Quarantine Tank Trouble

[1234-fishy-freind]

I have just tested the water in my quaratine tank that has 5 yellow tangs in it.
Ammonia - 1
Nitrate - 0
Nitrite - 5

The water I put in was out of my reef tank and the water in there is great.

Im running a small filter in the tank that has been running for a year in my reef maturing.
It has no live rock in it though.

Should I take 5kg of mature live rock out of my reef and put it into my quaratine tank to get rid of the ammonia?

thanks.

 

[Musho3210]

Woah you got a dillema, putting all 5 tangs in your main tank may even cause a spike....

To tell you the truth, i'd use chemicals, use ammonia detoxifiers and do constant large water changes. Some chaeto (if you have any) would do great as well. I wouldn't use live rock because i wouldnt have the guts to put it back without bleaching/boiling it first....

A cup of live sand can help, but i wouldnt return that sand to the tank


Tangs produce a lot of waste, having the small digestive system.

 

[kj23502]

I would pull some of my live rock out of my main tank and continue to do water changes on the QT. If the main tank's water is great condition I'd use water from that due to it being aged and I feel it'd be better on your new fish than using fresh mixed water. Liken it to doing a wc on the main tank

Make sure to have good circulation in the QT tank to keep the lr alive. After things settle down I'd keep them in QT for a few weeks longer to make sure they are eating healthy and don't develope the dreaded secondary crap from stress/ammonia. Also it'll be easier to pull them out of the QT if they die than to dig around in the main tank. You can always boil/clean the rock after done QTing and return to the main display where it will become seeded again overtime. In freshwater bacteria has the capacity to doube every 24 to 48 hours...i wouldn't see why it wouldn't be similar in sw, although it may take a bit longer.

After your done QT add one or two fish at at time to the main tank leaving 2 weeks in between addding them to allow for the bacteria to multiply and for the other fish to settle down also. I know tangs can be territorial but I think this would be better doing it this way b/c of the possible waste overload if you add them all at once.

Thats just my reading educated opinion as I've not actually done it yet, but it's how I would probably do it if I were in a similar situation.

 

[@ombomb]

first thing to do is as close to a 100% water change as possible and then yes, put as much cured live rock in there as possible

 

[littleme1969]

first thing to do is as close to a 100% water change as possible and then yes, put as much cured live rock in there as possible

Having done the quarantine thing myself I will agree with the above. Its the only way to speed up the cycle.
You can add the live rock back after as long as you dont use any meds in that tank. But if you do use meds I'm afraid the rock can not be used in a reef system again.
Lots of daily water changes, I would also keep using the water from your main tank and top that up. That way you wont need to acliamtise them once you get around to adding them to your tank and it also means you also get a good water change in the main tank too.. Win Win in my book

 

[SkiFletch]

Yup, BIG waterchanges and a little cured LR... Put it like physically on top of or next to the sponge filter to seed it faster.

 

[1234-fishy-freind]

I have put about 3kg of cured LR in the tank now, with a bit under the filter as suggested and some live sand.

I also gave the impeller of the filter a good scrub just to make sure its spinning well and getting lots of water going through it.

I will do another water change tomorrow of about 75% and test my water again.

The fish still seem to be doing well and no signs of any real stress.

Well atleast one little good thing has come of this dilema. Having taken some rock out i have been able to make some decent spots to add some large corals.