Simple, small, cheap, QT tank

[One Eye]

With all the pest being passed around the club and, alot of people not having room to set up an all out QT tank, I thought I'd share a simple little set up that doesn't take up any room in your home and cost about $15.

A speciman container, small air pump, a splitter (to regulate air flow) tubing and an air stone, even the airstone is optional, I just use it to hold the tubing in the speciman container.

Put tank water and coral into speciman container, hook inside of main tank to control temp and give light to coral, I use a back corner with limited light. Carefuly treat the new coral, be careful not to get treatment into main tank. Use the air pump for airation and water flow and use the splitter to regulate the flow of air into the container, you don't want it to cause bubbles popping over the top of the container into your main tank.

 

[NateHanson]

Nice Darren! Thanks for sharing.

 

[smcnally]

Thanks for the idea...I'll have to try it out.

 

[MelodyDurham]

How long do you quarentine a new coral when you get one? And how often do you do a water change in the mini QT tank?

Thanks for the help! We were going to set up a 10 gallon QT tank since I had one laying around, but this seems like such an easier way to do it!

Thanks!

Melody~

 

[nunofs]

I've been using a 5g bucket to do Interceptor and ReefDip treatments on incoming corals... I put a powerhead and a heater in the bucket, put the Interceptor in and leave it for at least 6 hours, with whatever light the bucket may be receiving... then at the very end I add ReefDip (basically iodine) for 10 to 15 minutes.

Yours sounds like it is a very convenient solution, but I'd personally be concerned about spilling contaminated water into the main tank.

Nuno

 

[One Eye]

Yup, you've got to be careful not to spill treated water into the tank.

I do the Interceptor treatment for about 6 hrs. The lugols dip is about a 10 minute dip. I leave the coral in qt for a week. After the first 6-7hrs it's just plane old tank water, water changes are very easy, just poor some out and add new tank water. I use a turkey baster. Most of the qt period (after the dips) is only for obsveration, so it's not critical to keep the water seperated. After 7 days, if there's no mites the coral should be safe. If I pick up a large number of corals at the same time I use a 10 gal tank with power heads and heaters, but for 1 or 2 this works very well and doesn't take up any space.

 

[starrfish]

Hey Darren - I "borrowed" your idea today and made a mini coral QT for my sump. One question I have is: it doesn't have any filtration - only an airstone. Do you think a filter of some sort is needed?

 

[One Eye]

I normally just change the water...no filter needed. The water in the little qt should be the same temp as the tank and the corals already been acclimated. So it's just a dump it out and add more kinda thing. For the hang on qt that is.
But I pretty much do the same thing with the 5 gallon tank (it's not a 10...my bad ) I just take out old water and add new tank water, it gets me to do some frequent, small water changes in the main tank at the same time.
Matter of fact, I gotta get some frags. I've been slacking on the water changes.

 

[starrfish]

Ok, that's what I'll do. It's a really effective little QT. I have a really nice PC light over my sump right now because I don't yet have a frag tank - I'm putting my frags in my sump. So the QT just fits right in under the PC lights. Hmmm....maybe I won't set up a frag tank - at least not in the short term - everything seems to be working in my sump right now. Thanks for the idea on the mini coral QT - I love it!