Newbies, please understand this one thing...

[Sk8r]

Yes, upfront, you'll hear the occasional person saying "I have no qt tank, I don't quarantine, etc."

This is NOT something to skip...especially if this is your first tank. Why? Several really big reasons. Stay with me and read this. Please. I HATE having to tell somebody to break down his tank.

1. You're going to have ups and downs in your water quality. This is going to stress the daylights out of your fish during your first few months. [Another reason not to get your most delicate yet.] This will go on until you learn certain things and possibly until you get certain equipment like an autotopoff, your own ro/di filter, refractometer etc. You can shorten this curve, but there will be a day you forget to turn the autotopoff back on after a water change.

2. Your fish have just been through a very stressful experience, and they've been exposed to things along the way, due to capture, shipping, lack of food, etc, and there may be one little spot of a parasite that's been shipped with them. You can't see it. But they'll multiply insanely fast. They're less sensitive to bad water than your fish are. Two or three invisible animacules will come in, head for your sand and rock and start multiplying. This is why you don't put even your FIRST fish into a tank without quarantining first: you're not only protecting your fish, you're protecting your TANK.

3. Some fish, like tangs, like angels, live high up the reef and haven't much natural defense against sand-and-rock dwelling parasites like ich. Some, like mandarins, bottom-fishes, do. The ones that don't have defenses will get it first and worst, and you won't necessarily see it: it goes for the gills and invisibly chokes these fish to death before you know what's happening.

You are incorrect to think it's cruel to put your pretty new fish into a completely bare glass box in dim light for several weeks of quarantine. You want it to be in the nice world you've made for it. Wrong. No. Think of it as a period to rest up at the Hilton. Your quarantine period allows the fish to be in a dim place, untroubled from others defending territory, it'll have no competition for food, which it will have in good amount, with a daily-cleaned particulate filter to be sure there's no problem, it'll have an elbow of PVC pipe to hide in or near (it's not picky) and it will have daily tested good water, daily tested salinity, a cover to prevent it jumping out due to being startled, and if it should turn up flaring its gills, scratching on the pipe, or covered in spots or having a fin erosion issue, your daily close observation will nip that condition in the bud---you simply assess what ails it, do the appropriate treatment (you can't do it in your tank, because it would kill off the bacteria that handle waste and kill your live rock and live sand)---and CURE the fish of what would have handily killed it and every other fish you own.

So bite the bullet. A simple qt rig is DEFINITELY the way for a newbie to go. And people who are old in this hobby, who don't make nearly so many beginner mistakes, still believe that a qt rig is the way to go. When your investment is bigger and bigger, you'll still be using that rig, because you've been on RC long enough to read all the tragic posts by those who didn't set up a qt.

[m-rass]

yes, upfront, you'll hear the occasional person saying "i have no qt tank, i don't quarantine, etc."

this is not something to skip...especially if this is your first tank. Why? Several really big reasons. Stay with me and read this. Please. I hate having to tell somebody to break down his tank.

+1

[Indymann99]

I posted this a while back.

3 types of people...

1. those who QT

2. those who wish they did.

3. those who wonder why they battle ich and other problems and continue not to QT...

Another side effect of QT is that if you only QT 1 fish at a time (recommended for most).... and QT for 4-5 weeks, then it is a forcing factor that keeps you from adding say 4 fish at one time and producing a bioload your DT system cant handle.

My simple 20g QT in my under stairs mix room

[muttley000]

I also support QT for all of the reasons listed above, and think it is unfortunate how often myself and other QT proponents are attacked because someone hasn't had to nuke their tank...





...yet

[rayn]

I agree with all above. Tear your tank apart once, and you learn very quickly.

Aside from everything else that was stated above, think of it in monetary terms. What does a simple QT cost. 50-75 bucks? How many fish have died cause they weren't QTed. Thousand of dollars worth.

[dots]

Good points to consider!!

