Anybody have a Quarantine tank?

I am toying with the idea of setting up a quarantine tank for at least my saltwater tank (soon to be tank(s)- plural) for incoming fish so as to avoid the tragedy of infecting my old fish with something from a new fish... And wondered if anyone here had experience with quarantine/hospital tanks with salt or freshwater... It sounds like a common sense thing to do- put up a 10-20 gallon tank for use when a new fish comes in and keep them there for several weeks until they are given a clean bill of health... What do you all think? ('')

I have 1 10gallon set up for that.

What all do you have in it? I was going to put in a heater, filter, thermometer, light w/hood, some plants (plastic) and something to hide in that can easily be cleaned. Do you think it is best to use a sponge filter in the quarantine tank? Or maybe one with a sponge in it, like the Aquaclear type of filter...?

I put mine in a 10 gallon for 14 days... thats the amount of time it takes for the complete life cycle of common parasite. 10 days for ich...14 for anchor worms...ect.

h0ngkn0t2 wrote:

I put mine in a 10 gallon for 14 days... thats the amount of time it takes for the complete life cycle of common parasite. 10 days for ich...14 for anchor worms...ect.

I have a 20gal. hospital

14 days... Now is that for Freshwater only... cause mine will be for Saltwater (will set up one for fresh too, just later...) I read that for saltwater you had to do it for 3 weeks cause of some certain parasite, but I don't remember which one at the moment...

My saltwater I do 10 days and use a teaspoon of copper each day. Copper's good for ick
and a lot of other parasites in salt water.

nitty wrote:

My saltwater I do 10 days and use a teaspoon of copper each day. Copper's good for ick
and a lot of other parasites in salt water.

What size tank is your quarantine? Have you ever had any parasites slip through the cracks?

S&FW_FishyFriend wrote:

nitty wrote:

My saltwater I do 10 days and use a teaspoon of copper each day. Copper's good for ick
and a lot of other parasites in salt water.

What size tank is your quarantine? Have you ever had any parasites slip through the cracks?

I use to keep tangs and ick is really common on those fish. Then I kept a 20gal. long.
At the first site of infection, I took the fish out for 10 days of treatment. They always
look better after 5-6-7 days. But I still kept them separatedfor the whole 10 days. I
don't have a QT tank now for my saltwater, but I need to set one up soon.

I see you want a Mandarin Dragonet, make sure your live sand has been established
for at least 4-5 months. They thrive in/on it

nitty wrote:

I see you want a Mandarin Dragonet, make sure your live sand has been established
for at least 4-5 months. They thrive in/on it

Yeah, I know.... that's for probably at least 6 months down the road! I have to get my 80 gal up and running first... Then wait.... ..... ..... .... zzzzzzzz.... ..... ..... ('')

For FW I always have a spare filter running on one of my tanks or extra media in a filter. That way I can just throw together a QT tank when I need it. Yes QT is a very good idea. I got a bad batch of neons once and just put them in my 75g and lost most of them to ich within 2 days.... Now I always QT.

I have a 10 gallon up and running at all times.