Fallow Tank Question

[BonnieB]

I’ve been reading a lot of threads on QT tanks, and always wanting to keep learning and be prepared, my question is this…if you have a fully cycled tank and you are moving everything except some rock and sand to a new tank, can you keep the tank fallow and use it as a QT tank? Would there be anything special you’d have to do if so? Just my academic curious brain working here!!

 

[JumboShrimp]

Wanting to follow you better... you are asking about the practicality/wisdom of using your 'old' tank of just water, sand, and rock as your 'new' QT? (And letting it first sit fallow so anything bad dies out first?)

 

[BonnieB]

Wanting to follow you better... you are asking about the practicality/wisdom of using your 'old' tank of just water, sand, and rock as your 'new' QT? (And letting it first sit fallow so anything bad dies out first?)

Yep, that’s exactly what I’m asking…I was thinking/wondering if that would be viable!

 

[JumboShrimp]

OK, so now I'm on your page.

The thing is, if you will be using your QT to go a more traditional quarantine route (as opposed to merely as an 'observation' tank-- then where do you go from there, at the first sign of a diseased fish?), you will be looking to use medication such as Copper. With that right there, your sand and rock will absorb the Copper, and make keeping a steady, therapeutic dose pretty difficult. Beyond that, if you thereafter wanted to quarantine corals and inverts, your sand and rock is full of Copper. A no-go.

Most everyone with a QT will go bare-bottom. Check out ("Search") R2R for photos and videos. I hope this helps.

 

[BonnieB]

OK, so now I'm on your page.

The thing is, if you will be using your QT to go a more traditional quarantine route (as opposed to merely as an 'observation' tank-- then where do you go from there, at the first sign of a diseased fish?), you will be looking to use medication such as Copper. With that right there, your sand and rock will absorb the Copper, and make keeping a steady, therapeutic dose pretty difficult. Beyond that, if you thereafter wanted to quarantine corals and inverts, your sand and rock is full of Copper. A no-go.

Most everyone with a QT will go bare-bottom. Check out ("Search") R2R for photos and videos. I hope this helps.

Which is why I asked!

 

[BonnieB]

OK, so now I'm on your page.

The thing is, if you will be using your QT to go a more traditional quarantine route (as opposed to merely as an 'observation' tank-- then where do you go from there, at the first sign of a diseased fish?), you will be looking to use medication such as Copper. With that right there, your sand and rock will absorb the Copper, and make keeping a steady, therapeutic dose pretty difficult. Beyond that, if you thereafter wanted to quarantine corals and inverts, your sand and rock is full of Copper. A no-go.

Most everyone with a QT will go bare-bottom. Check out ("Search") R2R for photos and videos. I hope this helps.

Which is why I asked!

I guess my next question then is does it serve any purpose to empty rock and sand and keep the water running with any media (no rock or sand) or just empty it entirely and wait until I need to use it?

 

[JumboShrimp]

What size tank? And is it an all-in-one? Hang on back filtration? I guess it depends on which 'hassle' is less of a 'hassle' to you... LOL... keeping one going, or starting and stopping it each time? Personally I like to keep a cycled tank around at all times for QT, a 15 gallon AIO being my favorite. Sponge in the back chamber, saturated with bottled bacteria, and an air stone going. Easy-Peezy.

 

[Fish Fan]

My little hot tip is to always have a "stash" of plastic bio media in your main tank, in case you ever have to quickly set up a QT or hospital tank. I think everyone who runs only one tank should do this.

I'm a big believer in biosecurity, and I QT everything "wet" from fish to corals, and even inverts like snails, crabs, shrimps, etc., as best that I can.

For fish, I follow the R2R approved QT protocol, and the reason is that the author(s) are right here on R2R if you need help
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/current-quarantine-protocol.825055/
As mentioned above, if you're going to do a medicated QT paradigm (and I personally suggest that you do), medications such as copper interact with calcium carbonate materials such as rocks and sand, so keeping your copper at the required therapeutic level can be tricky. It's best to have a bare tank if you're going to be using medications. You can use pieces of PVC pipe and PVC fittings and/or silk plants for fish hides so they feel secure.

It's a bit of a dealers choice if you want to keep your QT tank running and cycled at all times, or break it down in between use. I prefer to break mine down, and restart it when I need to QT new fish. You can mitigate ammonia in an un-cycled QT tank through water changes. Or, you can keep some pre-cycled bio media on hand for just these occasions (I swear I've heard that somewhere before ).

I suggest plastic biomedia specifically because it's inert and won't interact with medications. I often use plastic pot scrubbies from my local dollar store, something like these:

I hope this helps; good luck!!!