Quarantine Setup Questions

icedearth15324

icedearth15324

TeamCR
After losing a few fish to ich, I'm going to try and catch the rest of them and quarantine them. As well as quarantine any new arrivals.

I have the following equipment, and was wondering if this would be good to use as a quarantine system for most fish up to and including small tangs:

-20H tank
-AC50
-100 watt heater
-random pvc pieces for hiding
-acrylic top to keep moisture in
-powerhead for extra water movement
-cheap LED light for lighting


I would have gone with a 20L, however, I do not have space in my bedroom for that size of a tank, and I want to keep close eye on the fish in QT. Would this work for a temporary home for the fish? My main hope is I could temporarily keep a small tang in one if I needed to.

thanks
 
Sounds like you have everything you need. Don't use the powerhead if there is no need. Your fish will need to save their energy to fight off any ich if they have it. Also, you will want to keep the light on the dim side of things. NO bright lights that will annoy them with that pesky reflection from teh bare bottom.

You may also want to invest or make some medicated food to fight any infection from the inside. There's a thread on how to make your own medicated food or you can go to Old Orchard Aquarium and buy the Pre-Made food from Dr. Gs
 
That looks like it would make a great setup for a QT. Even if the tang is small, you would probably want to keep it solo if possible. In the small setting like that it may get aggressive quicker. But still should work just fine. It is more space than some LFS give fish
 
Also...and this is very important, be sure to leave your display tank fishless (fallow) for at least 6 weeks. This will ensure that the ich has went through its cycle and died off from lack of food. It sucks having an empty DT, but it's well worth it.
 
You'll also want to treat them with cooper once you have them in your QT, sorry if it's a given but I didn't see it on your post.
 
Everything looks good, but I would get small air pump, with acrylic top on, you will minimize oxygen surface exchange and your fish might suffocate from lack of oxygen. Better yet, get a mesh top to allow oxygen and just top of water everyday to keep salinity stable.
 
The light I was going to put on it was the old LED from my fluval Spec V, so it isn't very bright. It would mainly just be used to distinguish what is day time and what is night time since I don't open my blinds in my room.

I have medication that I can put in my food already, and all the medications required. I have copper and Prazipro at home ready for it.

I could go the mesh top route as well, I just had a piece of acrylic that I had laying around but the mesh sounds like a better idea.

Thanks for all the help. I wish I could have gotten a 40 breeder, but this was the largest tank I could fit in my room.
 
BigBarnacles said:
Also...and this is very important, be sure to leave your display tank fishless (fallow) for at least 6 weeks. This will ensure that the ich has went through its cycle and died off from lack of food. It sucks having an empty DT, but it's well worth it.
Click to expand...

Quick question for if anyone knows this in particular. I have a baby snowflake eel in my tank. He's maybe about 8 inches long. I've read that they aren't susceptible to ich, but I'm not sure if he would cause any issues with keeping the tank fallow for the parasite to die off.

Anyone have any ideas on what to do with him?
 
Would recommend not stressing them out too much but chasing with net, etc.
how many fish do you have, might just want to keep the display tank running and let it run its course, wait for any new additions till its been gone for a at least a couple months to be safe.

if you really want to have the tank fallow for 6-8 weeks, pull all of them including the eel.
 
I personally kept an additional powerhead running , facing the surface for turbulence and oxygen exchange, which will be in need in a small tank. Keep your PH in check when treating with copper / cupramine, as lower PH will or can cause issues with copper treatment, especially in a small tank with several fish (do not use any form of ammonia treatment). Walt is correct though, too much turbulence can cause stress.

Also, if you can try and lower your salinity a tad, the lower the better, to increase oxygen intake and ease on the respritory of the fish. You will read 1,000 different time frames to run fallow, but my recommendation is 7-8 weeks. Slowly increase your salinity after your treatments are completed, usually 1 month.

Eels can react negatively to copper treatment and are very resistant to ich, so maybe try and treat him a short period and maybe move him to something else if you have anything available, basically anything I have read on scaleless creatures is they should not be treated with copper...you might do further research on that first, a Google search is your friend. You can whip that craps a$$, just hang in there and be patient. Good luck!

EDIT: Also, to save you the research, it is safe to use cupramine and prazi pro simultaneously. I just finished a treatment with great success. Oh and that tang will bully a small tank big time, my purple tang kicked everyone's *** in a 40g breeder and I had several pieces of miscellaneous sized pvc, you will just have to hope for the best.
 
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