipe pieces and 2-3 spawning mops (basically a bunch of yarn pieces tied together at one end - that part floats on the top [usually tied around a styrofoam piece] and the strands hang down to the bottom).

If you use meds, then yes, I wouldn't put the media or sponge filter back in your main tank. But you can keep sponges or lots of extra media in your main tank, use it for the QT when needed, throw away QT media, and add additional new media to main tank for the next QT.

 

Yeah I think I decided to have a small hob filter. So I'll keep media in my 20 gallon filter and once I take one out I'll replace it with another.
CindiL TexasDomer would you mind posting photos of your QT? I'm so curious to see what they look like!

I wouldn't be putting any decorations into any other tanks.

 

You don't necessarily need to put extra media in the 20s filter if you're running a hob you can just set it up on the 20 if you have the room then just swap it over when the time comes that's how I'm doing it

 

I just set one up when I need it, otherwise I have it dried and put away. I usually just take media out of my 33g, put it into the hob filter on my 10 gallon when I need to QT fish. Mine is put away right now.

 

Yeah I think I decided to have a small hob filter. So I'll keep media in my 20 gallon filter and once I take one out I'll replace it with another.
@CindiL @TexasDomer would you mind posting photos of your QT? I'm so curious to see what they look like!

I wouldn't be putting any decorations into any other tanks.

I would, but I just dismantled it after I moved my gold tetras to my main tank and now I'm out of town for a few weeks (super-knowledgable fish friend watching my tanks for me!).

It's just the basics though: a 10 gal, sponge filter, 50 watt heater, pvc pipe, spawning mops, and a glass lid. That's it.

 

Hmm dang lol I was curious!
krack499 the hood I have doesn't have any room. Plus ill probably be constantly medicating the tank since I get a lot of fish at petsmart.

 

I like adding a decoration and the one I use is the same one I have in my main tank.
It's steps on both sides with a nice hiding spot in the middle. The last thing I want to do is add more stress to the fish I just brought home. drip Acclimate for an hour. Leave them in the dark for 4 hours then lights on and a place to hide if needed. If I just took fish out I would do a WC add PrazI test the water pick up the new fish and go through my routine. I keep AC 30's on all tanks and there at the ready.
I also use Floating plants just a little to make the fish feel safe. The less stress the less problems.

 

I treat my QT tank like it's just a normal tank - gravel, normal décor, adjustable heater. I'm about 20% into stocking a 100 gallon tank and 80% with a 55g, so the QT is going to running for another several months. Because of this, I don't want to look at a nasty bare bottom tank with PVC decorations. The only thing I treat for preventatively are parasites. I use two doses of PraziPro one week apart and also two doses of levamisole because I'm paranoid of camallanus worms. PraziPro is easily available, but the levamisole is harder to get. However, it's used for treating farm animals and can be found on Amazon.

 

DavoleBomb

Do you have a link to levamisole never heard of it and would like to do some research on it. I use PrazI as a preventive once a month but it never hurts to learn about other meds you never know. I went to amazon and they don't show it with that name.

 

Just thought I'd mention that fenbendazole works for cammalanus worms also. I recently purchased this medicated 5 pack of food including praziquantel and fenbendazole food as well as kanamycin, metronidazole and another (can't remember).


He is a member here and you can get a discount if you go directly to his website.

I think if you put in fishlore you get a discount.

 

Thanks guys! So let me make sure I'm on the same page, you're saying:

Buy fish
Add prazipro
Feed with medicated foods
QT for 4 weeks
Add to main tank

Am I correct? Do you feed all the foods? Do you redose prazI after weekly water changes?

Just trying to make sure I get this down!

 

Just treat with prazI pro. The medicated flakes are just good to have on hand and work better than water column treatments if any of your fish have disease.

I usually dose prazI two weekly rounds, one week apart after water changes.

 

Just thought I'd mention that fenbendazole works for cammalanus worms also. I recently purchased this medicated 5 pack of food including praziquantel and fenbendazole food as well as kanamycin, metronidazole and another (can't remember).


He is a member here and you can get a discount if you go directly to his website.

I think if you put in fishlore you get a discount.

Do the flakes come with instructions? Like how many days to give and if it needs to be repeated after a certain time?

Safe for inverts in tank too or only for fish only tank? Looks like a great idea.

 

And you don't have to use Prazipro. I don't, and I haven't had any issues (and I've used my QT a lot).

 

Yes it's true you don't need to use anything and it's always a good thing when your buying fish to check them out while there in the tank at your LFS.
Check them good and tell the person that you would like these particular fish and before buying check them in the bag. Always remember your paying and you looking for healthy fish that are moving with all fins in tact and I always look at the condition of the tank there in and what other fish are with them.


