Questions about starting a QT

[supergiantrobot]

I had some questions after reading your very helpful article on quarantine tanks.

For reference, I have a 90G aquarium with a separate refugium and separate sump. I can easily start a sponge in the sump to seed the QT tank or keep a filter handy.

1/ Can you provide an inventory of recommended equipment for the QT? For example, if I did a 20L QT tank, what filter, lights, etc. would you recommend?

2/ For creatures such as crabs, snails, anenomes, and shrimp, what is the QT process like? If those creatures require special foods or algae to eat, how should those foods be introduced into the QT? Grown as in the display?

3/ Can I divide the QT and keep a damsel in it? Perhaps even behind an opaque divider?

4/ When you reconstruct your QT, do you make fresh saltwater and drop in the sponge? How far ahead of time do you build the QT? I assume that since a fish could become sick at any time, you do not assume any lead time. Is that the same for a new purchase?

5/ Do you have a recommended schedule for stocking a new reef aquarium? I saw that you recommended a six-month quiet period to mature the tank to have lots of critters. What beyond that point?

6/ If building a medicince chest, what would you recommend?

And, finally, what do you recommend a reefer look for when shopping for new livestock? From LFS? Is there a protocol for online purchases?

Thanks.

 

[Steven Pro]

1.) Tank, lid/top, cycled biological filter, powerhead pump for circulation, heater, thermometer, and lights (varies greatly by what you what to keep).

2.) Most crabs and shrimp will eat just about anything you offer them. Anemones consume meaty foods of marine origin, but varies slightly by species. Some prefer smaller fare like mysis shrimp, others can swallow and digest whole finger size fish and shrimp. I have had good luck feeding snails nori/seaweed selects.

3.) I guess you could.

4.) No, I use water from my display to fill the QT tank. For purchases, I usually assemble the tank the day before.

5.) Eric Borneman wrote in detail about this in one of his Mything the Point articles in Reefkeeping. I believe it was the third/last one.

6.) Copper and appropriate test kit, refractometer, formalin, garlic, buffer for FW dips, and your regular test kits for monitoring water quality in the QT tank (pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, etc.).

When I buy at a LFS, I look to make sure the fish is alert, reacts to its environment, feeds, looks right and clean, where was it collected from, and from which wholesaler. With online purchases, you are basically going to get whatever they send you. I don't buy livestock online. The small price difference is not worth the increased risk. I much prefer to see what I am buying beforehand.