[sedor]

For beginners a QT tank can also be a somewhat difficult task, don't leave that out. For instance a larger tang or angel or something, housed in a 10G tank with nothing more than a sponge filter attached. In QT's tank conditions can get nasty real quick and water changes must be done quite often (which can also add stress to the fish). On a typical throw it together type QT setup things can go bad very quickly and a lot of attention needs to be paid to it. Its not as simple as just tossing the fish in and waiting a month. Nothing against people who QT, its a great practice but I have seen just as many threads promotions a QT tank as those with titles like "why do my fish keep dying in QT."

[JMartin104]

Sedor,

Excellent points! My 10g QT has been quite the experience (learning and maint), but worth it. Like everything else in this hobby, read, read and read.

[rayn]

Sedor makes a good point, but there are some fish that just won't or don't make it. Could be the way they are caught, handled, or shipped. Wouldn't matter if you had a ten or thirty gal QT.

[Sk8r]

Get a qt tank scaled (pardon pun) to the size of your main tank and the size of the fish you hope to acquire. They need plenty of room to move and swim. A fish too tightly confined will panic and start stressing out in the fishy equivalent of a panic attack, which is not good for people or fishes. Be sure you have adequate aeration!

[papa_dog]

Have to agree 100%, Quarantine all new fish.

I should say I am fairly new to Salt Water (my tank was set up at the end of January) and I have to admit I have been here and there on quarantining new fish (call it laziness and/or couldn't wait to put it into the DT).

However, I recently had an experience that showed me how important it is to quarantine ALL new fish. A couple of weeks ago I picked up 3 Lyretail Anthias (females) from my LFS and for whatever reason decided to set up and put them in my 20 gallon QT. Well, the first one died overnight, the second one the next day, but the third one appeared ok. Well after a couple of days I noticed that her tail was disappearing quite quickly. Short version is that the last fish ended up having tail rot, which was quite easily cured in the QT (although the neon yellow colour of the water was a bit odd). Fast forward two weeks after treatment and she is now looking quite healthy and the tail is growing back at an amazing rate (probably about 1/2" or 5/8" so far).

Bottom line is, I am very lucky I decided to Quarantine these 3 (now 1) new fish, and I am so glad I didn't introduce her or the tail rot to my DT tank (or the Tail Rot and/or whatever killed the first two). I have (hopefully) learned my lesson and will be making sure to quarantine all new fish.

Cheers,
Keith

[solastsummer]

I have always qt'ed but i do have a question for someone that always wondered. So I have been using a 20G that i keep running as a bit of a "grow out tank" for my frags, whenever I qt a fish i take out the frag racks and put it in the display and I QT there, 2 questions

1 a 20G for most fish below 4" should be fine right?

2 can a qt tank be made out of a rubbermaid container? or is there some advantage to the glass for the fish.

[papa_dog]

Originally Posted by solastsummer

1 a 20G for most fish below 4" should be fine right?

2 can a qt tank be made out of a rubbermaid container? or is there some advantage to the glass for the fish.

As I said, I'm still a newbie so I don't have all (or even many) of the answers yet. I can't answer number 1 and in fact I'd like the answer to that one as well.

For your second question, a couple of things pop into my head. Firstly, the rubbermaid has to be food safe - it should be stamped somewhere with "NSF" (yes I know I've opened up a huge ongoing argument with this one as to what is and is not useable in this hobby, but I prefer to err on the side of caution). Secondly, a side benefit I've found with an aquarium is that I've noticed as the fish get more used to their new surroundings and a bit more confident, they start to anticipate food whenever I come up to the tank which I am not sure you'd get in a rubbermaid container. To me this is a good thing to instil into them as it means I actually get to see them in the DT regularly and they also don't seem to be as scared of me or my hand in the tank if I have to do something in it (unlike my foxface who looks like he's going to have a heart attack every time I do anything in the DT).

Just my 2 cents worth, but hopefully it helps.

Cheers.