I'm starting a quarantine/hospital tank and have a slew of questions... I wanna get everyones opinion, so if you have done it, tell me and give me your thoughts on it!

#1- Do corals, anemones and other inverts have to be quarantined like fish do? If so, can I get away with a cheap basic light for the 5 or 6 weeks they are quarantined?

#2- Has anyone had any luck with long term hyposalinity? I've read a little on it but want opinions from someone other than 1 author. If you've done it, what specific gravity did you go with and for how long? Does anyone know how long you can go down to the 1.012-1.017 range without hurting the fish?

#3- How can I properly cycle a quarantine tank before use? I'm planning on using just a few pieces of live rock and if needed, a HOB bio-wheel type filter. I don't want to stress the fish out anymore than needed. I've heard you are supposed to break down and sterilize the quarantine/hospital tank after each use. That sounds like kind of a pain ITA.. I don't plan on adding fish often but still, is there an easier way?

#4- How many fish can I/should I put in a quarantine tank at once? Is it okay to put more than one in at a time? I'm not going to overload my display tank with new fish, but can I put 2 or 3 small ones in quarantine at the same time?

#5- Completely unrelated to the quarantine series of questions... What do you think is the most accurate test kits available? I hear a lot of people talk about API. I've been using an Instant Ocean Master kit for some time now with good results. The translucent chips are freakin cool. Are there other kits like that, easy to use? Are they all the same with different names on them?

Thanks for looking! Even if you can only answer 1 of the 5 above, hook me up with some info! I'm going to go help only the newest of newbies and only with things I know!

2.) When i first started keeping fish I had a malfunctioning float valve witch caused over time my specific gravity to drop just under 1.000 for a good week before I realized what was going on. Everything survived. The only thing that tipped me off was my large naso tang darting around the tank. When he darts, i know something is not good.

3.) When I setup a QT tank i use a 20 gallon long tank filled with water from my main system. This obviously only works if you have a large tank. Or if your about to do a water change. After that i dump the tank. I never leave the tank going.

4.) I wouldn't. The idea of the QT tank is basically to make sure the fish you are puting in is OK. No reason to risk losing 2 fish when only 1 is sick.

5.) API is good. I'm not sure about a "best brand". just use a few and see which one you like.

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Getit, thanks for your advice and experience. As for #4, I didn't explain myself well enough. What I was asking is; let's say I decide I want to buy two or three small fish and want to quarantine them before introducing them to the display tank; is it okay to have them in the quarantine tank together, as long as I'm not crowding the tank? I'd buy from the same place and they would be in the same water system at the store. Does that make sense?

Thanks again!

If they are small enough it should be ok. But you go trying to shove a couple sailfins in a 10 gallon your going to be looking at trouble.

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These things don't suffer from parasites like Ich but they could carry it into your tank, I quarntine everything but I avoid Anemones so I don't know about them, as for everything else the light is for your benifit not for them they couldn't really care less if there was no light.

1.009 is the target salt level but remember Marine Velvet can live in this salt level so it won't be effective against that, Salt level can be dropped over a 2 day peroid and a week long peroid to get it back up so the fish are ready to go back into the main tank, time in quarntine can be different to who you ask, some do 4 weeks after the last spot goes away followed by another 4 weeks just to be sure and on the safe side if you have Ich your tank should be left Fallow for 8 weeks to clear up the Ich, Ph can be hard to keep stable during it also, other than that use some medicine with copper in it, Marine Velvet and Marine Ich look pretty much the same a big difference is Velvet kills faster by the time you get your salt down the fish may be dead.

Use a normal hang on filter with Filter Media from a tank that has already cycled, if you have a tank up and running you can pop some in a mesh bag and hide it behind some rocks so it picks up the good bacteria, the tank won't have any live rock as both Hyposalinity and copper treatments will Nuke it. The tank will be bare bottom with things like cut up PVC pipes for them to hide in when they want.

I would go for 1 at a time to be sure, no point buying 3 fish only to maybe send them to their death, also with a quarntine tank you want to get the fish well fed(within reason) and healthy so they are ready for your main tank, If you hit Dire Straits and you fish become unwell in the main tank you may need to pop them all in this tank which means constant water testing and water changes if needed, this is where getting your own RO Water Machine is a real god send, the only way I would consider more than 1 is if the fish were bought as a pair like Clownfish.

If you are happy with the ones you are using I wouldn't bother changing, I like salifert but I do use a Mixture of Salifert and API, I find the API Ph useless as I have never been able to get an Accurate reading I ended up just buying a Ph meter which gives an accurate reading, I found API Nitrate test to be a bit useless as the colours wasn't an exact match on the cards they provide and could really have been 1 of 3 possible options. You will hear Test Kit A is better than Test Kit B but unless the person telling you this is a Scientist and has tested these then how would they know, as I said it's more a personal preference I don't like API Ph and Nitrate but I like Amonia nd Nitrite, you could find folks who would disagree with me and have no problems telling the difference on the API test kits.