QT question

When I set up my tank back in May, I ordered 3 lbs of LR rubble from Premium Aquatics along with the 20 lbs of their nano LR. Once I got the LR in my 20 gallon I saw that I really didn't have any space for the rubble. So I tossed it in a 10 gallon and put an Aquaclear filter (sponge and charcoal) on it. My thought was that it would keep the rubble "live" and could serve as a quarantine tank. I honestly haven't thought any more about it until today, when I'm considering purchasing a goby of some sort. Since the main tank is doing so dang well, I figure I should quarantine whatever new specimen I plan on introducing.
ANYWAY, is my 10 gallon w/ 3lbs of rubble really a QT? Or is it just a separate tank that will potentially become a breeding ground for any nastys that come in with new fish, and then later infect any other fish I QT. How should I have set up my QT?

 

Your QT tank should be a bare tank except for a few pieces of pvc pipe for shelter. You should change the water every time you QT a new fish. I use a biowheel filter on my 30g QT tank and I do water changes every 1-2 days. The bio wheel is nice because it highly oxygenates the water. I also take some filter floss and carbon media from my main tank and place it in the filter of the QT tank to give some instant bio filtration when adding a new fish.

 

excellent...i'll snag a biowheel off one of my freshwater tanks and toss it on the QT...(your QT is larger than my actual tank...not that i have tank evny or anything)...
so what should i do with my 3lbs of live rubble? my green star polyp can only spread so fast.......(i've got 2 frags already)

 

Start a sump/refugium and place your rubble rock in it, or use the rubble rock as base rock in your main tank. My QT tank is large because I have some large fish in my 120g FOWLR. FYI, to cycle my QT tank quickly, I've used Marinelands Bio Spira live bacterial cultures. It seems to work fairly well but you must have fish in the tank when you add the bacteria because they need nitrogenous waste to survive once they come out of stasis. Good luck!