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Checklist for Quarantine Tanks and Hospital Tanks

My checklist for a quarantine tank (QT) or hospital tank (HT). QT & HT is a matter of quality rather than quantity. You need enough room for tangs and those impulse buys, but less is more in most cases as water changes and medications go farther. You don’t have to follow all of my suggestions, just use it as a guideline. Due to the scope of the post, I have excluded medication dosage and handling practices.

1) A lid to keep in and deter jumpers:
You can use glass, egg-crate, or fiberglass screen. Wrasse and gobies are far more likely to jump in a small empty QT/HT tank. PVC pipe and fitting hiding places are best as they are inert, non-calcareous (no calcium structure to absorb medications), easy to clean and sterilize, and smooth so they won’t damage fish as they scratch their parasites off. Using a dim nightlight will minimize the stress of the lights coming on and off instantly and reduce shock to jumpers. Some fish can thread themselves through a needle so be sure to cover every possible exit hole in the lid, as they will find it.

2) A dedicated heater with a reliable thermostat:
A heater is much more important to a QT/HT than in a display tank because you are dealing with a much smaller volume of water and fewer pieces of equipment that add heat. Stability in temperature is more important than the actual temperature. Unlike freshwater ich, marine ich (Cryptocaryon & Oodinium) is cued by temperature increases rather than decreases. Having said that, an elevated temperature (84-86°F) will speed the life cycle of ich to 10 days rather than 14. This is good news if the water is medicated and bad news if it is not. Let’s assume you have a treatment regimen that is steadily reducing the population of free-swimming ich in the tank by 80% per generation. A shorter life cycle of 10 days will assure that you can eradicate the ich quicker as the population shrinks with each consecutive generation as they enter the swimming stage of their life cycle. If you are not treating the water with ich medications, the parasite population will increase with every consecutive generation, so a shorter life cycle will assure a quicker demise of your fish.

3) Indirect, diffused light:
Try to keep a ten hour photo-period to reduce stress. Many antibiotics are photo-degradable, so direct light should be avoided. Deep water fish like certain anthias do not adapt to bright aquarium lighting.

4) A biological filter:
This can be a bio-wheel or canister filter that is normally run on the display tank to keep it cycled. It is too small to adversely affect the display tank. Remember not to use carbon as it will remove medications. Alternatively, you could just store the filter media in the display tank’s sump to keep the bacteria viable. Running the biofilter on a QT/HT with no bioload will slowly kill off the beneficial nitrifying bacteria that you need to control the nitrogen cycle. Biofilters have fallen out of fashion with reef tanks but they are still vital with QT/HT.

Copper will adhere to a biowheel. Using a new biowheel each time would be costly but cheaper than losing fish. I would use a copper remover like Cuprisorb with carbon to remove the residual copper. It’s a good practice to remove old copper from the QT so you are starting fresh each time. It makes dosing safer. It’s the calcareous (calcium-based) materials that absorb copper that you need to watch out for. This is less of any issue with ionic or chelated copper. If you’re really paranoid about copper, soak it in RO/DI water and test for copper.

You could dose the QT with ammonia when you anticipate the addition of new fish, but who are we kidding? These are impulse buys. Depending on the style of bio-filter, you could incorporate your filter floss or sponge from the display’s mechanical filter into the filter. HOT (hang on tank) filters are good for this. You can also do a water change and add fresh display water to the QT so it has some beneficial bacteria. The nitrifying bacteria grow on detritus in the substrate so you don’t need to prefilter the old water before adding it to the QT. In commercial QT they often employ air-driven sponge filters. These sponges can be stored in the filter of the display tank and moved to the QT filter as needed. It’s all about conditioning the bacteria. Nitrifying bacteria reproduce faster when the temperature swings (lag) so they won’t be harmed going to the cooler QT water. What ever you do, don’t rinse the filter media or disturb it as the delicate biofilms can be lost.

5) Plastic cups to catch and move fish:
Unlike freshwater fish, marine fish haven’t adapted to breathing atmospheric air even for a brief period of time. Most secondary bacterial infections are caused by fish net abrasions. Reef fish have tiny delicate scales that are easily bruised or removed. A trip to the Dollar Store is in order.

