Im Back And Wondering About Quarantine

[jamesmacc]

Hey folks,
James here, was quite an active poster a few years ago when i had my malawi tank. Unfortunatly life , work and other commitments took over and i had to break my tank down and take some time out . Well start of this week i gave the tank a really good clean including sliders etc, bought new substrate , bought a new fluval fx6 , new heater. Its a 50" 400 litre tank built into my dining room wall. I have now added an oak frame to match the table and floors . Im just abou to start the fishless cycle and will then be ordering fish. there is a fish shop 4 hours from me who stocks lovely fish which i will be getting some from but i am also going to order a few online. All my last fish came from one supplier in one go so i never quarantined then i just let them loose, this time with them coming from 2 different suppliers im concerned that i should quarantine them to make sure they have no nasties .
Any advise on the most appropriate way to do this, buy a second tank and then take take filter media from it ti start the quarantine tank or will that still start a mini cycle ? Guess my other option is run a second filter on my display tank and then move it to the quarantine tank when needed and then clean it and replace media and put it back to the display tank ?
 
cheers
James

 

[Far_King]

Either approach is fine.  I tend to keep spare media for my quarantine tank filter in a cannister filter on another tank.
 
Note that the "seeding" approach will depend on how many fish you intend to quarantine.  1 or 2 is a low bio load and it will cope.
20 is a far higher load and may take time for the bacteria to catch up.

 

[Fishmanic]

I use two filters in each of my 29 gal and 35 gal tanks.   One is a larger HOB filter and other is a small sponge filter.   I could move the sponge filter to the quarantine tank when needed.