Help starting over

[Joharac]

A few months ago I had a tragic wipeout when I used Safe ( the powdered Prime equivalent) for a water change for the first (and last) time. I measured it out in grams per instructions on the container but something went badly wrong. I lost 10 of my 12 discus, most cardinals and all cories. I almost left the hobby, but discus love prevails and I’m planning to restock again. So a few questions:
1. My quarantine tank is only 29 gallons. Rather cramped for 10 adult discus. Should I quarantine there anyway , move the remaining 2 to the Q tank and put the new ones in the 100 gallon display tank or just skip the quarantine?
2. Once all are in the 100 gallon display how often and for how long do I need to do water changes while the filter catches up with the larger bio load? With 12 in the main tank it had been pretty stable on 80% weekly. I imagine if I did put them all in the 29 gallon quarantine tank it would need daily large changes.
3. Any advice on a new start like this? If you’ve done this, anything you wish you had known earlier?

[LizStreithorst]

Put the new ones in the big tank and the survivors in the small tank for 2 weeks. If everything is well with the new fish add one of them to the 29 and if after a week nobody gets sick you can put them all in the 100.

[Joharac]

Thanks Mama Bear. That makes a lot of sense.

[bluelagoon]

About Safe. How was it used? Were you aging your water and letting it age with the Safe in it?

[jeep]

Put the new ones in the big tank and the survivors in the small tank for 2 weeks. If everything is well with the new fish add one of them to the 29 and if after a week nobody gets sick you can put them all in the 100.

This is the way I would proceed. Things to keep in mind - most cases of cross contamination affect the existing stock, not the new, because something new is introduced to the environment. I would treat the new arrivals exactly as I would if they were in a QT tank. The main reason I would keep them isolated for 6 weeks instead of 2 is if I were going to run the full course of prophylactic worming. Most bacterial cases of CC begin within 2-7 days. Usually, a single existing fish is used to test compatibility but since you're down to only two then I would go ahead and add them both. If they get sick and require a hospital tank then that's one less tank you have to keep up with.

I see that many people have been switching to Safe to save money, but I've also heard that Safe can be dangerous if overdosed. Some people use Prime at 5x dosage regularly with no side effects...

[Joharac]

About Safe. How was it used? Were you aging your water and letting it age with the Safe in it?

No aging, I added the Safe to the tank, mixing it well as I added the new water. Same as I do with Prime. Maybe I didn’t mix it well enough and there were localized areas of overdose?

[Joharac]

This is the way I would proceed. Things to keep in mind - most cases of cross contamination affect the existing stock, not the new, because something new is introduced to the environment. I would treat the new arrivals exactly as I would if they were in a QT tank. The main reason I would keep them isolated for 6 weeks instead of 2 is if I were going to run the full course of prophylactic worming. Most bacterial cases of CC begin within 2-7 days. Usually, a single existing fish is used to test compatibility but since you're down to only two then I would go ahead and add them both. If they get sick and require a hospital tank then that's one less tank you have to keep up with.

I see that many people have been switching to Safe to save money, but I've also heard that Safe can be dangerous if overdosed. Some people use Prime at 5x dosage regularly with no side effects...

So add the new ones to the main tank with the 2 survivors? And observe, water change etc. same as quarantine? I don’t generally deworm prophylactically but certainly could if that’s recommended. I usually try not to medicate without a clear problem.

And re Safe, I trashed it out of caution there could have been something wrong with the batch. I won’t ever be using it again and didn’t even want to give it away just in case.

[jeep]

I was agreeing with Liz. My regular QT procedure is to place new arrivals in a QT in a separate room and follow Al's procedure here:
http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...tine-Procedure

Under Brews Top 11 Discus Health Issues it will make good sense why. After seeing a friends discus room wiped out to the tune of more than $20k worth of discus because of a simple and easily avoidable shortcut, I will not take a shortcut! Some of this also depends on your trust of your supplier. If a new discus comes from a farm, I do the full QT.

Your circumstance is different than most. You only have 2 existing discus so I don't see an issue with adding both at the end of your chosen QT period because you can deal with them both at the same time. Now if you had the original 12 then I would stick to using the traditional hero fish and monitor for 2 weeks...

[AquaticNerd]

Just as an additional comment - Seachem Safe is a highly concentrated product. I have never had issues with it, but I always use it to dose my untreated water. I've never added it directly to the aquarium due to the nature of how concentrated it is.