My shared success with QT’ing fish

[mtraylor]

Well after seeing several posts in threads about losing fish. I thought I would put together a little article to share my experiences with QT’ing fish.

Over the last several years, there seems to be a higher need to QT your fish. Most of the fish I receive on line have internal parasites. This is found by watching for white poop in your fish. About 60% of the fish I get these days have internal parasites. This is not an issue with the fish. The fish come from all the same place…..the ocean.

I don’t believe that the fish have very many issues straight from the ocean. Once they are collected they are placed on holding facilities and they are introduced to all these parasites and diseases that we are seeing in our trade. Maybe one fish may have had something here and there and once it gets to a holding facility its spread like wild fire. That’s why we see so many issues with the fish.


I personally setup a 20 gallon aquarium for QT purposes. I only set it up when I need it. I drilled the side of the aquarium to make it easy to remove water from the aquarium. This makes it nice for water changes. Highly recommend.

When I setup the aquarium. In this instance I actually placed some sand in the bottom for some wrasses and tiger goby to make them comfortable. This is not needed normally, but I used live sand in a bag for this purpose and a scoop from the display.

When I setup the QT tank. I like to set it up at least 48 hours before my fish arrive. This is what I do.

SETUP

1. Remove a couple pieces of Live rock from sump and place in QT tank.
   
   
2. In this case, I also added new live sand and seeded it from display.
   
   
3. Fill QT tank with water from Display
   
   
4. Add heater and bubble strip to QT.
   
   
5. I place one pin wheel filter on each side of aquarium for water movement and pre filtration.
   
   
6. Since I had wrasses that only eat pods, I placed order for pods to place in QT.
   
   
7. Grab algae from refuge and place in QT for pod growth.
   
   
8. Place several 2 Inch PVC tubes in aquarium for fish to hide when they want too.

Once all filled up I found this wonderful product by Brightwell called NeoCarbonit-Z.

I place about 2 teaspoons of this stuff into filter bag and place in the filter. This stuff is the bomb! It removes ammonia and keeps nitrates at bay. Since I have been using this stuff, the QT tank really does not even cycle. Keeps everything at bay. Awesome product. I no longer use Prime. This is helpful with some medications.

Once the fish come in, I put the fish in QT and observe them for 4 to 5 days and let them start eating and get a little comfortable before I do anything.

This is what the QT looks like. Notice the drain valve for ease of water change out.

This is a hiding place for copepods if you need an area.

Once I get them eating, I immediately start running prazipro and treating their food with focus. Dont forget to remove NeoCarbonit-Z before you start Prazipro. Follow directions on bottle for how much prazipro to use and how long to run.

I do not add the recommended dose all in one swoop. I spread the dose out over 4 additions with 3 to 4 hours between each dose. This helps the fish get used to the prazi allot easier as it strips oxygen and can stress gentle fish like wrasses to death. The bubbler is essential IMO.

I run the fish through 2 cycles of prazipro treatment per the bottle’s instructions. In between the 2 treatments I run NeoCarbonit-Z for 24hours to remove the previous treatment and perform 50% water change. For the internal parasites, I stop feeding the fish focus when the infected ones stop pooping white.

This method of QT has worked really well for me. Just the 2 treatments catch most of the issues I see with fish coming in from online or LFS. If I need to medicate fish for anything else, I will bind the medication with the focus for the issue. I hope this helps.


Be patient and take everything slow while in QT. This fish need to be stress free and contaminate free before you introduce them to your display. Healthy fish make it allot better in your display and you don’t have to worry about killing any of your long term inhabitants in the main display.

 

[Brew12]

Thank you for sharing!

Once I get them eating, I immediately start running prazipro and treating their food with focus.

What is it you are using the Focus to bind to their food?

Just the 2 treatments catch most of the issues I see with fish coming in from online or LFS.

You don't worry about Marine Velvet? That is the main reason I treat everything with either copper or CP.