6) An ultraviolet (UV) sterilizer:
They cost a couple hundred dollars but they will pay for themselves after they save a few fish. The bulb will last a long time as it will only be used while you have fish in the QT. You could borrow a UV sterilizer from the display tank without causing too much trouble. UV sterilization should be discontinued if you are using antibiotics. Copper sulphate, formalin, malachite green, and methylene blue are not significantly affected by UV irradiation. Ionic copper such as Mardel’s Coppersafe and Seachems’s Cupramine become more toxic as the chemical bond is broken by UV, so UV should be discontinued or copper sulphate should be dosed in its place daily to maintain a safe therapeutic level of 0.20 ppm. If you are running a series of QT/HT tanks, a properly sized UV unit assures that a 100% kill ratio occurs so diseases can be contained to individual tanks.

7) A good camera:
A camera will help you take pictures to submit for help in diagnosis and treatment. They are also handy in picking up defects in the fins and scales that you may miss with the human eye. You can zoom in on your photo in Photoshop for a really close inspection without the fish moving. While you are there you can Photoshop any missing scales and torn fins for a virtual recovery.

8) Low salinity (hyposlainity) of 1.013 (HT) to 1.018 (QT):
Stressed marine fish can dehydrate when placed in standard salinity water (1.023+). They don’t have a healthy slime coat to regulate osmotic pressure and have to work a lot harder to pump salts out of their bodies. A lower salinity will also slow fish metabolism and kill parasites. Ammonia is also less toxic at a lower salinity as well. Fish adapt well to being moved to water with a lower salinity. They adapt poorly to moves to higher salinity so slowly reintroduce them to display tank water of 1.025 salinity. In cases of oodinium the salinity can be lowered to 1.013 but for no longer than 10 days. A salinity of 1.017 can be maintained for three weeks while the fish is developing a healthy slime coat.

9) Premixed saltwater:
Use display tank water for QT/HT water changes. Add new saltwater to the display. This will remove nitrogen compounds from the QT/HT and supply fresh pro-biotics and micro-organisms that will out-compete pathogens. The quarantined fish will be acclimated to the display tank water at all times, with the exception to the lower salinity. You can add fresh RO/DI water accordingly to correct/lower the salinity. Remember to top-off medications when you adjust salinity. One week before moving the QT/HT fish to the display tank, you can start adding more display tank water to slowly raise the salinity to avoid osmotic shock. Moving the fish to a safe zone in the sump assures you can monitor feeding, let the other fish get used to the “smell” of the new fish, and allow you to catch it if it gets sick again.

10) Large PVC pipe segments for hiding places:
Paint the back and side walls to provide additional shelter. Reef fish do poorly if they don’t have hiding places.

11) Household bleach (sodium hypochlorite):
If a disease breaks out, sterilize the tank with bleach before re-use. Make sure it is pure sodium hypochlorite with no fabric softener or scents added. You can also buy chlorine (bleach) from pool supply shops. You can use a 20% bleach treatment for a few hours, then change 100% of the water and dechlorinate the new water with sodium thiosulphate or a commercially prepared dechlorinator like Seachem’s Prime. I prefer Prime because it detoxifies both ammonia and nitrite. Prime should be on hand in large quantity for emergencies. Do not use too much bleach as it can damage some equipment such as fish nets and brittle plastics. A more gentle alternative would be to use hydrogen peroxide as it leaves only water and oxygen as residuals.

12) Five gallon bucket for fish & coral dips and baths:
You can use a bucket of aerated freshwater of equal temperature to the QT/HT for freshwater dips. Freshwater dips will kill parasites and only stress the host fish. The duration depends on the fish species, size and condition, but two minutes is a good rule of thumb for “freshwater dips”, and 20 minutes for “freshwater baths”. Don’t use RO/DI water for freshwater dips or baths. Tap-water has a closer pH and general hardness to saltwater. The chlorine is also medicinal as an oxidant to a certain extent. Do not add medications to freshwater dips or baths as they are not effective and drug toxicity levels differ from that of saltwater.

13) Bare bottom QT/HT:
A QT or HT should never have a substrate as it can harbour parasites in their early life cycle. A bare bottom tank allows you to wipe the inside surfaces daily (if HT). This will dislodge and kill parasites in the tomont, trophont and dinospore stages of the parasite’s life cycle. A diatom filter will remove items as small as 1 micron, and these pests are typically 25-50 microns.

