Does anybody know how to run a qt when you can't be home

[reefkeep3r]

I know this is a strange topic.

I would like to get a new fish and maybe some corals.

The problem is both me and my wife travel for work and are home very little. This means we can't monitor, dose, treat as I am used to. The DT is doing just fine running in auto mode for up to a week at a time but how can I do a qt like that.

I am sure it's impossible but am open to suggestions.

Thanks

[Sk8r]

Set it up bare, with a large canister, which should have a LOT of leeway in it, a heater, a jump screen, and an autotopoff and autofeeder. It's not optimum, and underfeed rather than overfeed, but you don't need to dose a qt. If you had a ten gallon qt running on, say, a Marineland canister the size of an office waste can---and a reasonably set autofeeder with lights on timer and an ATO, you'd stand a very good chance of having a live fish at the end of it all. If you have a disease outbreak, well, that's bad, and you'd likely lose the fish---but if you buy from top end 'clean' sources, your chances are good. I occasionally have to leave my dt for a month in the hands of a non-hobbyist who drops in every couple of days. Never a problem.

[reefkeep3r]

the qt I used for the first fish is a 10g with a hob filter for a 90g with 350 to 400gph running with just floss. I need to get a ATP and feeder but will that work. My first go around I used prime, focus/Metronidazole, paraguard and prozi over a 8 week qt. Did I not need all that. The fish I want to add is a diamond watchman goby. I do not have a refuge attached yet, do I need one for that fish.

[Sk8r]

I''d wait on the diamond watchman until your tank's been running a while: they're sandsifters and can starve in a new tank.

[coville]

I'd suggest finding a next door neighbor who is willing to be trained and paid to do it for you while you're gone.

[reefkeep3r]

How long do you think tank should be running. It's been up for about 9 months now.

I was starting to think the same thing

[dkeller_nc]

The issue as I see it for you isn't so much the chance of not catching a case of disease and having the fish succumb as it is killing the fish from an ammonia spike in an un-cycled tank. No big deal if you're home, you can always do a 50% water change twice a day to keep the ammonia under control. But a bit of a problem if you're going to be gone for a week.

One way to handle this would be to "seed" a large sponge filter by putting it in your DT sump for a week (doesn't have to have air running to it, just tank water flowing over it), then setting up your QT with it, a heater, a cover, and an ATO.

Then prophylactically lower your specific gravity to 1.009 over a 24-48 hour period. The low salinity will prevent the most common disease (ich) from overwhelming your fish while you're away, and the seeded sponge filter will prevent your QT from developing high levels of ammonia.

One note about this - most autofeeders feed way too much even at their lowest setting for one fish, which will overwhelm the bacteria in your sponge filter. On some designs, you can modify the amount dispensed with a piece of doubled-over masking tape (the lifeguard aquatics is amenable to this mod).

But as Sk8r notes, it's far better to under-feed than over feed. So it may be necessary for you very carefully select your LFS and your fish from that LFS to ensure that they've been feeding before you take them home. So long as they're not malnourished, it may be far better to simply not feed them for the few days that you're absent when you first quarantine them than to set up an autofeeder.