 

[B-ridge]

The stiff you use by Brightwell can’t be left in the tank to help with ammonia?

 

[mtraylor]

Thank you for sharing!

What is it you are using the Focus to bind to their food?


You don't worry about Marine Velvet? That is the main reason I treat everything with either copper or CP.

Most of the time, I use it alone or with MetroPlex. I have had 2 occasions I have had to use KanaPlex. I have never worried about Marine Velvet. I have never seen it on a fish that I have had, so I have never treated for it. I hope I never do.

 

[mtraylor]

The stiff you use by Brightwell can’t be left in the tank to help with ammonia?

You have to remove the media before you treat the aquarium with any meds because it has carbon in it. It will strip your meds.

Oh BTW. This stuff is pretty nasty as in dusty. So it takes a real good rinse before use.

 

[revhtree]

Thanks for sharing!

 

[B-ridge]

Oh ok. That makes sense. Didn’t realize it had carbon in it. There was a great thread recently on using matrix for help with ammonia in qt tanks

 

[mtraylor]

Oh ok. I will see if I can find that. Thank you.

 

[4FordFamily]

Most of the time, I use it alone or with MetroPlex. I have had 2 occasions I have had to use KanaPlex. I have never worried about Marine Velvet. I have never seen it on a fish that I have had, so I have never treated for it. I hope I never do.

I will say it is VERY common these days. Many wrasse can avoid death due to their thick slime coats and sleeping habits (under sand or in a mucous cocoon or both).

If using copper you won’t want much sand in there. Nice article though!

 

[ca1ore]

Oh ok. That makes sense. Didn’t realize it had carbon in it. There was a great thread recently on using matrix for help with ammonia in qt tanks

Matrix is just a biofilter media - until it is seeded I cannot see how it would aid in ammonia removal. The brightwell stuff claims to have ammonia removing zeolites (or something like that).

 

[B-ridge]

@calore
How long do you think it would take to “seed” the matrix so it would help with ammonia reducing? And which Brightwell product are you referring to with the zeolites?
I had read somewhere someone recommended aquaforest Life Bio Fil. Not sure if this would really work in a new tank for qt purposes to reduce ammonia. Supposed to be already seeded with bacteria

 

[Devesh.R]

Thanks for sharing, planing on setting up one soon.

 

[Edp251]

Great thread. Will imitate. Thanks!

 

[Mark]

I wouldn't put live rock or algae in a QT tank. CP and Copper would kill the algae and inverts, and cause the water to foul.

As far as biological filtration, biomedia is cheap enough to keep a spare bag in your reef sump to stay seeded with bacteria. Heck, even crushed coral works. If I decide to empty the QT tank, I make sure to have a fresh bag or tupperware with some biomedia in my reef. Then in the future, I can easily spin up my QT with seeded bacteria if there's a fish I want to buy. I never return the biomedia back to the reef sump if it's been used in a QT. It's too risky if it happens to leach medications like copper, and like I said biomedia is cheap.

I would also suggest adding a seachem ammonia monitor: https://www.seachem.com/ammonia-alert.php

I would also advocate treating with CP and Prazi at same time. This covers the most common ailments: Ich, Velvet, Brook, Flukes, and Worms.

 

[ramona]

Great details, thanks for sharing.

 

[infinite0180]

Hows your success been with prazi? I had two clowns in QT for a month. After they were eating and comfortable i ran two rounds of prazi a week apart. Before the prazi i never noticed any scratching or strange begavior but figured i would run it anyways. Both times during the first 24-36 hours of prazi the fish were scratching here and there but continued to act happy, normal, and they ate well. I assumed they must of had some flukes and the prazi was doing its job. Fast forward a few weeks and they are in my DT doing just fine. On one occassion i noticed one fish scratch on the sand. And the other fish kind of freaked out during my first WC with them in the tank. It appeared that the dust stirred up from the sand irritated his gills for an hour or so or maybe i didnt airate the new water enough and it dropped the O2 levels enough to bother the fish. Either way they both seem perfectly fine. But it begs the question that maybe some flukes lived? I was halfway debating pulling them and putting them back in QT for more prazi or metro but i think thats extreme. Anyways, have you ever had to run more than 2 rounds of prazi? I think im just being paraniod, after all, i have observed them for hours and have only seen one fish scratch itself once or maybe twice in the past 3 weeks after the prazi. Fish can itch without having a parasite from time to time right? What bugs me is they were in QT for 2 weeks after prazi and i never saw any scratching at all but then i put them in the DT and saw it those couple times and my heart kind of sank to the floor...

