Quarantine tank- to cycle or not?

[nallbright]

Hi there,
I'm a new member, new to the world of discus but not fish keeping.
I'm in the process of converting my 150 gal from a community to a discus tank and had a question about my quarantine tank.
I have one specifically set up for incoming discus and have been told by other groups that it did not need to be cycled since i planned to do daily water changes with aged water.
But in Al's video ( which is awesome- thank you!) one of his slides mentioned a cycled quarantined tank.

Does it have to be cycled if I do daily changes and monitor parameters?

Thanks!

[Ryan925]

Hi there,
I'm a new member, new to the world of discus but not fish keeping.
I'm in the process of converting my 150 gal from a community to a discus tank and had a question about my quarantine tank.
I have one specifically set up for incoming discus and have been told by other groups that it did not need to be cycled since i planned to do daily water changes with aged water.
But in Al's video ( which is awesome- thank you!) one of his slides mentioned a cycled quarantined tank.

Does it have to be cycled if I do daily changes and monitor parameters?

Thanks!

Not if you are doing daily LARGE wcs

[nallbright]

Thanks. What would you consider a large wc on a 20 gallon?

[LizStreithorst]

How many fish and of what size?

[Willie]

There's a difference between a quarantine tank and a hospital tank. You may need 20 - 29 gal tanks, or larger, for quarantine, but a 10 gal for use as a hospital tank.

For long term quarantine, you'll need a cycled sponge since the discus can stay there for quite a while. My discus goes through a 6 week quarantine process. The easiest way for me to do this is to put new fish in their own tank.

The hospital tank does not need a sponge since you're putting 1 - 2 fish in there for a week with water changes between each dose.

Hope that helps, Willie

[dinnese]

i've purchased all of my Discus from Kenny and have had this same discussion with him. Its's not necessary to have a cycled sponge or filter as long as your doing 50% water changes everyday for at least a week or two then you can reduce it to 1 water change every other day and then even less as you get to the 4 week mark. I have personally used this method a few times with zero loss during the 4 to 6 week quaritine period.

[Adam S]

Certainly not necessary, but it makes the next 3-4 weeks less stressful.

[Hidan]

Hi there,
I'm a new member, new to the world of discus but not fish keeping.
I'm in the process of converting my 150 gal from a community to a discus tank and had a question about my quarantine tank.
I have one specifically set up for incoming discus and have been told by other groups that it did not need to be cycled since i planned to do daily water changes with aged water.
But in Al's video ( which is awesome- thank you!) one of his slides mentioned a cycled quarantined tank.

Does it have to be cycled if I do daily changes and monitor parameters?

Thanks!

While its probably not necessary, if you have a sponge filter lying around it might be wise to use it in case you get busy and don't do the daily water change.

[nallbright]

The only cycled material I have would be in my 150 tank. Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of quarantine if I used something from there? Cross contamination?

[Kyla]

Are there other fish already in your 150gal?

[nallbright]

yes. 6 discus( have been there a month) plus tetras,cories etc

[Willie]

The only cycled material I have would be in my 150 tank. Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of quarantine if I used something from there? Cross contamination?

If your fish are healthy, what would be the cross contamination?

Willie

[DISCUS STU]

I try to maintain a cycled qt tank anyway and use a Hagen 40 HOB for all of them. Typically I use 10 and 15 gals. for either qt or hospital interchangeably though obviously not at the same time. While I may do 50% water changes every day if for some reason I need to medicate in qt I would rather have a cycled tank and maybe to 50% changes every other day if the meds are expensive and I'll need to admin. every 3 days or so, i.e. Kanamycin Sulfate.

[jmf3460]

the idea behind a non cycled qt tank is that the ammonia wouldn't have enough time to build up to a point where it is harmful because you are doing 100% water changes every day. basically by the 23rd hour, when ammonia levels start to reach a really high level, you will be doing a water change to bring them back down to zero on hour 24. Now this does make it really bad if you miss a day of water changes for some reason and some of those reasons we can never plan for like getting sick or hospitalized or anything.

[Kyla]

Personally I would prefer to have a cycled QT because then the ammonia doesnt build up between wc. You can still do huge wc and get the benefit, but then even between wc the water is great. Plus like Jacklyn mentioned, if life happens and u miss a day it's Ok