fish transfer from QT to display tank

[Olivier]

Hi everyone
I need your suggestion/help on how to transfer fish from QT tank to display tank.

this is what I would do and please correct me if I do it wrong.

I have all my fishes into my QT tank 1 month (4 weeks) ago to treat Ich. my QT tank is a hyposalinity tank with copper Sulfate on it.

1) prepare 3 buckets, bucket #1 with QT tank water, bucket #2 with display tank water and bucket #3 with fresh water.
2) transfer fish from QT tank into bucket #1 and slow drip of display tank water into this bucket for 1 hours
3) transfer fish from bucket #1 to fresh water bucket do a quick fresh water dip (1mins)
4) transfer fish from fresh water bucket into bucket #3 and do slow drip to acclaimate the fish to display tank water.
5) transfer fish into display tank with all light off for 24hour
please correct
Olivier

 

[DaveK]

I think you'd have an easier time of it if you matched the water in the QT tank to the SG, pH, etc of your main tank befre you begin the transfer back. Do this very slowly, over a period of several days.

Then you only need one bucket, and can drip acclimate the fish using that, just like you did, I hope, when you brought them home.

Always discard all water you dripped into the bucket you used to acclimate the fish. You don't want to transfer any of that water back into the main tank. Yes, you will need some newly mixed water to make up the difference in the tank.

I'm not a big fan of FW dips, as it puts more stress on the fish, but some people swear by it. I rarely use them, but I wouldn't call someone who did wrong. Your fish should be disease free, healthy and feeding well by now, so a FW dip is unnecessary.

You want to keep the stress on the fish as low as possible. You only need to keep the main tank light off for an hour or so, just long enough for the fish to get under cover, if they don't want to be in the light.

 

[Phyl]

If your QT is at hypo right now, I would spend the week slowly bringing it back up to the proper SG before you move your fish back to the tank. Besides, from everything I've read, 4 weeks isn't long enough to fallow your main. I've heard you want to do that for 6-8 weeks (although I think it will go faster if the water temperature is on the higher side) to be sure the main is parasite free.

 

[Olivier]

i have some corals on my main tank so I don't want to increase the temperature to above 80F. my current temperature is 77 to 78 fix.

as Phyl suggest, I will have my fish in QT tank for another 2 weeks with 1 week of water adjust to display tank's parameters.

thank you very much or all of your quick reply
Olivier

 

[Phyl]

Sounds like a good plan, Olivier. You can do daily water changes out of your tank and into the QT, topping off with Salt water rather than fresh (and maybe adding/mixing in a pinch of salt into the tank water you use for the changes). This should have your parameters fairly close at the end of the week.

 

[harryk]

4 week fallow period is not nearly long enough for ICH to die off. 6 weeks fallow is the norm and it could be as long as 3 months. Good luck though

 

[Olivier]

3 months? god D4mn, that is too long for me. I take my change of 6 weeks I just don't have space to set up QT tank. as of right now, I have only 30 gallons tank with 20 fishes on it. very very tight space for fish and that will stress them. I wish I have large garage that I can setup a large QT tank .

thank you for reply.