 

[Mark]

Hows your success been with prazi? I had two clowns in QT for a month. After they were eating and comfortable i ran two rounds of prazi a week apart. Before the prazi i never noticed any scratching or strange begavior but figured i would run it anyways. Both times during the first 24-36 hours of prazi the fish were scratching here and there but continued to act happy, normal, and they ate well. I assumed they must of had some flukes and the prazi was doing its job. Fast forward a few weeks and they are in my DT doing just fine. On one occassion i noticed one fish scratch on the sand. And the other fish kind of freaked out during my first WC with them in the tank. It appeared that the dust stirred up from the sand irritated his gills for an hour or so or maybe i didnt airate the new water enough and it dropped the O2 levels enough to bother the fish. Either way they both seem perfectly fine. But it begs the question that maybe some flukes lived? I was halfway debating pulling them and putting them back in QT for more prazi or metro but i think thats extreme. Anyways, have you ever had to run more than 2 rounds of prazi? I think im just being paraniod, after all, i have observed them for hours and have only seen one fish scratch itself once or maybe twice in the past 3 weeks after the prazi. Fish can itch without having a parasite from time to time right? What bugs me is they were in QT for 2 weeks after prazi and i never saw any scratching at all but then i put them in the DT and saw it those couple times and my heart kind of sank to the floor...

Did you only treat them with prazi? I would suspect the scratching is not fluke related.

 

[infinite0180]

Did you only treat them with prazi? I would suspect the scratching is not fluke related.

Yes only prazi. I had Copper Power and an API kit on hand expecting to treat for ich but they showed no symptoms in a month so i took a gamble and put them in the DT. They are the first fish in the DT so i figured worst case i pull them and put them back in QT without too much trouble. I left the QT up and running after a cleaning just to be safe. Like i said though i think i only saw one fish scratch once, maybe twice. And even then im new to all this so its hard to decifer normal clownfish behavior from signs of parasites. If it was a scratch it was one swoop to the bottom and that was it, then a few days later maybe one swoop on the side of his rock. But really these guys are pretty wierd and he could have been doing something else...

 

[Mark]

Yes only prazi. I had Copper Power and an API kit on hand expecting to treat for ich but they showed no symptoms in a month so i took a gamble and put them in the DT. They are the first fish in the DT so i figured worst case i pull them and put them back in QT without too much trouble. I left the QT up and running after a cleaning just to be safe. Like i said though i think i only saw one fish scratch once, maybe twice. And even then im new to all this so its hard to decifer normal clownfish behavior from signs of parasites. If it was a scratch it was one swoop to the bottom and that was it, then a few days later maybe one swoop on the side of his rock. But really these guys are pretty wierd and he could have been doing something else...

Clownfish are weird swimmers. I would just keep an eye out of ich and velvet and let them be.

 

[BigJohnny]

Most of the time, I use it alone or with MetroPlex. I have had 2 occasions I have had to use KanaPlex. I have never worried about Marine Velvet. I have never seen it on a fish that I have had, so I have never treated for it. I hope I never do.

Just an FYI there is no reason to use focus alone as it is a tool to bind medication to food, not a medication itself. Your qt process would also not treat ich or velvet, just FYI. You said you'd bind other meds with focus to take care of anything else but no meds you bind with focus will treat either of those.