Quarintine tank sprung a leak- Help!

[Coral Hygiene]

This morning I woke up to my mom screaming as my quarantine tank was leaking overnight. It got my mom’s antique furniture all wet (oops!) and she won’t let me go out and get a new tank. I have a one spot foxface still in there and my only choice is to put it in my DT. I have no other spare tank to put it in and I have to get my fish out of the quarantine fast. It has only gone through one treatment of prazipro and I have not done the second treatment or a treatment of cupramine. I will just have to take the risk of putting him into the DT. As of right now, my DT has no fish or cuc, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, and nitrate somewhere between 40-80. The salinity in my quarantine is 1.017 to match my lfs but the salinity in my Dt is 1.026. I don’t know how to acclimate my fish to such a dramatic salinity increase and most importantly, I don’t know what I’m doing. What should I do?

 

[Diesel]

Don't freak out my friend.
You can put him in a bucket with QT water and drip acclimated him for about a hour to match the Salinity and Ph of your DT.
Make sure you keep the temp in the bucket the same as in your tank, place a cover over it as it might jump.

 

[glb]

That difference in salinity is too much to do anything quickly. Do you have any glass containers in the house you could transfer the fish into while you acclimate? The nitrates in your display tank probably won’t bother the fish. But I’d do a water change in the DT to bring it down. There’s no way your mom won’t let you buy a small tank? Petco has them for cheap. I would definitely find another piece of furniture to put a quarantine tank in! What your fish needs is time to adapt to the change in salinity. I don’t know exactly how much time so hopefully someone else will chime in. Good luck!

 

[Coral Hygiene]

Don't freak out my friend.
You can put him in a bucket with QT water and drip acclimated him for about a hour to match the PH of your DT.
Make sure you keep the temp in the bucket the same as in your tank, place a cover over it as it might jump.

Thanks! But the problem is my salinity, theres a .009 difference between my quarantine and my DT. I have read that a salinity increase of 002-.003 within an hour can be harmful to a fish.

 

[Diesel]

Thanks! But the problem is my salinity, theres a .009 difference between my quarantine and my DT. I have read that a salinity increase of 002-.003 within an hour can be harmful to a fish.

Not if you drip acclimate, besides with no new QT you don't have a other option.
LFS get fish in all the time with low salinity in the bags, all they do is temp acclimate them and 30 min later they will release the fish.
I know it's not the perfect way but it's reality fact.

 

[Coral Hygiene]

That difference in salinity is too much to do anything quickly. Do you have any glass containers in the house you could transfer the fish into while you acclimate? The nitrates in your display tank probably won’t bother the fish. But I’d do a water change in the DT to bring it down. There’s no way your mom won’t let you buy a small tank? Petco has them for cheap. I would definitely find another piece of furniture to put a quarantine tank in! What your fish needs is time to adapt to the change in salinity. I don’t know exactly how much time so hopefully someone else will chime in. Good luck!

Thanks for your input! I’m afraid that I have no other containers except for a 5 gallon bucket I use for water changes. My mom is also really ticked off right now and she won’t drive an hour to a lfs. I’m trying to find where the leak is coming from right now and hopefully its an easy fix.

 

[Coral Hygiene]

Not if you drip acclimate, besides with no new QT you don't have a other option.
LFS get fish in all the time with low salinity in the bags, all they do is temp acclimate them and 30 min later they will release the fish.
I know it's not the perfect way but it's reality fact.

Alright, how long do you think I should drip acclimate?

 

[Diesel]

99.9% it's the silicone seam that failed.
Re-do Silicone seam isn't that hard but you need to strip all seams first and make it nice a clean, then apply the new silicone and it's needs to cure for a few days before you add water.
Bucket the fish, drip him for a hour and in the tank if you wanna save him him.

 

[Diesel]

Alright, how long do you think I should drip acclimate?

As long as needed but not longer than a hour.
Test water with a refractor meter to see if you get close to your salinity in the tank.
When you drip from out the DT make sure you add new salt water to your DT.

 

[glb]

99.9% it's the silicone seam that failed.
Re-do Silicone seam isn't that hard but you need to strip all seams first and make it nice a clean, then apply the new silicone and it's needs to cure for a few days before you add water.
Bucket the fish, drip him for a hour and in the tank if you wanna save him him.

Agreed. A 5g bucket is fine. Good luck and be really nice to your Mom for a while!

 

[eatbreakfast]

How big is the dt? Just take out some saltwater and replace it with freshwater. This will drop te salinity so acclimation will be less stressful.