Do you have one set up and what does it look like?

[MaxTremors]

I have QTed off and on over the last 25 years. My current tank, which is just over a year old, I have not quarantined any of the fish. I have never had any disease outbreaks in any of my tanks, whether I was QTing or not, and have probably lost more fish in QT than I have not QTing (meaning in the first 8 weeks of having a fish, I’ve had more losses in QT than in putting fish directly into an established tank). I think I’m leaning more towards not QTing in the future, when I really analyze my experiences with both methods, the pattern I see is that fish do better in an established tank with real live rock and solid nutrition than they do in an immature QT tank. Obviously, observing fish before buying and buying from trusted sources are very important.

Three or four weeks ago I bought a little Valentini puffer that looked fat and healthy (behavior was observed over a couple days and it was active, no tail curling, was picking at rocks, etc), but it had a little bit of ich. I brought it home and put it my tank, and in a couple days the ich was gone, then a couple days later it had a few more spots, then those went away and since then (about 2 and a half weeks), its been ich free, active, eating, and looks great. None of my other fish have showed any signs of ich. Now, I know that some people will say that putting this fish in my tank was reckless, but I’ve kept quite a few puffers over the years and know that I mild case of ich isn’t a big deal if the fish is otherwise healthy and well conditioned (especially if there’s been s recent stress event, which is this case there was - surviving the entire supply chain). I also knew that my other fish were in peak condition and wouldn’t be affected (because I know that I already have ich in my tank and none of my fish exhibit symptoms). My point is that I think proper observation (so buying fish that are in good condition), a mature tank that is bacterial diverse (real live rock), good nutrition, and avoiding stress can be just as, if not more successful than QTing. That said, I understand why people QT and I usually recommend people who are new to the hobby with immature tanks that don’t have the experience to make judgements about a fish’s health based on observation to QT everything.

There have been a couple comments saying people who don’t QT are dumb and making a bunch of inept comparisons/analogies, it’s this kind of rhetoric that skews the data. People who don’t QT and are successful a lot of times just don’t say anything because they don’t want to be shamed by militant devotees of QTing. I know I have been reluctant in the past to admit that I didn’t QT something because of this kind of rhetoric. I guess my point is either method is fine, and neither has 100% success rates, so do what works for you, and ignore the people who claim that there is only one way to do things and that their way is the only way.

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

I have a plain 10g tank with a sponge filter and basic heater in case of emergency. Here's hoping I never have to set it up!

To avoid setting up the quarantine tank, I order my fish pre-quarantined. I still worry about something slipping past but I trust that people who quarantine fish as a business have all the right equipment and experience to produce healthy fish.

 

[seanjournot]

In progress; will have the overflow and return setup by the end of the week. Will have a multilevel egg crate stand for holding frags and what ever else like rocks and biomedia. Adding a 9004 skimmer along with chaeto in the sump down the line. This will be a holding tank; will use two small ten gallon tanks for treating fish.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

I love the idea of a divider to separate a place for substrate. I just have a small plastic tub in mine that I regularly have to scoop the substrate back into.

Thanks.

I had a few pieces of thin extra glass laying around so figured I'd make something a bit more permanent than the normal tub of sand.

The top edge ended up being too sharp even after taking a honing stone to it, So I cut a piece of extra reactor tubing down the center, filled it with silicone on each end and affixed it to protect the fish as well as keep the sand where I wanted it.

 

[TJustice86]

Inherited my first tank from my neighbor that moved away. Tank had a three stripe damsel, blue hippo tang, and a single clown, everything was good and stable for 3+ months so I decided I would add a couple fish (long nose hawk and a second clown to pair with the one that was already in there) Well, lets just say I didn't plan on QTing. With those new fish came a velvet outbreak. I lost all of the fish except for the two clowns.

So I had to make an emergency QT about two weeks ago and will be QTing everything now. I took this opportunity to begin rebuilding the display tank, I don't think the gravel/sand had been truly cleaned for 5+ years. It was like concrete in the back. (Couldn't reach it with gravel vacuum due to rock wall).

 

[rmorris_14]

10 gallon with HOB and sponge filter. Currently being used to treat/isolate a cardinal fish with unknown illness. I will keep it running for all future quarantine/treatment needs.

 

[Gtinnel]

I don’t have a picture of mine, and probably wouldn’t share anyway since mine is covered in algae, but mine is a 29g tank. I have a hob bio wheel filter and a sea clone skimmer. I had the skimmer and filter sitting around in my garage from a long time ago so I decided to use them. I also do a roughly 7% water change each day (assuming I’m not currently running chemicals/meds) from the waste water from my display tanks AWC.

