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View Full Version : Advice needed for quickly setting up a Quarantine/hospital tank.


jrcastro
04/20/2006, 05:30 PM
I have been reading lots of threads/ articles re: ich.
I have come to the conclusion that i have to setup a quarantine/hospital tank for my fish that are infected with ich.
Using either hyposalinity or copper meds solutions.
I have 12 fish in my 135g (hippo,yellow,anthias,clown etc..)
fun part is going to be getting them out, especially my lil mandarin goby.

Questions are:

How big of a Q-Tank do i need?
How do i establish the biological filteration? Can I use my filter socks to seed the new sponge filter i plan on using?
Can I add a few pcs of LR to seed the new filter?
Then take them out when it is estabished on the new filter.

Thanks in advance

Freed
04/20/2006, 05:35 PM
Do you have any coral or inverts in the main system? If not you can do hyposalinity in the main system if you want. The only downside is if you have snails, crabs etc that you want to live you can't do hypo in there.

kraze3
04/20/2006, 05:37 PM
Your going to want to treat ALL the fish.
You dont want to do hypo in your main tank with LR, it will kill it along with all inverts. How much LR do you have?

jrcastro
04/20/2006, 05:40 PM
Lots of corals & about 200 pounds of LR.

kraze3
04/20/2006, 05:51 PM
i Just posted on your other thread, im happy to see you trying to treat the fish.

If your in a bind you could always use a 32 gallon rubbermaid tub from kmart or walmart, ive seen it done before. You have some bigger fish you may need two if they look cramped. Whne i set up my hospital tank i used water from my main display then replaced that water. Worked fine for me. I think the filter sock is better than using the LR, i dont think the LR is needed. Also, you can add pieces of PVC to the bottom to give your fish some hiding places.

make sure you have a refracometer and here is a thread on catching fish
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=707656

Pete1399
04/20/2006, 06:22 PM
Dont add LR to a quarantine tank. Ich could be reintroduced to your system when you put the LR back in your display.

kraze3
04/20/2006, 06:35 PM
even if the rock was introduced the hypo would kill all ich, but it isnt needed.

MarkD40
04/21/2006, 07:56 AM
Hyposalinity will kill all the life on your LR except for the bacteria. I have 200 lbs of LR in my sump so when I quarantine I toss a couple of rocks in the QT tank and when the quarantine period is over I throw the rock into fresh R/O water to sterilize it and then put it back in my sump to make it live again. I keep a bio-wheel filter running on my sump without any filter media in the filter just to keep the bio-wheel charged with bacteria. When I need to quarantine I just fill up my QT tank and add move the bio-wheel filter over to it and I am set. Again, after quarantine is over I soak the bio-wheel in R/O to kill any ich etc. before putting it back in my sump.