- Location
- LONG ISLAND , NY
i have a spare 55 tank and was wondering how do i get it ready to be a qt? thanks for the help in advance
How to set up a QT tank?
- Thread starter nyfynest22
- Start date
- Location
- BUSHWICK BROOKLYN
You dont have to put rocks or sand... PVC / Powerhead / Airstone will do fine if thats what your asking...
- Location
- LONG ISLAND , NY
i guess what im asking is do i need a skimmer? what do i use inside the tank? any meds? just all the basics. so when i buy fish i can qt them
- Location
- BUSHWICK BROOKLYN
Well i personally dont use a skimmer i use a aquaclear filter..
- Location
- LONG ISLAND , NY
so you use just a hang on filter? with the carbon pads?
- Location
- BUSHWICK BROOKLYN
No carbon
- Location
- Wallingford, CT
This is what I would do if you plan to have the QT as a long term setup:
Fill up the 55g with water from your DT (water change)
Find a used Fluval 104 or any small canister filter but use ceramic noodles in the chambers instead of carbon or any other media. You can leave the sponge pads for catching debris but you need to maintenance the sponge every now & then.
Get a 18w to 25w UV and hook it up inline with the Fluval/canister filter.
Go to Lowes or Home Depot and get some 2" PVC tees, elbows etc to place in the QT for shelter.
Get a 250w heater.
Find a old Bak Pak or Remora skimmer to keep the water saturated with o2 and also handy when you need to start removing meds from the water, I prefer the less efficient Bak Pak only because it is designed also for biological media filtration. This and the ceramic noodles in the Fluval/canister will be your biological filtration.
Find a couple of old powerheads for circulation.
Get an old regular flourescent strip light.
Eggcrate the top off the tank for jumpers
Get some bottled bacteria to jump start the QT
Setup the QT with the aged water, get all your equipment in but do not turn on the UV sterilizer, add the bacteria and let it run for a week or 2. If you don't want to keep a resident fish in there, you should add a very small pinch of flake food once a week to the tank to keep the biological filter going. When you start utilizing the QT with newly purchased fish, turn on the UV sterilizer and acclimate the fish into the QT. No need to add any meds unless you see disease or parasites. Just have them acclimate to the QT, observe for 2 weeks and feed med to lightly. Do not add too much food if they are not eating, you want to keep pollution down.
If all are doing well after 2 weeks and are eating well, you can transfer them into your DT.
If you see disease break out during the QT period, then turn off the sterilizer and the air input to the skimmer venturi but leave the skimmer pump on. Medicate with the appropriate meds for the full term as indicated.
Ick - Seachem Cupramine
Flukes - Prazi-Pro
Bacterial - Marine Melafix
Velvet - I use Kordon Rid Ick (formalin & malachite green) BUT not in the QT tank, I do this as a dip in a 5g bucket outside of the Qt for about 2 hours with an airstone in the bucket. Do not use in your QT, it will destroy your bacteria population. I do this daily until results are seen.
After the meds that you have chosen does it's job and at least the recomended timeframe (Cupramine/14 days, Prazi-Pro/5days etc) start with a 30% water change and turn your air to the skimmer back on. Let the skimmer pull out some of the meds for a couple of days and then do another water change and turn your sterilzer back on.
At this point you want to observe again for another 7-14 days before transferring into your DT. At some point I would also turn off the UV for 48 hours to redose bacteria into the QT, I use Microbelift Special Blend.
You can play around with the salinity in your QT. I normally keep it close to the DT for ease of acclimation from QT to DT but if I have a bad ick outbreak, I will start bringing the QT salinity down to about 1.015. Not hypo but low enough to help with osmoregulation.
Bak Pak was added later on, MJ-1200 with foam insert was removed and a couple of Koralias were added for the circulation but just to give you an idea about the PVC parts:
Fill up the 55g with water from your DT (water change)
Find a used Fluval 104 or any small canister filter but use ceramic noodles in the chambers instead of carbon or any other media. You can leave the sponge pads for catching debris but you need to maintenance the sponge every now & then.
Get a 18w to 25w UV and hook it up inline with the Fluval/canister filter.
Go to Lowes or Home Depot and get some 2" PVC tees, elbows etc to place in the QT for shelter.
Get a 250w heater.
Find a old Bak Pak or Remora skimmer to keep the water saturated with o2 and also handy when you need to start removing meds from the water, I prefer the less efficient Bak Pak only because it is designed also for biological media filtration. This and the ceramic noodles in the Fluval/canister will be your biological filtration.
Find a couple of old powerheads for circulation.
Get an old regular flourescent strip light.
Eggcrate the top off the tank for jumpers
Get some bottled bacteria to jump start the QT
Setup the QT with the aged water, get all your equipment in but do not turn on the UV sterilizer, add the bacteria and let it run for a week or 2. If you don't want to keep a resident fish in there, you should add a very small pinch of flake food once a week to the tank to keep the biological filter going. When you start utilizing the QT with newly purchased fish, turn on the UV sterilizer and acclimate the fish into the QT. No need to add any meds unless you see disease or parasites. Just have them acclimate to the QT, observe for 2 weeks and feed med to lightly. Do not add too much food if they are not eating, you want to keep pollution down.
If all are doing well after 2 weeks and are eating well, you can transfer them into your DT.
If you see disease break out during the QT period, then turn off the sterilizer and the air input to the skimmer venturi but leave the skimmer pump on. Medicate with the appropriate meds for the full term as indicated.
Ick - Seachem Cupramine
Flukes - Prazi-Pro
Bacterial - Marine Melafix
Velvet - I use Kordon Rid Ick (formalin & malachite green) BUT not in the QT tank, I do this as a dip in a 5g bucket outside of the Qt for about 2 hours with an airstone in the bucket. Do not use in your QT, it will destroy your bacteria population. I do this daily until results are seen.
After the meds that you have chosen does it's job and at least the recomended timeframe (Cupramine/14 days, Prazi-Pro/5days etc) start with a 30% water change and turn your air to the skimmer back on. Let the skimmer pull out some of the meds for a couple of days and then do another water change and turn your sterilzer back on.
At this point you want to observe again for another 7-14 days before transferring into your DT. At some point I would also turn off the UV for 48 hours to redose bacteria into the QT, I use Microbelift Special Blend.
You can play around with the salinity in your QT. I normally keep it close to the DT for ease of acclimation from QT to DT but if I have a bad ick outbreak, I will start bringing the QT salinity down to about 1.015. Not hypo but low enough to help with osmoregulation.
Bak Pak was added later on, MJ-1200 with foam insert was removed and a couple of Koralias were added for the circulation but just to give you an idea about the PVC parts:
Last edited:
- Location
- LONG ISLAND , NY
ummmm wow. any places that you guys no that qt the fish before they sell them? lol
- Location
- Wallingford, CT
There is one place, only one vendor that I know of. Not only QTs the fish but proactively treats for ick and flukes. They are on this board, Diamonds of the Reef.
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