I currently have a Timor wrasse in mine that has been in there for observation for about 2 months. I’ll probably move him over to the display before too much longer

 

[AaronFReef]

3 QTs running right now. Two prophylactic treatments and one holding and observation while I gather my fish for a new tank. I use Aquaclear HOBs since I keep sponge filters for the aqua clear as well as the air stone kind in my sump on my display at all times to have a portable bio filter that will remove ammonia and let me feed heavily at any time during QT to fatten up and not stress the fish as much during medication. When I don’t run a HOB as I don’t on my lower 10g seen here, I just put the sponge filter and aqua clear sponge in the tank. I don’t do many water changes during QT out of laziness and fear of changing copper concentration. It hasn’t seemed to be necessary but I may be doing it imperfect.

I’ve lost some fish early on before I started getting the idea behind ammonia control but now knock on wood I’ve gotten about 10 fish through without loss. I think loss comes from not maintaining a stable bio filter in my cases.

 

[carbasaurus]

I keep an old bicube set up as a mini reef. Live sand, live rock, a little “dirty with some nuisance algae and lots of pods and invertebrate fauna. I use it more as an acclimation tank rather than QT/treatment tank as I can’t treat the system with copper or hyposalinity. Still I keep all new fish in it for at least a month. I can make sure they adapt to captive food during that time and watch for any disease that I can try to treat with medicated food. I have been doing this for years and have been very successful getting some challenging fish through (regal angel, vensustus angel, multibar angel, plus many less challenging fish

 

[ZombieEngineer]

I re-purposed by old biocube build for my QT. Just a little overkill since this has a 100W Onyx LED light and an old apex classic.

Bioballs and seeded sponge in the back for filtration and coral inserts in the front. Jebao pumps for random flow. I can push the coral inserts into the back, add a frag rack, and remove the copper to convert this into a coral QT system.

 

[OBuckNutzO]

I voted other because I have a great LFS that keeps his systems separate and immaculate for fish and corals and he will quarantine in treated tanks if you want (for any amount of time) and then you pick up. If a fish doesn't sell he moves them to his "been quarantined" systems and you can be assured they have already been through it...but will quarantine again if asked. Its so great having a great LFS in this hobby

 

[DeniseAndy]

I always have a qt system ready to set up if needed for fish. Simple pvc, fake coral piece, hob filter, air pump and stone, heater, lid, sand bucket if needed.

For corals and inverts and rock, I use my 40g/20g grow out/frag tank.

 

[bruno3047]

When I need to set up a quarantine tank in a hurry, I take sand out of my DT and lay down about a half inch in the QT, taking as much off the surface of the DT sand as possible. Usually around 1 foot of the surface area in a 6 foot long tank. I also use a few of the 3 to 4 inch rocks I have in my DT at the base of my back wall. No cycle with this method at all. I also start runnIng a sponge filter that gets populated with beneficial bacteria in a week or so. In my experience, just putting a sponge filter with no air running through it into your sump is a waste of time and will result in a disastrous cycle in your QT. Unless water is forcefully running through the sponge, very little bacteria is going to accumulate. As I said. That’s my experience. I can’t speak for anyone else.

 

[Sean Clark]

I look at QT as a balance between risk/reward. I will QT anything that goes into my display. Sometimes for more sensitive animals that would not be ideal for a traditional QT they go into my smaller mature tank for observation. After a few months they can then get transferred into the main display. I feel this is a good balance between QT everything and keeping your display free of illness.

 

[LeftyReefer]

Yes, ever since i had an ICH outbreak in my DT (after not QT'ing any fish) I now QT all fish very thoroughly.
current QT tank is a 20G long, but also have (2) 10g I can set up in a pinch.
currently housing 2 anthias, a flasher wrasse, and a damsel.

 

[ying yang]

I voted have qt cycled/ running and ready to go.
Got 56 litre/think that's 15 gallons,with largish internal filter with sponge and plastic bio balls in it plus about 50 or so balls bottom of tank and another smaller Internal filter with no sponge just for extra flow plus heater off course. And few fist size pieces off rock and add few drops off amnonia once a month and tiny bit ground up flake food and do small water change every few months and just top it off when cam feel like it tbh.
It wont fit ally 9 fisj in so Would have to use 2 large 100 litre plasterers buckets if had to qt treat all my 9 fish at once and share the rock and balls from running qt tank and put on other 2 buckets or 1 if thought be big enough.

