Qurantine

[yukonblizzard]

Whats the best way to quarintine an angelfish? I am planning to buy the tank raised maculosus angelfish for my 180. I have a 30 gallon qt but right now all I have in it is saltwater and current. I plan to add pvc pieces to provide hidding. Should I add live rock? I have a ten gallon nano with a large piece of live rock with lots of growth, should I add this to the qt? A blue damsel is in the ten gallon, should I leave him in the tank or just add him to the qt?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[yukonblizzard]

Also what foods would you sugest?

[dwd5813]

i'd say that the better idea is just using pvc and either a dedicated qt filter or frequent water changes to keep up water quality. i would leave the ten gallon alone, personally.
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-10/sp/feature/index.php
this is an article on quarantine tanks that you may find helpful.

[Gwynhidwy]

I like to quarantine my fish in an established tank with live rock. I find fish do better in this situation. I treat the fish with Prazipro while in quarantine. If any diseases arise that need to be treated with other medications I move the fish to a hospital tank that has only pvc to hide in as most medications should not be used with live rock.

I feed a variety of foods in small quantities until the fish shows interest in something. I usually try frozen mysis first as I've seen more fish show interest or actually eat mysis right away than anything else. I also try my homemade frozen mix food, pellets of various types, nori, and other frozen foods. Fresh clams on the half shell and other fresh seafoods often work too, especially with angels.

[yukonblizzard]

Thanks for the help and the great link:D

I dont have a filter for the QT, could I get away with one of those freshwater hang over the back filters with carbon to filter and do frequent water changes or get a protien skimmer. But I feel like with one fish in the system the skimmer wouldn't do much.

[Slakker]

your biggest issue in the QT will be a lack of beneficial bacteria. Ammonia and nitrites will accumulate quickly without a seeded filter.

[yukonblizzard]

If I placed live rock in the qt would that be sufficient for biological filtration right away or would it take weeks to cycle correctly

[yukonblizzard]

Or should I turn the 10 gallon into a sump so the damsel wont intimidate the angel but the rock will provide some filtration?

[dwd5813]

hang a powerfilter on your 180 somewhere, on the sump maybe if you want to keep it out of sight. leave it there for a week or two and allow the filter pad to be colonized with bacteria. then, whenever you want to set up a qt tank, all you need to do is fill the qt with water from the 180, swap the powerfilter from the main tank to the qt, and you're good to go. when you're done with the qt, clean the powerfilter, change the media if you used any kind of treatments that you'd rather not add to the main tank, and set it up on the sump/main tank again. doing it this way means you don't have to run your qt tank all the time and you won't have to worry about maintaining it when you don't even have anything in there.

[dwd5813]

also from the link i gave you: " Leave out the sand, live rock, or anything else that is porous or that could react with potentially required medications."

[yukonblizzard]

Thanks for the help!:D

[yukonblizzard]

Oh, I forgot to ask if I bought the fish from the Divers Den from Live Aquaria do you think I should still qt? Maybe just a freshwater bath or something like that?

[Jason Donohoe]

Don't underestimate the need to get the tank cycling with ammonia converting bacteria. I just set up a QT and was quarantining live rock for the refugium for 2 weeks. The qt has a cannister filter that I thought would colonized quickly after being seeded from the live rock. Ammonia levels were zero before I added a small yellow tang. The nitrite and ammonia spiked and now I'm using Ammo Lock and water changes to keep the fish happy. I think it would have been a lot easier to cycle the tank longer and not have to go through this!