ok I have setup a qt tank for my fish after getting hit with ich. now it is a 55 gal with some bio mass (rocks) filter and power head . with heavy metals running i know the rocks are toast in regards to ever being in a reef tank. but on a qt tank for corals what is needed? what should be in a qt tank for corals anyone.
a tank=what size
lights =what kind are needed the same as in a reef tank like a pendant or power compacts?
water filtration?= what type
chemicals?=
and what ever else you guys can think is needed.
as far as tank size goes i guess it would depend on how many corals you need to qt and how big they are. if its just a few pieces at a time i wouldnt think you would need a very big tank for it. im thinking a used nano-cube or something would do the job nicely. if you dont like that idea id make sure the tank is atleast 24" long just so that you have a good amount of choices for what kind of light to run.
as for lighting, i guess it would depend on what the majority of corals would be that youre going to be qt'ing and how long you would want to qt them for. im thinking a current nova t5ho, or a aquatic life t5ho would be a nice choice without breaking the bank.
do you plan on treating corals in the tank or just qt'ing and monitoring them?
would like to dip them and monitor them but should i get some bugs or something that isn't taken care of in the dip i would need the ability to treat them also in the same tank. I have a nano i could use but it has power compacts which is good enough to treat and still have enough light to keep the corals alive may not color up like under t5 and mh but pc's should work? if treating a coral what is the usual reason for pulling a coral and treating ? and what kinds of meds are used to treat in a qt tank that cannot be used in the reef tank?
FWIW... I had to pull a bunch of softies out of a tank that suffered from what I believe was an ammonia bloom.
I use a 5 gallon tank an small preset temperature heater, an airstone, one of those cheap ten dollar filters that is driven by an air pump, a couple of pieces of live rock and a clamp on reflector with a CF fluorescent bulb. I don't remember that I tired to feed the corals. I ran this for a couple of weeks. I had to watch the salinity as evaporation would cause it to rise.
All the corals came through the exercise without issue, although the palys would not open in the small tank. I had assumed that they would fail. As soon as I move them back to the main tank, they opened and have since readily multiplied. I didn't have anything with sweeping tentacles at that time, so stinging wasn't an issue.
i just threw a 15 gallon together as i knew i would be getting alot of different corals from different places this week. a hob filter with the sponge from my skimmer at first, heater, i did already have a light hanging i just set the tank off to the side of it. 400w mh. sure you dont need anything that big though. i would think pc's would be fine but if i were spending money on a new light i would go for t5.
i used my tank water and dosed with nite-out just because. i picked a few pieces of rock and added that so i could take my sponge back but left the hob. after dipping and examining them some stayed for a couple of days some didnt. very convenient to work out of but i wont leave it set up. i can do another quickie if i needed to. i buy used filters/tanks/heaters or anything i come across from re-sales or whatever. i guess it would depend on what i foun, in how i would treat it. while i had it set up a made a couple of frags as well.
I use a 20G for a QT tank. When its corals I made up some eggcrate racks on legs so the corals are up off the bottom of the tank and it gives me a way to hold the frags or colonies in place with frag plugs made for the eggcrate.
Another advantage is by being off the bottom any debris, pests etc which drop off go to the bottom for easier identification and can be vacuumed out easily.
Filtration if any is the same HOB AquaClear I use for my fish QT using a new sponge insert along with any number of Koralias or powerheads for movement. Lighting can be as simple as PC for softies up to a 150w MH pendant for SPS.
Keep it simple and easy to set up and maintain. I never keep my QT systems running at all times since I have a tendency to stick things in there and it soon becomes another system to maintain and not the QT it was intended to be.
how do you setup a qt tank for corals
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