Quarantining Marine Fish

**GoWild** · 05-29-2012, 05:04 AM

I don't mean to ask so many questions... Ok I do, because I want to do this the best and most efficient way

I have never used a sponge filter before, nor really know anything about them. I did some research and want to know how you use yours. do you run an air bubbler through it when its in your sump or do you just leave it in your sump and let things collect on it that way? and if you dont use a airpump in your sump, would you use a air pump in the QT tank?
For water movement Should I really use a power head in a 5 gallon tank? I have two powerheads rated for 170gph and a circulation pump rated for 1250 gph.

Here's what I'm thinking,I could put the sponge filter under one of the powerheads where it sucks in water to blow it out and move the power head and the sponge filter to the QT tank. and if the flow rate is to strong, I could put a filter or something over the outflow to slow it down. 170gph/5gal= 34x turnover rate but with the filter on it, it should slow it down. I think that would be ok.

or

I do have a HOB filter that came with the tank, could I just put a household filter cut to size in my sump for a few weeks then put it in the HOB and run it while in use? I prefer not to run the HOB filter making my tank look like a construction zone or waste electricity if I don't have too.

what do you think I should do? Side note, I just found out the flow rate of the power heads and think I need to upgrade and take them out and just add another circulation pump.

**Cliff** · 05-29-2012, 01:28 PM

I run a bubbler so the sponge filter will have water flow through it. If not, I do not think you would get a large amount of BB growing in it. The air creates water movement through the sponge. I don't think you would be able to create that by placing a sponge under a powerhead. The water would just likely move around it.

The sponge filter that I have is supposedly rate for a 40 gallon tank by the manufacture, but I never use it in a tank lager than 20 gallons

If you have a HOB filter for your 5 gallon, , then it might be best to run this filter on your main tank to get and keep it seeded. Then just move it over to the QT tank when needed. That HOB filter will likely give you enough flow. If the flow of you HOB is too strong, you would be better off to place a DIY flow diverter on it

**Surfdog** · 05-29-2012, 04:08 PM

A sponge under a powerhead would draw water through it, but, much to fast and violently. The bubbler method allows a nice slow current through the sponge allowing easier attachment

**GoWild** · 05-29-2012, 07:33 PM

Originally Posted by Cliff

If you have a HOB filter for your 5 gallon, , then it might be best to run this filter on your main tank to get and keep it seeded. Then just move it over to the QT tank when needed. That HOB filter will likely give you enough flow. If the flow of you HOB is too strong, you would be better off to place a DIY flow diverter on it

the HOB filter comes with the standard carbon filter and the white course filter, should I use the carbon filter or buy a household sponge and cut it to size and put that in there? could I put the household filter that is cut to size on the top tray of my trickle filter where the water comes into it, instead of running the HOB filter on my display tank? I think that would have more water flowing through it, keep it saturated enough, and I wouldn't have to run a air pump or the HOB filter constantly. It be just like the filter that I have on the top tray now that acts as a mechanical filter before it hits the bio balls. Sorry again if this is tedious for you...

**Cliff** · 05-29-2012, 07:38 PM

Having the sponge on top of the bio-balls will work as long as water is flowing through it and it will be under the water.

If you are going to have live rock in that tank I would suggest not using bio-balls in the sump. You live rock will be all the filtration you need (if it's OK quality and you have ~1lb per gallon). Having biological filtration such as bio balls will add extra work that you can aviod

**GoWild** · 05-29-2012, 08:45 PM

This is essentially what I am working with now. I'm waiting for a maxijet pump to come in the mail so I can use my skimmer. It's at least 100# of rock, probably more, the dark rock is the stuff I got from a tank that has been up for two years. It has alot of greens, pinks and purple. the white rock is newly cured live rock that has only been in the tank 3 months. I just started using purple up every other day or two.

I have about 5-10lbs of base rock in my sump that is starting to darken up some with a handful of cheato. I got it from the guy I got the tank from but it doesn't seem to be growing any.
I have been looking into removing the bioballs. I took 1/4 of them out last week.
The sump isn't set up very well with one small baffle before the pump but the baffle is so small that the slightest evaporation causes it to go low. I added a filter pad around my pump to prevent things from going through it I wanted to wait for my tank to become more established before I took out the wet/dry and made a better sump. Any thoughts or suggestions on this would be greatly appreciated

**GoWild** · 05-29-2012, 08:57 PM

Here is one more. I have to crop the pics down so much because of size limitations. I just wanted to show a not so close up pic

**Cliff** · 05-29-2012, 09:40 PM

I would not dose purple-up unless you are testing for calcium and alkalinity. Purple up is just a very well marketed calcium supplement and without a lot of Coraline and corals in your tank to consume the calcium, you could be at risk of messing up your water parameters.

**GoWild** · 05-29-2012, 09:50 PM

I'm not testing for it. that's why I dose it every day or two. It says do it everyday. I'll have to run to the lfs to see if they can test those two things for me. My tank needs work and time to establish, but I have the quarantine situation down now, so in due time, things will get fine tuned and more fish will be added. Thanks for the help!