Setup for Quarantine Tank

**peter** · 07-16-2006, 10:28 AM

I am starting to build a large (48x24x24in) planted show aquarium in my house. I plan to quarantine the fish before I add them to the tank, over the next couple of months.

What set-up do I need for the quarantine tank? Size? Filter? Substrate? Air Bubbler? Decorations?

Probably the largest population it will ever need to handle is 5 young silver angels.

Regards
Peter

**kimmers318** · 07-16-2006, 12:23 PM

I use a 20 gal long....but that is because we had a spare! Alot of people use 10 gal since it will only be temporary. Think about the size of the fish you will need to Q, and what they would be able to be okay in for a couple of weeks. Obviously, you can't buy a 10 inch oscar and expect it to live even for a short time in a 10 gal.
I use gravel in my Q tank with a fluval 2 plus internal filter, I do use a bubble wand, but only put decor in that whoever is in there may need. My platy's keep it cycled, and that makes it easy to grab the fry as they are born. They can easily be transferred to my large tank if I need to worry about illness from quarantine. Since my platy's are in it all of the time I do have some plastic and 1 live plant that has made it despite my lower light, with a bubble wand. Since the pleco I rescued a couple of weeks ago is malnourished, no disease issues in previous owners tank, I left the platy's in there with him.
An another easy way to have a Q tank ready is to put a filter sponge into a cycled tank for a few days/to a week, to allow it to get bacteria on it, then when you pop it into the Q tank it should be ready. That is how I manage my 10 gal fry tank, which is empty when no fry are around. That doesn't happen often, but the last batch born I left in the tank because I was too busy taking care of rehoming the pleco. Adding a filter bag of gravel and/or filter material from a cycled tank helps it too.
In your situation with a new tank, my PERSONAL CHOICE would be to add the largest fish you plan on having first, directly to the new tank after it is cycled...but treat the situation as if it is a quarantine and don't add any new fish until you are sure the first purchases are healthy. The only drawback to that is if there is a disease issue, you will have to medicate for the size of the tank, which is much cheaper in a small Q tank. If anyone has any other reasons for this NOT being an okay idea....please speak up!
Another suggestion just from my own experiences is that I use stresscoat for my dechlorinator, which claims to help the fish themselves with their slime coat, thus helping them fight off alot of infections naturally. In the 2 cases of ICK I have encountered....I won both without medications or salt, just water changes, increased temp and stresscoat. Luckily, the only disease that I know of that I have encountered was a possible internal bacterial infection, which I didn't treat soon enough because I thought they were just harassed to the point of injury and didn't treat right away.

Good luck with your aquarium!