quarantine tank questions

[dmopar74]

im going to use my 10g for a quarantine tank and i have some questions.
1. when i want to use it can i just fill it with water out of my main tank?
2. i use penguin filters so cant i just put a bio-wheel from my main tank filter into my quarantine filter for an istantly cycled tank? i know the wheels interchange.
3.i can just set the quarantine tanks heater for the same as the main tank and plug it in when needed with no fuss, correct? these are all stealth heaters.
thanks for any info guys and gals

 

[Dr Joe]

im going to use my 10g for a quarantine tank and i have some questions.
1. when i want to use it can i just fill it with water out of my main tank?
2. i use penguin filters so cant i just put a bio-wheel from my main tank filter into my quarantine filter for an istantly cycled tank? i know the wheels interchange.
3.i can just set the quarantine tanks heater for the same as the main tank and plug it in when needed with no fuss, correct? these are all stealth heaters.
thanks for any info guys and gals

1) Yes

2) No, only the bio-wheel is cycled, not the main filter.

3) Yes, just pre-test them for correct temp.

If you can keep a sponge filter (or 2) in your main tank you will have a whole filter ready and waiting to go.

Dr Joe

.

 

[dmopar74]

2) No, only the bio-wheel is cycled, not the main filter.

.

main filter as in? my main tank has 2 penguin 350s and an xp4 with 2 trays packed with bio-media so im not worried bout the main tank. do you mean the filter pad isnt cycled in the quar. tank? i dont see this to be a problem as the filter pads get cleaned or changed regularly. i will be using a penguin 200 in the 10g.

 

[Dr Joe]

Yes, I was speaking of the Q. tanks filter. I just lightly clean the media in the filters instead of changing them so they have some bio capabilities.

 

[ShadowBass]

I'm also confused as to why the biowheels can't be interchanged.

We've always done this with our quarantine/hospital tanks. Move a fish to quarantine tank and take biowheel from main tank to use on quarantine tank. Never had a problem with ammonia or anything doing this.

If you run multiple filters on your main tank it should be fine, just monitor your ammonia levels on the quarantine to make sure everything is ok. If there's a problem you can always take a bit of media from the canister to add some more biofiltration.

 

[Dr Joe]

No one said you couldn't.

Only prob with it is if you do end up with a sick fish you have to make sure everything is cured or don't return it to the main tank.

Dr Joe

.

 

[ShadowBass]

Ok, apparently I just misunderstood.

Yeah, I rarely return the biowheels back to the main tanks anyway. The removed biowheel is replaced with a fresh one (somehow I keep aquiring extra biowheels, from boxes of cheap/used items I guess).
The main tank doesn't see any noticeable spike in ammonia/nitrites, and the new wheel starts growing it's own bacteria soon after being put in anyway.

The wheel on the quarantine tank is usually rinsed off really good and dried + stored until I need it for another filter. I usually get cheap used filters that happen to be missing biowheels quite often, so this comes in handy.
Sometimes I end up with new fish and they go in the quarantine tank then are moved with the wheel to their own tank.

But yeah (sorry to go a bit off topic), if you run several biowheel filters there's no problems moving them from filter to filter.