How To Qt Lr/ls/crabs/snails/corals

[chrisstankevitz]

I have not started my tank. I have an empty show tank and an empty QT tank. I want to QT everything. Particuarly my live rock. I do not want pests. I plan to put LR into glass bottom QT and trap (use bait) the pests.

Trouble is, QT tank is to be 50% main tank water, 50% new water. But I don't have a main tank yet. And I can't start one because I want to QT the LR.

1. How can I QT LR without a main tank?

2. Should I QT the live sand? Do pests live in live sand?

3. Should I QT snails, crabs?

4. What kind of QT light do I need if I want to QT my corals for a few weeks before going into main tank?

Non-QT questions:
5. How much live sand do I really need?

6. How much live rock do I really need?

I want to minimize live rock/sand to minimize cost and pests.

Thanks for your help!

Chris
24G Nanocube

 

[Mr Miagi]

1. How can I QT LR without a main tank?

A tub. Setup a large clear tub that you can buy from a hardware store, with a heater, circulation and a light, (if only to see the creatures your trying to rid the display of).

2. Should I QT the live sand? Do pests live in live sand?

I wouldnt. I havent heard of any nasties coming in from LS.

3. Should I QT snails, crabs?

You could. I would personally just look them over. I just acclimitise them in a bucket of tank water floating in my display, and look for any potential problems.

4. What kind of QT light do I need if I want to QT my corals for a few weeks before going into main tank?

A bank of 2 or 4 PC's would have to do. You dont want to skimp, because your going to QT for a few weeks, but you wont want the cost to go through the roof.

Non-QT questions:
5. How much live sand do I really need?

Depends on how deep you want your sand bed of course. Id only go for a few centimeters to two inchs depth. But thats entirely up to you and whether you would like a DSB in your display.

6. How much live rock do I really need?

Recomended is 1Kilo/Litre or there abouts. Again, depending on what kind of bioload you might have, and how many corals you want to have room to place into. Search DIY LR on google, and It should give you some instructions or pics of how people can make there own live rock. This generally goes underneath your rock work as base rock, then you cover it with more expensive actual LR.

I want to minimize live rock/sand to minimize cost and pests.

Thats fine. Just make sufre you will have a lighter bioload if you go with minimum LR. Pests can be eradicated in or outside a display, but its easier if it is outside in a QT. As above, if you wanna reduce costs, search around for Do It Yourself Live Rock, and somewhere there should be some steps and ingrediants you can go by.

 

[chrisstankevitz]

1. How can I QT LR without a main tank?

A tub. Setup a large clear tub that you can buy from a hardware store, with a heater, circulation and a light, (if only to see the creatures your trying to rid the display of).

Thanks for your reply. What I'm specifically asking is about the water. 50% of QT water is supposed to come from my main tank (see numerous articles on wetwebmedia), but I don't have a main tank yet. Chicken and egg problem.

Chris

 

[crazyelece]

You don't want to QT the live rock as the die off is what cycles your tank. After the live rock and sand are in the tank wait for it to cycle. Also remove any hitchhikers you don't want at this time. Once the tank cycles you can then setup the QT with part of the main tank water. No chicken and egg here. The main first then the QT. Also there is no point to QTing the cleanup crew as they are what they are, nothing can hitchhike on them that a visual inspection wouldn't find.

 

[MoonTang]

I just set up a 10G QT tank and used the LR and water from the main tank.

Question is do i need to let it cycle and should i use a hang on the back filter or just a powerhead?

 

[chrisstankevitz]

I just set up a 10G QT tank and used the LR and water from the main tank.

Question is do i need to let it cycle and should i use a hang on the back filter or just a powerhead?

Here's what I read:

do not put LR or LS in the QT. Just glass bottom. Put some PVC pipe in there for the fish to hide in. Use 50% new salt water and 50% water from the main tank. No need to let the QT tank cycle with this approach. Take a sponge from your main cycled tank and use it in a filter in your QT tank. You're ready to go in just a few minutes.

 

[flamingonhot]

If you have a qt you should let the sponge filters and all run for a while, even with bacteria there is still going to be a cycle. When you are qt-ing your fish you obviously don't want to put them through that. BTW_ adding 50 percent water from the main tank won't do much, there may be some bacteria and ammonia but that's about it. Most bacteria had already colonized on the sides and surfaces in your tank.

Live sand- there are known "nasties" coming in it, but usually most aren't a problem to normal sized fish. You'll likely end up getting hydroids, but that's really only something to worry about with baby fish or fish like dwarf seahorses. Quarantining live sand isn't really going to do anything. Anythign that's in there is going to stay in there. Same with live rock, all you can do is get the bigger crabs and all out. Bristleworms and thing slike that will be stuck deep in there and have probably already lain eggs all over. With my first piece of live rock a while back I had little almost microscopic baby bristleworms crawling all over. A couple months later and my tank was infested with them and I once found a 4 inch long one.......

Hopefull this all makes sense lol.

 

[Mr Miagi]

I dont know why people are saying quarantining your LR is not going to do anything or isnt worth it. Ok, you wont get your brsitle worms out etc, but id leave them in anyway, along with the crabs (debateable I know ).

If you QT'd your LR you can/will have die-off. You dont neccessarily need this dieoff to cycle your display. Your just adding fully cured LR after youve QT'd it, which many people add to there display tanks.

A huge benefit to QT'ing your LR is you can get any pests like aptasia. You also can move around, turn upside down, and shake (if you want lol) the LR anyway you want without disturbing an aquascape, where something like aptasia, if placed in the display on a bottum piece of LR is likely to reproduce as you cant get too it.

Even a mantis will be easier to remove when you have the rock isolated. This way you wont have to pull down your rock work to get anything nasty out later.

Its up to you in the end though, as youve got a few varying opinions now!

(For anyone new reading this not knowing the terms, QT = Quarantine, LR = Liverock).

 

[chrisstankevitz]

Ok, you wont get your brsitle worms out etc

Thanks for your reply. I was under the impression that even the worms would come out of the QT-ed LR with some bait, but I suppose some will be in eggs and too small. That's a bummer, I didn't want any of those nasty things. My buddy's tank has disgusting worms all over the place which I don't want.

Do I have to use worm-infested LR in my main tank? Can I use just dead rock and maybe some live sand?

FYI, I bought my 24G nanocube a few weeks ago but haven't put a drop of water in in yet... I want to get all these issues sorted out!

Thanks,

Chris

 

[Mr Miagi]

Unless you have a personal issue with worms LOL, they do clean your tank and act as part of the clean up crew. Id leave them in. You could use dead rock, but it doesnt add anything beneficial to your system when setting up, and it probably wouldnt seed from just live sand. You could add base rock on the bottum of your aquascape, and from there, cover it with some small peaces of LR or LR rubble and hope it seeds the dead rock overtime.

When trying to kill a mantis shrimp, I took my LR out of my tank into a seperate bucket and warmed the water up. Things like bristle worms did die, but now three months later, they are back, and im seeing them again regularly lol! As mentioned, they are beneficial, so leave them in if you cans tomach them.