quarantine tank ?s

[trong]

ok, im a newby to discus. so much so i dont have any yet. been studying them since december though. ive had fish tanks for the past 20 yrs up and running so i do know a little. currently and for the past ten years have had 3 planted tanks. so am i to understand everyone in this community keeps a quarantine tank up and running 24/7? where do you keep this to not end up divorced over it? ive thought about the garage but there is to much traffic. maybe a closet, hmmm. any way how about tips for quick cycling one? do i do daily water changes to this tank when populated?

[strawberryblonde]

Hi Trong,

I don't keep a QT tank running all the time. I don't worry about keeping it cycled either. When I need a QT tank, I pull it out of the closet, it's a 29g tank, set it up, toss in a clean, unused sponge filter, fill it up and warm it. I then do huge daily water changes in order to keep it clean.

I really prefer doing the large water changes as opposed to using mature sponge filters because I want to observe the fish in there daily, make sure they are healthy, etc.

[trong]

thanks for reply. hmm, ammonia? is the first thing that comes to mind followed by cycling of filter, tank, and water. have i missed something this basic in the last 20yrs? maybe im over thinking this, that fits my profile! is it that you change so much water nitrogen cycle doesn't occur. i really dont understand now

[strawberryblonde]

Yep, in a normal tank situation ammonia and nitrites would be a problem if you didn't have a fully cycled filter present.

But for QT the wastes never build up enough to matter since I'm doing a 90% wc per day. If the fish stay in QT for 6-8 weeks though, the sponge filter in the tank will have fully cycled itself during that time based on the small amounts of ammonia and nitrites in the water over that time.

I should also add that I wouldn't recommend using an un-cycled 29g QT tank if you are going to be housing a large number of fish for those 6-8 weeks of QT! I purchased my initial large group of discus and placed them into a fresh, fully cycled display tank, so they didn't need QT. After that, each small group of fish I added was QT'd in the 29g without a cycled sponge filter in it. The largest group to go in that tank was a group of 5 corydoras.

If you're thinking of QT'ing a group of discus, you might want to just purchase a cycled sponge from your discus source. I know that several of the sponsors on this forum will sell or give you a cycled sponge at the time that you purchase the fish.

[trong]

so id like to buy some discus from kenny shouldnt i quarantine them before adding to my population of cardnals, ottos, and cory cats?

[Skip]

so id like to buy some discus from kenny shouldnt i quarantine them before adding to my population of cardnals, ottos, and cory cats?

YES!!

[strawberryblonde]

Yup! In that case you'd ask Kenny for a cycled sponge when you order your discus, and then put the sponge filter and new discus into your QT tank.

[trong]

wow thanks, and so adamant, i like it. you know i have no discus in this tank, right? he says they've been cleaned up twice. this falls into the no matter who bought from category right? this is why i read so much here.

[karen61]

I am totally new to discus but regards a mature filter for sick tank I always run a small internal box filter in one of my other tanks so its always available. Regards quarantine most parasites or infections can take just under 3 weeks to run their course so I always wait that long before moving fish to a healthy tank; As I said I'm totally new so listen to these guys I am.