14) A bright flashlight:
There are many fish parasites or cysts that can only be seen with a flashlight as they cast a shadow over the parasite you don’t get with aquarium lighting, while aquarium lighting casts a shadow over the side of the fish, obscuring the parasite or damaged tissue. A flashlight is an invaluable tool for evaluating fish health.

15) A dedicated net:
You can use 75mg/gallon potassium permanganate, iodine, peroxide, bleach or methylene blue as a net disinfectant or sterilizer. Segregate any thermometers, towels, feeding devices, and wash your hands to avoid spreading pathogens to the display tank and other QT/HT tanks.

16) Medications:
Keep medications on hand so they are there when you need them. You don’t want to have to rely on your local aquarium retailer to stock what you need when you need it, especially in the middle of the night on a holiday weekend.

I will briefly touch on the basics here as disease control and treatment warrants a lot more time, beyond the scope of this checklist. The only difference between QT and HT is the amount and variety of medications used. A QT should contain therapeutic levels of prophylactic (preventative) medications, while a hospital tank requires whatever it takes to get the job done. All newly imported fish will have a number of pathogens (diseases) present. If they are dealt with early in their life cycle, they will not cause serious health issues or mortality later on. Here is a brief outline of what I recommend for a QT prophylactic treatment regimen:

- 50 mg/gal chloramphenicol added every second day for three treatments for bacterial infection.
- 250 mg/gal neomycin added every second day for three treatments for bacterial infection.
- 0.20 ppm Coppersafe or Cupramine ionic copper maintained for the duration of the QT for the treatment of Amyloodinium and external parasites.
- 25 mg/gal quinine sulphate added every second day for three treatments for Cryptocaryon and protozoans.
- 6 mg/100g of food Rifampin fed daily for one week for Tuberculosis.
- 40mg/gal isoniazid added every second day for three treatments for Tuberculosis.
- 2 ppm praziquantel added weekly for two treatments for Flukes and flatworms.
- 1 mg/20g of fish praziquantel – given in food daily for one week for treating intestinal worms.
The above preventative treatment will allow for optimum water quality with minimal impact on nitrifying bacteria and will not cause significant mutation (resistant strains) of pathogens. The QT should receive a 50% weekly water change using display tank water to help with water quality, acclimation and to slowly increase the salinity from 1.018 to 1.025. While it is true that copper can adversely affect a fish’s immune system, the benefit far outweighs the negative aspects, and the QT level of 0.20 ppm is on the low side. Certain “scaleless” fish such as wrasse, gobies and blennies should not be exposed to copper medications; Quinine-based treatments and metronidazole are preferred treatments for these copper-sensitive fish. Quarantine marine fish for a minimum of 21 days to insure parasite life cycles are complete to prevent re-infection.

The following medications are valuable for dips, baths and treatment, but adversely affect water quality, or are better used in target treatment so they are not appropriate for QT:

- Malachite green in a HT or bath for ich & parasites.
- Methylene blue in a bath for parasites and to aid breathing.
- Formalin in a dip, bath or HT for Brooklynella, flukes & ich.
- Nifurpirinol in a bath or HT for fungus, bacterial infection, and parasites.
- Nitrofurazone in a bath or HT for fungus and bacterial infection.
- Erythromycin in HT for bacterial infection and cyanobacteria.
- Metronidazole in HT for internal & external parasites, bacterial infection and cryptocaryon.
- Kanmycin in bath or HT for bacterial infection.
- Gentimycin in bath or HT for bacterial infection.
- Piperazine in food for intestinal worms.
- Oxolinic acid In bath or HT for bacterial infection.
- Oxytetracycline in bath or HT for bacterial infection.
A new, sharp, single edged razor blade can be used to trim away lymphocystis (cotton-like lesions) on the margins of fins.
Oxidizers like the following can be used for treating open wounds by swabbing the area with a Q-Tip:

- Potassium permanganate
- Potassium dichromate
- Lugols iodine
- Hydrogen peroxide
- Merbromin
- Magnesium sulphate
*Created by: mrwilson