Do you QT?

Hey guys,
Hopefully some of you remember me from years ago! Back into reefing and tried to do it the best way possible by setting up QT tanks. Unfortunately, with the QT tanks I have lost much more fish then I anticipated so wanted to see if people here are QT the fish they purchase? If so, how long and if medicating what meds?
Reason I ask is with NYC living space is more limited so figured more people may have other methods like Safety Stop dips or something along those lines.
Look forward to hearing from everyone.
I joined Reef2Reef and ended up reading a ton of stuff from Paul B and realized I read his posts here. Extremely knowledgeable guy and has an amazing thought process regarding QT, so wanted to see if people go by his methods of live food vs. QT.
Hope all is well with everyone and boy do I miss those frag swaps.

i also need help with QT. I have a QT tank and its a pain in the rear for me with ammonia, i always have a hard time keeping ammonia down or stable in the QT. But from all the research ive done its a common problem with QT tanks. All the advice i was given was just keep doing a water change. I dont have time to do water changes every other day or whatever the case may be. Does anyone have any good advise on keeping ammonia stable in a QT?
Last time i set up my qt i used a sponge filter that i left in my tank for a month as well as my tank water. i have a 20 gallon tank with a HOB filter, small power head piece of pvc and small heater.....But my problem is ammonia and why have a QT where ammonia can kill easily kill fish instead of disease. so basically i need help with ammonia in QT

I know my water parameters are not the issue

So what do you think is your issue? Using the correct meds?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Following. I just got my QT tank. Going to setup this weekend

Not really sure as I am more concerned if QT is really better for my fish.

DrCooper said:

Not really sure as I am more concerned if QT is really better for my fish.

Click to expand...

I recently got back into the hobby and lost all my fish due to marine velvet, kills fish within 24 hours. The sad thing is most of these fish I cured them of ICH with tank transfer method and unfortunately placed them in a tank that had marine velvet.

A QT tank is important but requires a lot of patience. QT tank has to be setup for good biological filtration in order to breakdown ammonia or you can treat with Prime or Amquel. Problem is if your fish do show signs of marine velvet its difficult to treat with cupramine in my experience. Cupramine is tough on fish and the copper level has to be a center level to kill the parasites.

To answer your question, it may be better for the fish to go directly in a established tank instead of QT tank. But know that you run risk of bringing in disease to your established tank.

Good luck, wish there was a simple cure for these diseases....

heuerfan said:

I recently got back into the hobby and lost all my fish due to marine velvet, kills fish within 24 hours. The sad thing is most of these fish I cured them of ICH with tank transfer method and unfortunately placed them in a tank that had marine velvet.

A QT tank is important but requires a lot of patience. QT tank has to be setup for good biological filtration in order to breakdown ammonia or you can treat with Prime or Amquel. Problem is if your fish do show signs of marine velvet its difficult to treat with cupramine in my experience. Cupramine is tough on fish and the copper level has to be a center level to kill the parasites.

To answer your question, it may be better for the fish to go directly in a established tank instead of QT tank. But know that you run risk of bringing in disease to your established tank.

Good luck, wish there was a simple cure for these diseases....

Click to expand...

Thanks!
The Choloroquine Phosphate I use kills everything, yet my losses have continued for months.

I have a new 150 gallon tank. I wanted to do it correctly this time around so I started 2 QT tanks. It was a little more difficult than I anticipated to deal with ammonia. I have HOB filters, sponge filters, some live rock from old rank and marine pure bio balls all seeded from previous tanks.have to test 2x daily and use prime to make sure the ammonia is not toxic.

I haven't even started to medicate because I wanted to wait till I have this ammonia figured out. So far I am getting better at keeping zero ammonia through the use of Bio spira and Dr Tims one and only. I dosed more than the instructions called for and now the ammonia level are zero daily even after feeding frozen foods.My plan was to treat with cupramine and prazipro.

DrCooper said:

Thanks!
The Choloroquine Phosphate I use kills everything, yet my losses have continued for months.

Click to expand...

That is supposed to be the best treatment for marine velvet from what i've read.

My tanks have to go fallow now, and I'm deciding what to do when the time comes to re-stock. I have a 57 gallon that i use for QT, but there are a lot of fish I want to get.......

I can either QT or buy from a source that has healthier fish. I kinda of knew deep down inside when I bought my fish that there was disease in their system but took a gamble and lost.

I think many fish can survive with ich, but definitely watch out for marine velvet. The only fish I have left is a goldstripe maroon clown and apparently its skin is less likely to attract the marine velvet. But i'm sure its a carrier now so its the only fish in that tank....

Also from what i've seen most if not all LFS i've seen have signs of disease.........

ecvernon said:

I have a new 150 gallon tank. I wanted to do it correctly this time around so I started 2 QT tanks. It was a little more difficult than I anticipated to deal with ammonia. I have HOB filters, sponge filters, some live rock from old rank and marine pure bio balls all seeded from previous tanks.have to test 2x daily and use prime to make sure the ammonia is not toxic. I haven't even started to medicate because I wanted to wait till I have this ammonia figured out. So far I am getting better at keeping zero ammonia through the use of Bio spira and Dr Tims one and only. I dosed more than the instructions called for and now the ammonia level are zero daily even after feeding frozen foods.
My plan was to treat with cupramine and prazipro.

Click to expand...

If you have liverock that you are willing to sacrafice you can use it for the QT tank for ammonia. Thats what I did, but once you use cupramine it will kill all life in the rock except the bacteria that breaks down ammonia.

So when I dosed cupramine, i saw a lot of dead pods and bristle worms that I scooped out the next day, they all crawled out and died in one pile

Good luck!

