My Current QT Process

Qasimja

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question trying to bring a 55G QT up to a therapeutic level of cupramine slowly next week when i get a large order of fish the tank will have 45G in there its not filled all the way up to the top i want to split the dosage up over 5 days so how much should i dose each day i want to administer 2 doses per day over 5 days to reach it can someone help me with this math im terrible at this sort of math problem lol
 

AbjectMaelstroM

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If using CP instead if copper, the process is the same? CP 14 days, transfer to new tank + 2 rounds of GC?

Getting ready to start my first QT for my first saltwater tank....anxiety stating to ramp up and I haven't even got the fish list finalized lol.
 
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RSF

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Can you use the same quarantine tank for both fish and inverts? Either together or at different times?
 

Crabs McJones

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Can you use the same quarantine tank for both fish and inverts? Either together or at different times?
If you're running copper, no. Inverts cannot handle copper. The inverts would have to go in a separate tank for 76 days.
 

AbjectMaelstroM

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Getting ready to order my very first fish, a pair of Mochavinci Clowns and a diamond goby and plan to use this method of QT in a 20g (~16g actual volume).

From what I've read, clowns are prone to brook. If that's the case, should I do Ruby Reef Rally bath then instead of copper, do 10-14 days of GC or Metro (I've got both) and then do 14 days of copoer... OR stick with the original guideline of Copper then GC/Meteo; planning on doing a Rally bath regardless prior to QT.
 

MnFish1

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Getting ready to order my very first fish, a pair of Mochavinci Clowns and a diamond goby and plan to use this method of QT in a 20g (~16g actual volume).

From what I've read, clowns are prone to brook. If that's the case, should I do Ruby Reef Rally bath then instead of copper, do 10-14 days of GC or Metro (I've got both) and then do 14 days of copoer... OR stick with the original guideline of Copper then GC/Meteo; planning on doing a Rally bath regardless prior to QT.

Not a QT expert here - but I would suggest that you stick to the same protocol (unless you are QT'ing a type of fish that does not tolerate one 'limb' of your QT process. Clowns are prone to brook - but they are just as prone to velvet or CI as other fish.
 

AbjectMaelstroM

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Not a QT expert here - but I would suggest that you stick to the same protocol (unless you are QT'ing a type of fish that does not tolerate one 'limb' of your QT process. Clowns are prone to brook - but they are just as prone to velvet or CI as other fish.

Sounds good. Thank you.
 
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HotRocks

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Getting ready to order my very first fish, a pair of Mochavinci Clowns and a diamond goby and plan to use this method of QT in a 20g (~16g actual volume).

From what I've read, clowns are prone to brook. If that's the case, should I do Ruby Reef Rally bath then instead of copper, do 10-14 days of GC or Metro (I've got both) and then do 14 days of copoer... OR stick with the original guideline of Copper then GC/Meteo; planning on doing a Rally bath regardless prior to QT.
If brook is a concern you can always add metro to the first 14 days of copper. Or you can just use metro post copper. Either way works. I don’t know that a single rally bath will completely remove brook. It might but I have never used it for that purpose solely so I can’t answer if that would work.
 

AbjectMaelstroM

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Biggest reason behind my thought of using Rally prior to copper was to give him a better chance to make it through copper without Brook going bananas, then post 14 days in copper do GC in the water column to handle "residual" Brook if there is any. Not sure if metro requires a water change, it's something I'm relying to avoid as much as possible while in copper... Just because I fear messing up dosing and going below therapeutic level.

Hope that makes sense.

This is what I have on hand for QT.
20200105_161123.jpg
 

blazerino

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When using the two tank method, is it ok to leave the first tank going and move new fish into it once I move the first fish out so that the cycle can stay in place?

I am going to be adding fish to my tank overtime so I would be great if I could keep the first tank going rather than having to go through the initial cycle everytime I want to buy a new fish.
 

jstephens24

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When using the two tank method, is it ok to leave the first tank going and move new fish into it once I move the first fish out so that the cycle can stay in place?

I am going to be adding fish to my tank overtime so I would be great if I could keep the first tank going rather than having to go through the initial cycle everytime I want to buy a new fish.

pretty sure the disease/pest will stay with whatever you had in tank. You have to empty and leave dry for 24 hours when doing the ttm method


edit: or leave it fish free for 72 days so ich or whatever dies
 

blazerino

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pretty sure the disease/pest will stay with whatever you had in tank. You have to empty and leave dry for 24 hours when doing the ttm method


edit: or leave it fish free for 72 days so ich or whatever dies

Since the tank is treated with copper, wouldn't that take care of anything bad in the water?