For 5 years researching tank was mainly under impression of qt every fish and seperate tank for corals and cuc for observation.but then just before could actually set tank up looked into the whole qt or not and noticed most polls I read of r2r members if qt or not and most voted they don't,and read alot that alot lost more fish to medicated qt than straight in dt so thought just do observational qt and first 2 fish was clowns and as soon as put them in tank one was in bad way and skin peeling off and after started thread,got told probably brookenella so 2 days later took them back to lfs and got another 2 clowns out same tank they came from and put In my qt observational tank with no meds for a month and all good so put in dt then next 7 fish went straight in dt and 14-16 months later all is well with my fish .
As for observational qt on all corals/ cuc I decided as not doing fish qt then won't do these,but I'm starting to think should of qt my corals at least .
As got black bugs eaten my green slimer,suspected eunice worms,one orange/ brown and one grey/ black and sea slugs x25 pulled from my gsp,some worm thing in my sump and sounds like a pistol shrimp or something In sump as heard the click and doesmt sound like where one is in dt but unsure ( started with dry rock/sand) and even though dip every coral before go in dt,the amount of different pods from ampripods/munnid isopods/ copepods and spider looking pods if some kind and think spelt orthropods and all kinds is unreal so coral dip im using think its not worth a carrot lol

Also on the qt fish or not,I started a thread few months back " is it true that 80% of people that don't qt will have fish losses" if remember correctly was more like 90 % of people that don't qt DO NPT HAVE fish losses,really wish I added a poll to that thread ^_^

But as already said in this thread calling someone stupid or dumb because choose to do something different than them isn't cool and everyone should research and decide which route they want to take and if need help or advice then ask for it and if something doesn't work then doesnt work .
Won't share here but in the 80% thread I shared other threads on current qt protocol and threads on how to set up a tank if no qt so people can see the different ways then decide.

@revhtree tree here tag as requested ^_^

 

[Sharkbait19]

My first ever fish I did not qt. One month of living fish, 4 dead fish, and 90 days of fallow later I learned from my mistakes.
Even if I bought from a vendor that quarantines, I’d still hold in qt just to be safe.
ATM my fluval 13.5 is serving as a quarantine tank. It just got a coral beauty and longnose hawk out, and is currently housing a clown, fang blenny, and orange spotted blenny. Once done it will be broken down and eventually made into a reef again, but I also have a 10 gallon in storage that I used to use.
Pardon the horrible reflection:

I truly believe that all it takes is an outbreak to teach anyone how important it is. I’m fortunate enough to have learned that early on and not after I have a large system.

@revhtree
(Forgot to tag in original post)

 

[Jase4224]

I have ignored this message many times in the past:

“A velvet outbreak made me QT”

Well guess what.. I had a velvet outbreak early this year after adding new fish the LFS supposedly QT’d. Losing pets and having my wife and child heartbroken was devastating even though I managed to save some of them by taking the day off work and rushing to a pet store to buy whatever medication, spare tanks and air bubblers I could. Also pulling a 160gal tank apart catching fish sucked, and so did going fallow for 8 weeks with the lights off and having to clean every nook and cranny of my tank to prevent oxygen free zones for velvet to go dormant.

Replacing these fish l ran into uronema, flukes and a couple more mystery deaths in QT. Better to have fish die in QT than in your DT where what killed them could get your other fish.

I have learned so much from this experience and have come out the other end actually very confident doing QT.

Quarantine is actually super simple, a bit of work but not hard. And absolutely essential now in my eyes. I personally take a zero tolerance policy and will QT EVERYTHING including corals and inverts. It’s not hard.

Please Visit the Humblefish YouTube channel for more info on QT procedures and disease info. Also BRS YouTube channel is doing a great new series on QT with Eliot from Marine Collectors. These resources make QT easy and removes the mystery of it all.

 

[Miami Reef]

Quarantine all the way! The bigger the tank and more expensive the fish makes the effort even more worthwhile.

 

[Jubei2006]

So I have a 500 gallon reef. I have a couple thousand dollars invested in just fish. All my fish have been medicated quarantined by TSM aquatics. I do have a few available hospital/quarantine tanks, most 10 to 20 gallons. I have HOB filters, heaters, and medications nearby. I keep material in my 500gallon cycling just in case I need to instant start a tank. Do you think I'm gonna risk all my fish and just dump a fish in that may have ich, velvet, or brook? All my inverts and corals are from fishless systems, or quarantined in fishless systems for at least 60 days. Ive deal with velvet twice and ich 2 or 3 times in the 20 years Ive been in this. NEVER AGAIN!!