Stress is a big part of disease because it effects there immune system and that's why a QT is a must have. I use PrazI and Vita- Chem as directed
and will monitor the fish in the QT every day and keep them there for at least three weeks and most times I'll add another week or more if I feel it's needed. I also add PrazI to the tank they're going into that day. The way I feel about it is even if it's not needed it can't hurt and can only help.


Do as you see fit and always try to give the fish the best possible life you can. There's a lot of inaccurate information out there and like anything else everyone has an opinion on how to do things and in this case it's setting up a QT. Best of luck and the best thing you can do in this hobby is be patient and do what makes you happy.:

PS: Forgot to mention I move new fish into the main tank after a WC and add PrazI as stated

 

@

Do you have a link to levamisole never heard of it and would like to do some research on it. I use PrazI as a preventive once a month but it never hurts to learn about other meds you never know. I went to amazon and they don't show it with that name.

It goes by tradename Prohibit.

Here's some links that you may find useful:







I prefer levamisole over the medicated flakes because it's hard to control dosing with flakes and from what I've read, a number of fish won't eat the flakes.

 

Thanks for the info!
I'm the person who sits and stares at the tank I'm buying from for a minimum of 10min. If I see ANYTHING I don't like I just don't buy. Then if I find the tank is ok I do a quick round of all the tanks. If any have ich I don't buy for several months from that location. The mom n pop shop I like to go to has every tank on their own filtration system. I did see a couple fish with ich in various tanks but ich is so easily caught. I didnt buy a snail because of that. However I did buy a baby bristlenose in a tank that looked great!

But this is why I want a QT because I've been battling ich and maybe another disease for the past several months. Sick of infecting my large tank. Hopefully prazipro will help with the small issues I can't get enough symptoms from to classify them! I'll stay away from the foods until I'm more experienced with medications. Considering this last month was the first time I've used any meds in my 6 years of fish keeping. Stupid ich.

 

What are the symptoms?

 

I prefer levamisole over the medicated flakes because it's hard to control dosing with flakes and from what I've read, a number of fish won't eat the flakes.

I'm sure there are pros and cons to both but I have to say for bacterial infections the food has been much more effective for me (right now for a columnaris outbreak.)

I have always used the water based prazI pro which has worked well too. Though sometimes with stubborn internal parasites the food is the better way to go.

I can't speak for all fish ha ha but all my current fish absolutely love the food. They gobble it right up (the kanamycin flakes).

 

I'm sure there are pros and cons to both but I have to say for bacterial infections the food has been much more effective for me (right now for a columnaris outbreak.)

I have always used the water based prazI pro which has worked well too. Though sometimes with stubborn internal parasites the food is the better way to go.

I can't speak for all fish ha ha but all my current fish absolutely love the food. They gobble it right up (the kanamycin flakes).

I was talking specifically about the fenbendezole flakes vs levamisole. I agree that praziquantel is great stuff and has a pretty broad coverage. While I use levamisole specifically as protection against camallanus worms, it does round out the coverage of praziquantel pretty well. I only prophylactically treat for parasites since they tend to be more insidious than bacterial or fungal infections and usually the fish will have outward signs of infection.

 

I'm sure there are pros and cons to both but I have to say for bacterial infections the food has been much more effective for me (right now for a columnaris outbreak.)

I have always used the water based prazI pro which has worked well too. Though sometimes with stubborn internal parasites the food is the better way to go.

I can't speak for all fish ha ha but all my current fish absolutely love the food. They gobble it right up (the kanamycin flakes).

That's good news to hear and hope things are getting back to normal for you.
@
as for ICK I just went through a battle with it and used just heat no meds and I loss some but staying positive I also saved some. It's very hard to watch your fish stress with the heat treatment but it works but no matter how slow you take to get to 86 degrees there's a good chance your going to lose some and you feel so helpless.
Best of luck just have a tank around and some extra seeded media and set it up anyway you like and watch. Tell the owner obviously you would think there would be written on the tank "Not for Sale" or at least treated in the back.

I'm constantly telling the people in Petco when I go for Cat stuff there's some dead fish in your tank. That's why when they recently opened it was pretty nice and well taken care of now I wouldn't buy anything Aquarium related there. I worked for Corp's for a long time since the Mob left Vegas and there motto is do more with less so in a way they don't have the people to really pay attention to the needs of the fish. Corps are famous for stepping over the dollar to pick up the nickel.
Sorry for the rant I get that way because I'm old enough to have seen a better country.

