Qt setup ?

[ReeferRookie]

After reading an upsetting story of someone.adding an infected fish to their tank ive decided to start a small 10 gal or 15 gal qt tank what is required of a qt. What pieces of equipment lighting ect. Should there be live rock. Filter ??? Anyone.with any ideas. Keep in mind i am.a budget reefer

 

[heathd.hd]

I picked up a old bio cube from craigslist for 50 bucks had everything I needed. Filtration and a light. I put some plastic decor in and one piece of rock just cause. Most people say no rock.

 

[heathd.hd]

The boat has sand in it for my wrasse when he got quarantined

 

[ReeferRookie]

Nice. Not a bad deal at all gotta love those bio cubes maybe i should do a biocube set up

 

[heathd.hd]

Well I needed something big enough to quarantine my tang so this was really the best option. I threw a reef radiance led light over it and now I'll use for all my new corals that I buy.

 

[ReeferRookie]

I like it because its bugetable. I hate people who say u cant go.cheap reefing i wheel and deal on everything.

 

[heathd.hd]

Most definitely. You can find great stuff on craigslist. Equipment for my big tank i spent alot on but. I got great deals on my tanks.

 

[tyler1503]

I've never run a QT before, this is just info I've gathered from research here on R2R.
When mine is set up I plan to fill it up with old display tank water and keep a bag of filter media in the sump of my display tank. Using display tank water means you don't have to do a full acclimation to the display tanks water all over again. I'd still do a quick acclimation though.
When I set up the QT, I'll take the filter media bag out of the sump and put it in a HOB filter on the QT and replace the media bag in the sump with fresh media so it can be seeded with all the healthy stuff for next time. If your using medication, don't reuse the old filter media. If you don't use medication, you can dry it out, clean it and reuse it.
Lighting should be simple. I like the idea of low lighting to help prevent a bit of stress to the fish, but I don't think that's actually a major issue. You just need to be able to see in there clearly.
You also need something to control the temperature, so heating, chilling air con whatever you need.
A notebook is a good idea. You can write down the date you added the fish to QT, keep track of water changes, medication, feeding habits, general behaviour, appearance of the fish, signs of disease etc.. It's handy for next time if you get another fish the same or similar species you can have an idea of what to expect.
Some different sized PVC pipes are good so the fish can hide somewhere. It doesn't have to be PVC, but it's cheap and easy.
I'm pretty sure that's it. Maybe someone with more experience than me will offer some advice though :)

 

[ReeferRookie]

Uve offered awesome advise for someone with no.experience with it

 

[heathd.hd]

Biggest problem I found is I was doing water changes daily. So be ready. But I had large fish in a small pond.

 

[ReeferRookie]

I still change watwr with tap water that i dechlorinate

 

[heathd.hd]

Up 2 u I tried that in my fowlr and ended up with green grass everywhere! Lol

 

[ReeferRookie]

Up 2 u I tried that in my fowlr and ended up with green grass everywhere! Lol

i did too. But with a good clean.up crew water changes and alot.of patience i got rid of it. Got a healthy tank.now

 

[tyler1503]

Biggest problem I found is I was doing water changes daily. So be ready. But I had large fish in a small pond.

That's a good point. Perhaps keep a bottle of beneficial bacteria and a bottle of prime on hand just incase of a mini cycle.

I still change watwr with tap water that i dechlorinate

I've been doing that for over two years now and had a nasty GHA outbreak about a year ago. It cleared up eventually and hasn't come back so far *fingers crossed*.

 

[heathd.hd]

I use dr tims one and only when I set it up which did help.

 

[ReeferRookie]

I heard dr x is awesome !!!!!