Need Help w Quarantine Tank

[GucciYoni]

Hey everyone, I have a 215L tank which houses a couple of clowns, inverts (Chaiton, Mantis, Hermits, Snails) and some damsels. One of my clowns is a bit under the weather recently.. He developed a white fuzzy beard at one point, and retained it for about a week. This has now disappeared and reappeared as what seems to be white fungus or bacteria on his jaw. His gills seem to be a little darkish red inside and a tad inflamed. He seems fine, So I haven't decided whether or not he will be quarantined, but for now, I don't even have this option, since my quarantine is chemically terrible.

I recently set up a quarantine using an old freshwater tank I had lying around. Its approximately 34L, I used the old freshwater in-tank Eheim filter and positioned it at the top so that the flow breaks the waters surface and oxygenates. I bought a small Aqua one heater and installed it as well. I filled this tank with water from the existing tank, and it has been running for about 2 weeks now.

The other day I came home with a fish and wanted to quarantine it. Luckily, I tested for nitrites in BB quarantine and the vial became dark-red instantly. I was forced to skip quarantine :-( As it was super hot out and the fish needed to be homed somewhere. I used a new sponge for the filer instead of seeding it with an older sponge (probably a mistake)...

Last night, upon cleaning display, i dropped a tiny literally (2 inch) piece of LR into the QT, in hopes that millions of bacteria would eat the nitrite.

What do you guys think? What should I do? How can I keep my QT constantly cycled?

 

[Crabs McJones]

Bear in mind that you need to be doing water changes on your quarantine tank as well to help keep nitrates down. get some filter floss for your hang on back filter and some pvc fittings (elbows and straight fittings) as another surface for your bacteria And if the tank has no inhabitants you still need to put some sort of food in there for the bacteria. Hope this helps

 

[GucciYoni]

Bear in mind that you need to be doing water changes on your quarantine tank as well to help keep nitrates down. get some filter floss for your hang on back filter and some pvc fittings (elbows and straight fittings) as another surface for your bacteria And if the tank has no inhabitants you still need to put some sort of food in there for the bacteria. Hope this helps

Cheers for the advice, its an internal filter, so its inside the tank itself, does that count as hang on the back? and if theres nitrites there must mean there was ammonia already present?

 

[Crabs McJones]

Cheers for the advice, its an internal filter, so its inside the tank itself, does that count as hang on the back? and if theres nitrites there must mean there was ammonia already present?

Correct, if there is nitrate that means that you have sufficient bacteria in the system to break down the ammonia into nitrate, however you need to do water changes to get the nitrate out of the system . So it's an all in one aquarium? You could do sponge or filter floss for mechanical filtration.

 

[GucciYoni]

Correct, if there is nitrate that means that you have sufficient bacteria in the system to break down the ammonia into nitrate, however you need to do water changes to get the nitrate out of the system . So it's an all in one aquarium? You could do sponge or filter floss for mechanical filtration.

Okay so I havn't checked for Nitrate, theres Nitrite... am I missing something?, If theres Nitrite it means theres currently insufficient bacteria because otherwise, the nitrite would be converted to Nitrate.

Its not an all in one. Its a filter which i attach to the inside glass with suction cups. Look up Eheim Internal Filter if you want an idea.

 

[Crabs McJones]

Okay so I havn't checked for Nitrate, theres Nitrite... am I missing something?, If theres Nitrite it means theres currently insufficient bacteria because otherwise, the nitrite would be converted to Nitrate.

Its not an all in one. Its a filter which i attach to the inside glass with suction cups. Look up Eheim Internal Filter if you want an idea.

Gotchya. Yeah if there is nitrite then the tank wasn't finished cycling.

 

[GucciYoni]

Anyone else care to chime in?

I've placed some bioloical media (from DT) in with the sponge of the internal filter in the QT, hopefully some nitrifying bacteria will cycle the tank quicker!

 

[foxt]

That will help. You could also add some bacteria from something like Dr Tim’s. I do wonder what produced your nitrite, did you start the cycle with a food source to produce ammonia? Is there ammonia in the tank?

 

[GucciYoni]

In Australia none really use the food for ammonia trick, very much a US thing! The water is from the display tank, so Im Assuming some waste causing ammonia was brought in!

 

[foxt]

Ok, it came from somewhere. Is there any NH3 in the tank now?