Fish died in QT tank, what to do?

[CBehr]

I had a couple fish that died in a QT tank, live a little over two weeks. One had a cloudy eye and seemed great despite the issue. Kept eating for over a week and I was hoping it would clear up. Over the course of a day or two his color went bad and he died. The other fish never fully began eating and died about the same time.

I had the QT tank setup for 6 weeks before I got the fish for it to fully cycle...there are bout 8 lbs of LR in there that was extra. It doesn't appear the fish had any disease....but should I rip it down sterilize everything and then get new fish...or let it sit 4 weeks running then get new fish?

[FishNFun]

You shouldn't have to "cycle" a QT tank. IMO, you shouldn't use any live rock or sand in QT. You can use some pieces of PVC pipe to act as hiding places for the fish and it's easy to clean. When you know you're going to use QT stick a sponge filter in your sump for a while to seed it and then use in QT. Use change water from your tank in your QT. Do regular water changes on your QT tank and maybe throw on a HOB skimmer and you're good.

[Dave VG]

QT should be a bare tank with PVC pipe for hiding spots. This way all you have to do is empty the water out sterilize after QT is done and put away for the next QT. Lets say a fish gets ich and dies in QT and it has rock and so forth in it. This means you can’t just run down to the LFS and get another fish because it needs to stay Fallow for 6 to 8 weeks so cysts in the water column die. With a bare QT empty it fill it with RO water let things run over night empty out the RO water refill with fresh salt water and you are ready to go. As for your current situation I would remove any sand and rock permanently that is in there and definitely sterilize it be for adding another fish. And never mix QT stuff with the main DT stuff. Always keep separate. You may want to cook the rock that was in there by the way.

[Dave VG]

By the way cooking rock is not actually cooking it. It just means leave it in an unlit plastic container at about 80 disagrees for about two to three weeks until the rotten egg smell goes away lol. Do a few water changes during this time. There are threads on this subject just do a search on cooking live rock. Sorry if I’m getting to basic here. Good luck

[Gwynhidwy]

There is nothing wrong with having live rock in your quarantine, provided you have a hospital tank if you need to medicate. In fact, most fish do much better in a quarantine with live rock for a variety of reasons. If the fish weren't showing any other signs of disease except for the cloudy eye and poor color on one, I would suspect that one may have starved, while the other had a bacterial infection or that they both may have died from flukes.

If it were my quarantine I would treat the tank with Prazipro for a week. Then do a large water change before getting any more fish and treat the tank/fish with Prazipro for another week after you get the fish. Prazipro is one of the few medications that you can use fairly safely in a tank with live rock. If you don't have a separate hospital tank, you will have to remove the live rock if you want to treat for most any disease. It is not safe to use copper or hypo treatments in a tank with live rock.

Good luck.

[CBehr]

I realize it's not necessary to cycle a QT tank of have LR... but I had several lbs extra and figured the cycle and lr would help with any potential water quality issues. I did do very regular water changes to keep on top of any excess food and degrading water quality.

I don't suspect they died of any disease either...but I want to be as safe as possible with the new fish!! I might grab some prazipro and treat the tank as a precaution.

[Dave VG]

Sorry for your loses. Sounds like you have it under control. Good luck to ya.