What I would like to do is have 1 tank cycled and ready to go with 1 PPM copper power. Add fish, slowly raise to 2 PPM, hold for 2 weeks and then transfer the fish to a sterile tank. Then drop the copper to 1 ppm in the first tank and be ready to introduce new fish. One the new fish are done with the 2 weeks of copper they would get transfered into a sterile tank.

Basically I would leave the copper tank always running and then set up the 2nd tank as needed.
 

atp0726

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Hey, @HotRocks , first wanted to say thanks for posting your QT guidlines! I must have read them 100x by now along with all the other stickies on this forum and its been extremely helpful! After losing 5 fish to velvet and only saving one in QT i started using your method on the second batch of fish. I have to say Copper Power combined with Hanna is a game changer, especially for those afraid to use copper with the other test kits out there.

With that said, I am at my final week of QT and I am pretty sure my 2 Anthias (other post on this here) have Uronema. After copper i dosed the GC 5-7 days apart. I am wondering why you dont recommend just dosing straight Prazi instead of GC since the liquid Prazi dose is a bit more potent and 2 doses of Metro (in GC) 5-7 days apart doesnt seem to have an effect, at least in my case on Uronema.

just curious, thanks!
 

Ciwyn

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So I just had a frustrating experience while utilizing this method and could use a little advice. Now I do not believe the problem I had was the fault of the method but rather is something I did. I have used this method a few times before with success and I actually think think this is a nearly complete yet simple to follow method so hopefully a little advice from the experts can help figure out where I went wrong.

I ordered 3 fish recently. A juvenile flasher wrasse, juvenile halichoeres wrasse and a goby. They all arrived alive and seemed to be doing alright. I had the salinity in the first tank at about 1.017 and Cp level was 1.15. Both tanks are 10 gallon with HOB filter, powerhead, heater, airstone, ammonia badge and acrylic covers with pieces of PVC inside. I had left them up and running from my last successful QT so I expected them to already be cycled. They both have a bit of algae on the glass and pvc, but that's about it.

Since the salinity was nearly identical to the water in the bags I simply floated the bags for 20 min then opened them and placed the new fish in the tank. I was raising the Cp levels by .25 a day to get it to 2.0 and it settled just above that. All 3 appeared to be doing fine for a couple days, would go after the medicated food when I put it in. After a couple days I found the flasher wrasse dead when I checked on the tank in the morning. I figured this may have been a case of the general trouble I have quarantining flasher wrasses. I have always had difficulty with them.

About 4 days later the other wrasse died. I noticed its behavior had changed to be more timid than when it first arrived, but wasn't sure if the lights coming on was startling it when I came into the room.

The goby made it through the full 14 days in the first tank and I transferred him the the second tank which had a matched salinity. The next day I started the GC treatment. After 48 hours I actually noticed the ammonia badge in this tank move up to alert, so to mitigate that I changed a gallon of water to mitigate that with the intention of changing more water the next day. Unfortunately the goby died this morning though.

So what should I have possibly done different? It's very frustrating and disheartening to lose an entire order. I could certainly use a little guidance to give me a bit more confidence going forward. I truly believe in quarantining fish and particularly this method, however, quarantine has been a somewhat frustrating process for me over the years at the same time.

One thing I plan on doing immediately are 100% water changes on both of my QT tanks. Beyond that I'm not entirely sure how to proceed.
 

atp0726

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So I just had a frustrating experience while utilizing this method and could use a little advice. Now I do not believe the problem I had was the fault of the method but rather is something I did. I have used this method a few times before with success and I actually think think this is a nearly complete yet simple to follow method so hopefully a little advice from the experts can help figure out where I went wrong.

I ordered 3 fish recently. A juvenile flasher wrasse, juvenile halichoeres wrasse and a goby. They all arrived alive and seemed to be doing alright. I had the salinity in the first tank at about 1.017 and Cp level was 1.15. Both tanks are 10 gallon with HOB filter, powerhead, heater, airstone, ammonia badge and acrylic covers with pieces of PVC inside. I had left them up and running from my last successful QT so I expected them to already be cycled. They both have a bit of algae on the glass and pvc, but that's about it.

Since the salinity was nearly identical to the water in the bags I simply floated the bags for 20 min then opened them and placed the new fish in the tank. I was raising the Cp levels by .25 a day to get it to 2.0 and it settled just above that. All 3 appeared to be doing fine for a couple days, would go after the medicated food when I put it in. After a couple days I found the flasher wrasse dead when I checked on the tank in the morning. I figured this may have been a case of the general trouble I have quarantining flasher wrasses. I have always had difficulty with them.

About 4 days later the other wrasse died. I noticed its behavior had changed to be more timid than when it first arrived, but wasn't sure if the lights coming on was startling it when I came into the room.