But they say you shouldn't put live rock or sand in a qt....I was also thinking of setting up a long term QT tank....maybe that way I won't speak with an ammonia problem who has advise on this?

BKreefbaby said:

But they say you shouldn't put live rock or sand in a qt....I was also thinking of setting up a long term QT tank....maybe that way I won't speak with an ammonia problem who has advise on this?

Click to expand...

We are told not to pu sand or rock because it absorbs copper and kills all life. I don't put sand only liverock and it may absorb some of the copper but the added benefit of ammonia removal is what I prefer. You have to test copper levels anyway.

QT worked for me for over 2 years. i used a IM fusion 10 gallon
what i do is i keep my QT running all the time, with PVC and some marinepure balls in the back chambers. and i also run a UV sterilizer on the QT instead of my display tank.
i know some people says UV doesnt work, but if you properly size and properly flow the UV i feel like it works well for me. i've battled ich on 2 occasions and the UV seem to do the job. and only 1 time did i have to use cupermine, after that i replaced the marine pure balls. after no ich for 2 weeks, i turn off the UV and dose prazi pro for 1 week. before the fish goes into the main tank.
i think the trick to battling ammonia is to keep the tank running for a long time before fish gets put into the the QT. when my QT is empty i keep a snail and a crab to keep the cycle going. alot of people set up QT tanks same day or a week before they plan on using it. i think that's where the problem comes from. i do weekly 30% water changes as well; even where there isnt a fish in there as if its a regular tank.

well this has worked for me, but dont take my word as set in stone. cause different things work for different people. just giving my experience with QT tank. although i moved recently and broke down my QT tank. and stupid pop coral had purple tangs for $90 i couldn't resist and bought one. and debated for a long time if i should set up a QT on the spot or just put him into my tank.... my gf convinced me to just put him into my tank and everyday i am worried that my tang is gonna come down with something...... and kill my tank. sooooo a QT gave me a piece of mind that i did my best to prevent killing my livestock. and that was worth it to me to keep it running 24/7

good luck all =D
on the side note, when i had my QT tank running i havent had a fish death in the past 2 years. only recently when i purchased 2 wrasses 2 month ago, they died in the QT tank. for no reason, i think it was because these wrasses were collected from Philippians and they have **** collection practices

I don't quarantine (I do something else) so I won't get into that. But if I did I would mix up 20 gallons of ASW like I would normally do a water change with and every other day replace five gallons of water in the quarantine tank with water from my reef and add five gallons of new water to my reef. It keeps the ammonia out of your quarantine tank and you probably needed a water change anyway.

@brooklynreefers that's funny about the purple tang from Popcorals...I was there on Saturday and I was tempted as well, but backed out because I didn't want to set up a last minute QT or throw him in my tank and kill my fish they looked pretty healthy as well...and I think they run copper in their fish systems so some of those tangs look healthy and then 3 weeks later boom ich all over I don't want to take that chance


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

@paul B that's what I was talking about I really don't have time to do a water change in 2 systems every other day I wish I did I do a water change once a week in my main display if I could keep it at one in the QT that would be great I might take @brooklynreefers idea and keep a few inverts to keep it cycled or maybe a damsel or chromis just to keep it going and not worry about ammonia


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I've lost fish to velvet b4 and still don't qt I found once my tank was established and as long as I was really careful not to add any fish that weren't eating or had signs of disease the tank has done well.
That being said If I had the time/room I would set up a qt and leave it running only using it to observe the new fish get them eating and comfortable! I'd only using meds if there was a issue but I don't have the time or the space .
Also I usually won't spend more then $40-$50 on a fish I do have a few $100 fish but that's the top if I was into high end fish I would set up but again besides prazi pro for flukes I wouldn't treat unless I saw issues.
Just my opinion always felt that qt or tank transfer would stress fish more the most important thing to get them eating and comfortable


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes, I QT

Yes, I QT. I have a 30g QT setup. I've had successes and failures with my QT process, but think I have a strong plan now. I've learned that planning and patience is the most important part of the QT process. And impulse buy is the enemy.

I just made a post last night on that "other" forum documenting my QT plan and setup.

Here is a part of that post.

My QT plan

• 1 week of observation at the store bought Salinity (1.018)

• 1 week of Prazipro followed by 50% water change

• 2nd week of Prazipro followed by 50% water change with RODI

• Drop Salinity down from 1.018 to 1.008 over a few days and hold at this level for 6 weeks.

At the end of 6 weeks of hyposalinity I will start doing water changes more frequently and slowly raise Salinity to 1.025 over a series of water changes and also top off with high salinity water (1.030).

I've run this QT program several times before in my old 20g QT and have it down to an exact science. In fact, I have it all planned out in Excel.

From end-to-end, the entire QT process will take a minimum of 12 weeks.
1 week initial Observation
2 weeks of Prazipro (2 treatment)
6 weeks Hyposalinity
2 weeks to raise to normal salinity
1 week of observation

The minimum for my plan is 3 months (12 weeks), but could be longer if needed. In the past I've had to adjust the plan depending on what I observe.

oh207 said:

From end-to-end, the entire QT process will take a minimum of 12 weeks.
1 week initial Observation
2 weeks of Prazipro (2 treatment)
6 weeks Hyposalinity
2 weeks to raise to normal salinity
1 week of observation

The minimum for my plan is 3 months (12 weeks), but could be longer if needed. In the past I've had to adjust the plan depending on what I observe.

Click to expand...

I do something like that.
I buy the fish, acclimate it for 15 minutes or so. Then I put it in my reef. In 15 or 20 years it gets senile and I may have to euthanize it. :biggrin: