Quarantine question

[magnosis]

I'm just about to acquire a few SAE (Crossocheilus Siamensis) from a local fish store, to help cope with an algae problem in my 55g tank.

Many posts here strongly suggest I quarantine any new fish bought from LFS.

I have a 10g tank that was shut down 3 weeks ago. It remained filled with water, substrate & ornaments until yesterday when I emptied 75% of the water (everything else is still inside).

What would be the best option to turn this tank into a QT ?

Some options that come to mind:
- fill up remaining 75% with water from live tank, let run a few days, introduce new fish
- fill up remaining 75% with fresh tap water, let run a few days, introduce new fish
- kindly ask and hope the LFS to give me as much of their water as possible to fill up my QT
- assume this tank is dead, restart from scratch and run a full [fishless] cycle before I aquire any new fish

I understand this is not a situation where I want to rush things.  The dilemma is that my live tank is getting heavily infested with algae, to clean everything up by hand would be a real pain (mostly because I didn't consider ease of removing + putting back live/plastic plants when I set upt this tank).  Waiting 2 months for full cycle + quarantine cycle might mean that my live tank gets out of control with algae.  I am now dosing CO2 appropriately (I think) so algae might not proliferate as fast, but it's already heavily infested.

Other unlikely option is to put blind faith in Big Al's East store and introduce new SAE directly in my live tank... I think I know the answer to that.

[ciaus]

I am a proponent of QT, though admittedly I have never been "hit" for not using QT, I know Russian roulette.  I am setting one up now that my Discus are maturing and have a good size to them... 

Being aggressive, I would consider, in your case adding the new Algae eaters under the following circumstances....
The LFS water does not go into your tank, not one drop.
The fish are healthy looking AND the entire set of tanks from which they came at the LFS are all healthy.  Find out if they just arrived at the LFS, or if they have been there fo ra few weeks.  A few weeks would allow for any illnesses to manifest, whereas recent arrivals may not yet have exhibited problems.  I'd even ask if there have been any illnesses in any of those linked tanks which they have recently finished treating...

Being a little more conservative you could start by adding water to your 10G tank but that isn't going to cycle the tank, that will come from you introducing good bacteria.....so adding 75% of water from your tank, PLUS a portion of your bio media, will reduce your cycle time, if the existing bio media isn't rotten...you may want to rinse the existing ten day old bio-media and mix it with the donation from your existing tank.  Remove all gravel and ornaments, QT should be clean...less places for bad stuff to to take hold...The next thing to consider is how long to QT the new fish...it may take so long that you may lose control of the algae in your main tank.....The length of the QT for new fish is not something I have a good handle on, yet.  Maybe someone else can chime in.

These are my opinions only.....others will likely have different views so please consider them before deciding.  I'd hate to think you followed my advice and you suffered as a result.

HTH

Ciaus

[Toss]

SAE will only eat algae when they are young. If you have a tank with lots of algae, forget SAE, unless you buy 10+. Most people carry Juvie SAE, otto, BN pleco, shrimp to keep/maintain algae free tank not battling the algae head on. It is faster to remove the algae by hand. I hope this helps

[Fishnut]

Yes, there are other algae eaters that do a better job at eating algae long term.

If you still want to get the sae's, just fill up your 10g with fresh, conditioned water, put some seeded filter media in the filter and you should be fine.  A few baby sae's in a 10 gallon isn't much of a bio load...unless you get more than a few.

[magnosis]

@Toss @fishnut,

I went to the LFS today, the staff agreed with you (SAE eat less as they get older).  Also, turns out they prefer higher water temp (24c +) that what my goldfish have lived in for the past 4 years (21-22c).

Other alternatives are Oto cat (prefers 25c+) and Black Molly (not a great algea eater, prefers 27c+).  I should probably get a heater.  The goldfish should adapt to 24-25c easily. Shrimps will be snack for my goldfish within minutes. BN plecos will suck on their slime coat.


Nevertheless, thanks for the tips regarding my QT.  It will be useful no matter what.