The goby made it through the full 14 days in the first tank and I transferred him the the second tank which had a matched salinity. The next day I started the GC treatment. After 48 hours I actually noticed the ammonia badge in this tank move up to alert, so to mitigate that I changed a gallon of water to mitigate that with the intention of changing more water the next day. Unfortunately the goby died this morning though.

So what should I have possibly done different? It's very frustrating and disheartening to lose an entire order. I could certainly use a little guidance to give me a bit more confidence going forward. I truly believe in quarantining fish and particularly this method, however, quarantine has been a somewhat frustrating process for me over the years at the same time.

One thing I plan on doing immediately are 100% water changes on both of my QT tanks. Beyond that I'm not entirely sure how to proceed.
all I can think of is there might have been something lingering In your QT from the previous batch of fish.Sounds like you are planning on sterilizing them so that solves that.
Are you using copper power and Hanna to check levels? I have put to batches of fish through copper using this same approach and you wouldn’t even know the fish were in copper by their behavior.
what are you doing to seed the new tanks? I have filter media in my DT always and even dose it with Biospira when adding fish.
honestly, for the most part sounds like you are doing everything right. I would t lose hope because you may have had a stroke of bad luck.
 

Ciwyn

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all I can think of is there might have been something lingering In your QT from the previous batch of fish.Sounds like you are planning on sterilizing them so that solves that.
Are you using copper power and Hanna to check levels? I have put to batches of fish through copper using this same approach and you wouldn’t even know the fish were in copper by their behavior.
what are you doing to seed the new tanks? I have filter media in my DT always and even dose it with Biospira when adding fish.
honestly, for the most part sounds like you are doing everything right. I would t lose hope because you may have had a stroke of bad luck.

I believe I initially put biospira or something similar in the tanks. They have been up for over 6 months now so there should be a biofilm on most things. Also again the ammonia badge on the copper tank never showed any signs of rising ammonia. Also there is nitrate present in both tanks.

I'm using chelated copper and a Hanna checker for the copper treatment. I've had similar results as you have with other fish in that copper treatment. They didn't seem to be phased by it.

Got the complete water changes done today so hopefully that will be helpful going forward.
 

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Keeping my story rather short. I got new fish from a different LFS than my regular. After introducing them to my tank, my fish I’ve hade for a while one by one started to die each day. Came to the realization they were infected with Velvet.

I setup myQT and put my remaining fish in here with Copper treatment. A few more died in the beginning 2 days. Now the remaining fish have been in QT for 12 days. looking great and eating great now. I understand the life cycle of velvet parasite is roughly 14-15 days. Is it still absolutely necessary for me to keep fish in QT for 30 days or what is a safe amount of time that I can remove them to be reintroduced to main tank?
 

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what would i have to do to sterilize my QT tank so that i can get my fish out of 2.0 copper after 14 days? they are currently eating metroplex soaked food. the only thing i would not be able to do is treat with prazipro. ideally, i would put them back in and treat with prazi, but not sure if that is worth it at this point. really paranoid about bacterial infection beyond 14 days.

i thought about moving them into a tub and bleaching the whole thing out, letting it sit over night and refilling it and moving them back.??
 

Sixty7x

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I would probably slow down on increasing salinity. I have never increased salinity more than. .001 or less daily. How are you increasing it?

Just FYI I only increase salinity by topping off the tank with saltwater instead of freshwater to compensate for evaporation.
@HotRocks at what point would you suggest increasing salinity? I've read through 56 pages and don't remember anything about when to do this. I guess it would make sense to increase salinity after copper treatment in the 2nd tank. Also, I'm going to be mixing up some medicated food. for 1 tablespoon of frozen=1 scoop GC, 1 scoop Focus and I have selcon and garlic guard. How much of the selcon, garlic guard should be used? This is my first time doing a QT. FWIW I have two small clowns in a 10 gallon tank. Thank you
 

atp0726

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@HotRocks at what point would you suggest increasing salinity? I've read through 56 pages and don't remember anything about when to do this. I guess it would make sense to increase salinity after copper treatment in the 2nd tank. Also, I'm going to be mixing up some medicated food. for 1 tablespoon of frozen=1 scoop GC, 1 scoop Focus and I have selcon and garlic guard. How much of the selcon, garlic guard should be used? This is my first time doing a QT. FWIW I have two small clowns in a 10 gallon tank. Thank you
I wouldn’t over think it. Just top off with saltwater instead of fresh and monitor you salinity until you get to the desired level. I have also increased it a week before moving to the DT with no ill effect.
I just do maybe three drops ofselcon and 1-2 of garlic.
 

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