 

CindiL my black phantom tetras were swimming kinda odd. One that died either had mouth fungus or an ich spot on its lip. When my neon tank started I had a neon wasting and also had torn fins. He died. Now I have bad aggression so two neons have torn fins and 1 has white on the tears like finrot but my parameters are 0 0 20. I also have one with an eye injury.

Greenplant I did the heat treatment on my 29 gallon for 3 weeks and it came back. Ended up treating with meds and it looks gone. My neon tank I treated with heat twice. First time heat and salt with daily wc. Second time just heat and wc. Didnt go away so I treated with meds. Still have 1 spot on a few neons.
I'll def start letting him know if I see dead fish or ich.

 

@CindiL my black phantom tetras were swimming kinda odd. One that died either had mouth fungus or an ich spot on its lip. When my neon tank started I had a neon wasting and also had torn fins. He died. Now I have bad aggression so two neons have torn fins and 1 has white on the tears like finrot but my parameters are 0 0 20. I also have one with an eye injury.

@ I did the heat treatment on my 29 gallon for 3 weeks and it came back. Ended up treating with meds and it looks gone. My neon tank I treated with heat twice. First time heat and salt with daily wc. Second time just heat and wc. Didnt go away so I treated with meds. Still have 1 spot on a few neons.
I'll def start letting him know if I see dead fish or ich.

Just an FYI and it's just my opinion but you shouldn't do heat and salt. Just heat first and yes sometimes heat doesn't work but it's the first thing that should be tried at least in my opinion. I am sorry for your troubles I do know how it feels you know that. I did heat and WC every three days and of course it looked worst as the days when on but it has to come out before it can fall off and died. Stick with it and let me know when it's all gone an excuse to have a drink and smile.

Here's some information on the Black Phantom tetra that you may find interesting.

 

Do the flakes come with instructions? Like how many days to give and if it needs to be repeated after a certain time?

Safe for inverts in tank too or only for fish only tank? Looks like a great idea.

Yes, they come with instructions, the antibiotics have you feed exclusively for 10 days and the parasite meds have different instructions like feed for 5-7 days or with the fenbendazole to feed every other day.
Here is what each one covers. My fish love the food.


I'm assuming ok for inverts but we'd have to ask.

 

Thought I should update you guys,

My 10 gallon QT has been up and running for a week. I just dosed my second dosing of prazI pro yesterday and the 3 neons are active and ready to gobble any food that comes their way! I haven't noticed any signs of stress or ich but I'll take a good 10min to watch them tonight. I'm thinking of doing 3 weeks instead of 4. What do you think?

I added an Indian almond leaf as well as 2 national geographic silk plants for cover (don't worry, they're easy to clean and for only the QT).

 

That's up to you

If it was me, I'd probably be ok with 3 weeks if there were no signs of disease.

 

I'll def take a closer look and monitor them. I just feel so bad for my poor neons. This year has brought horrible aquarium luck and their school has had it the worst.

Had 6. Heater crashed. Ich and other issues. Heat treatment 3 died. Got 2 more. Ich again. Heat treatment. Got 2 more. Bad aggression. Ich AGAIN. Heat treatment wasn't working, used meds. Worked! Worst aggression and fin nipping I've ever experienced. 2 had torn fins and 1 had an eye injury. Upgraded to a 20 long. Transfered 7 neons over. Next evening 1 dead and 4 missing. Never found the 4. Now the school is only 2 (plus the 3 in QT). The entire time my parameters have been wonderful except for the occasional 40ppm nitrates (with an immediate 50% water change and retest. My 10 gallon always had higher nitrates than my other tanks).

After this batch is done I'm looking to get 3 more neons and 2-3 more female black phantoms for my 29 gallon (that school also had a horror story of its own).

 

Wow, that's too bad. Neons are pretty weak fish due to ?? I don't know but I've read poor stock with the quality of breeding. Interesting thing, I purchased 8 neons, 8 glow fish, 8 rummy nose. Lost all but one of the neons, only lost 1 glow fish during the columnaris outbreak and have all my rummy nose (they're my favorites). Maybe consider a different type? I've read that cardinals are a more hardy also than neons. My one last neon seems happy enough hanging out with the rest of the tetras.

 

Back in the day I used to mix cardinal and neon tetras. Cardinals are basically impossible to come by where I live. I only found them at aquarium adventure which I REFUSE to shop at due to them being owned by petland. It also seemed that my cardinals went before my neons did.

I know they're a weak species (I never looked into why but the breeding sounds very likely) but I absolutely love the look of them! I'll see how this run works now that I have my 20 long. I'm planning to get about 15 of them, so maybe they'll thrive better in a larger school and more space.