Thanks again for everyone who gave advice in my previous QT tank thread. I have another question on the topic 
I have decided to go with a 20g tank (mostly because a starter kit is on sale right now, you know me), so it's going to have the usual kit light, kit HOB, and comes with a heater. Hopefully they will all be reasonable enough in quality to last like 3 years or something.
My question is, what do I do with it while there aren't fish in there? I'm thinking of initially setting up the tank now to cycle it so that I'll have some filter media to seed the 125 gallon with, but that can be done starting on day 1 when I fill it up. But I'm thinking of the intermediate/long term, what does one do with a QT if they don't empty it out in between uses?
I can keep the QT HOB on the 125g so that it'll be ready to go whenever I need to set up the QT, and I figure I can always take a handful of substrate from the 125 as well when moving fish into QT in case there isn't enough bioload to really keep BB living in the QT HOB filter. So, unless I buy a dedicated air pump and sponge filter for the QT, it won't have filtration in the interim.
My husband wants to use the QT as an opportunity to do a scape like this:
Except my version of this for the QT would be to put ~1in / 2cm of sand on the bottom of the tank (no incline), plop a big dragon stone in the center, and attach java moss to it. I'm thinking when there are fish inside the tank, adding some floating hornwort would give them cover/security, and that hornwort can just live in the main tank (or be tossed, if the fish die so as to not introduce germs back into main tank).
So, my question is, how do I keep this kind of setup alive (and possibly interesting) while there are no inhabitants in the tank? I was thinking of adding shrimp, but I have never had shrimp before and I just read that they are very sensitive to nitrates, which probably wouldn't work super well in a potentially unfiltered tank. Then I was thinking of some kind of snail, but I also don't know how well that would work? I definitely don't want any kind of fish, since this is supposed to be a QT. I guess I am willing to sacrifice a few invertebrates if I have to medicate with something potent / if the fish eat them, but I'd rather not have fish in there because then there's all sorts of compatibility issues etc.
by the way, water company says we have high pH (8-9) and moderately hard water KH = 130ppm, GH ~200ppm / ~12gpg. The main tank is going to have tens of pounds of driftwood, so maybe I stick a piece in here to help match water parameters between the tanks (I am operating under the assumption that the driftwood will drop the ph somewhat (hopefully....)). I haven't tested stuff myself yet (mostly because water test kit will likely be an xmas present lol), but these are the assumptions I am operating under.
Interested in hearing your thoughts!!
I have decided to go with a 20g tank (mostly because a starter kit is on sale right now, you know me
), so it's going to have the usual kit light, kit HOB, and comes with a heater. Hopefully they will all be reasonable enough in quality to last like 3 years or something.My question is, what do I do with it while there aren't fish in there? I'm thinking of initially setting up the tank now to cycle it so that I'll have some filter media to seed the 125 gallon with, but that can be done starting on day 1 when I fill it up. But I'm thinking of the intermediate/long term, what does one do with a QT if they don't empty it out in between uses?
I can keep the QT HOB on the 125g so that it'll be ready to go whenever I need to set up the QT, and I figure I can always take a handful of substrate from the 125 as well when moving fish into QT in case there isn't enough bioload to really keep BB living in the QT HOB filter. So, unless I buy a dedicated air pump and sponge filter for the QT, it won't have filtration in the interim.
My husband wants to use the QT as an opportunity to do a scape like this:
Except my version of this for the QT would be to put ~1in / 2cm of sand on the bottom of the tank (no incline), plop a big dragon stone in the center, and attach java moss to it. I'm thinking when there are fish inside the tank, adding some floating hornwort would give them cover/security, and that hornwort can just live in the main tank (or be tossed, if the fish die so as to not introduce germs back into main tank).
So, my question is, how do I keep this kind of setup alive (and possibly interesting) while there are no inhabitants in the tank? I was thinking of adding shrimp, but I have never had shrimp before and I just read that they are very sensitive to nitrates, which probably wouldn't work super well in a potentially unfiltered tank. Then I was thinking of some kind of snail, but I also don't know how well that would work? I definitely don't want any kind of fish, since this is supposed to be a QT. I guess I am willing to sacrifice a few invertebrates if I have to medicate with something potent / if the fish eat them, but I'd rather not have fish in there because then there's all sorts of compatibility issues etc.
by the way, water company says we have high pH (8-9) and moderately hard water KH = 130ppm, GH ~200ppm / ~12gpg. The main tank is going to have tens of pounds of driftwood, so maybe I stick a piece in here to help match water parameters between the tanks (I am operating under the assumption that the driftwood will drop the ph somewhat (hopefully....)). I haven't tested stuff myself yet (mostly because water test kit will likely be an xmas present lol), but these are the assumptions I am operating under.
Interested in hearing your thoughts!!
