QT/display needs your ideas

[2_zoa]

Alright I am setting up a 20 long and it will be in the living room. This will be my hospital/quarantine tank but it will have a substrate and live rock as well as regular inhabitants to keep the cycle going at all times. I need advice how to set it up. I don't know if I should do a HOB filter or section off and do a internal overflow and return? I plan on a snail or two, a hermit, and a resident fish. SO...

How much LR should I get? I would like it to a minimum.

Should I use a HOB filter, or a canister with the media removed and LR placed inside, or an internal overflow and return?(benefit of the ability to add chateo)

Can just the LR in the display cycle the tank without any further filtration along with weekly water changes? If so should I vacuum the substrate?

Should I run a skimmer?

I posted this here cause it will essentially be a nano tank and I need your advice.So please don't just look and leave I want to set this up once and take care of it from there. Thank you in advance for your help.

[2_zoa]

Wait a minute.....can I just use power heads for flow and about 10lb of LR and call it good? All I need is water movement right? Essentially this is what all the bio cubers are doing by removing everything from the back and add some LR. I know they are getting a carbon dose with the filters but I can do that by placing carbon in the tank and then removing it if I have to medicate a fish right?

[2_zoa]

see this is what i mean.... this thread is here for a reason if your in the nano threads then you have an idea please don't look then leave. I want FEED BACK PLEASE................

[wastememphis]

Hospital tanks shouldn't have sand/liverock/inhabitants in it... because if your going to medicate with somethin it could have copper, which is common, and that will stay within the rocks. Why would you want to keep things in a hospital tank if they weren't sick. I would just have a bare tank with some pvc so the fish could hide and have a sponge filter from an established tank.

[2_zoa]

Alright how do I go about QT a fish then if I don't have an established tank? I have been told that even a QT/Hospital tank should be kept running all the time with the up most water quality other wise how would you expect the fish to get better?

[wastememphis]

I never QT'd a fish but I have had a fish get ich before. What I did was take an empty 10gallon tank, I put almost all old water from my display tank in it, moved the fish into it. Then I added new salt water, did water changes often while the fish was in there. I had a sponge filter with an air pump, heater, PVC pipes for the fish to hide in and i medicated the tank. Some people paint the sides of the tank so that it is dark in there, something about the fish feeling "safer" in the new environment. Hopefully someone else will chime in since I don't really use them, but I wouldn't say they need to be run all the time, especially with anything in them.

[2_zoa]

I am sorry man not to bash you I am just trying to get info here but... from what I understand is that the water doesn't carry any of the (or real amount of) beneficial bacteria that we strive to acquire? It is the LR. As I really do appreciate your response (believe me I really do you are the only one in like 30 views and i asked folks not to look and leave me hanging) I really am just trying to understand the process.It just seem to me that sumps and fugues(spelling?) are only there to create more water volume and that is it.

What about a thin layer of substrate and as I have asked only half the volume of live rock 10lb's? I know it is still absorbing the medication but the regular inhabitant are only benefiting from this right? Copper can't reproduce it self so if I am not adding more then it will only depreciate over time, right? Also if it is safe to dose them why can't they live in it?

[wastememphis]

Its a QT/Hospital tank though, you dont want to put other fish at risk of catching whatever you have a new/sick fish in there for. Also, inverts can die if you are dosing with copper (shrimp, snails, cabs) so you wouldn't have a clean up crew in there, so it wouldn't make a very good display tank. Do a reef central search to see what other people have done.

[james3370]

from what i've been told, the best thing to do as was stated above.....bare tank w/ no sand, LR or anything else just a piece of pvc for fish to hide. basic hang on the back filtration, heater, etc

use water from water changes in main display tank to get QT tank "established" & then when doing water changes, dispose of 10% from it & top it off w/ water change water from main tank

[2_zoa]

Hang on back filtration would have carbon in the filter packs,right? so that would be bad cause it will pull out the medicine from the water, if you add LR to the filter then the LR will absorb the medicine and it will be no good after the fish is better. So what about just a power head for circulation and if there has to be LR or a sponge then drop some in the bottom of the tank. This seems like the same thing to me just the fish are living inside the filter canister so to speak. Can I do this if so about how much LR would suffice?