New fish in quarantine tank

Hi all! Say hello to my new false perculas!

This is my first QT experience and I must say that I'm a little apprehensive about putting fish in an uncycled tank. I didn't have a chance to incubate a sponge with good bacteria in from my fuge before sticking them in there, so I just have them in there with a new HOB filter, a heater, an air stone, some PVC and a dash of sand (which is accidental...I put a sand bed in there at first and someone advised me not to have it, so I took it out, but a little remains).

My question is: Is it okay to use dechlorinated tap water (good quality NYC water, has some phosphate, but otherwise very good water) to do water changes?

Next question: how often should I do water changes? I just put them in last night and I plan to start checking the ammonia tomorrow (I figure it'll take at least that long for it to build up since I'm not feeding them much).

I also read that ammo-lock was good to have on-hand in case of emergency. Does it come in pellet form and you just put the directed amount in the back of the hang-on filter, or what?

Thanks guys and gals!

 

Oh! Second question...should I stick a piece of live rock from the DT in there with them?

 

I'm pretty sure your supposed to let the tank cycle.....its going to with fish in it and considering it is brand new everything, its definately going to have an ammonia spike. I would def put some live rock in there to battle the ammonia from the fish. Make sure your testing the water daily. I would do a 15-20% water change if there is ammonia present.

 

For my QT, I fill it from the DT and preform a water change on the DT. Depending on the fish load in the QT, I just monitor the ammonia levels, and using the above processes perform water changes on the DT.

One or two fish in a 10g tank, I've found that weekly is fine.....

 

thanks for the response. I put a good-sized piece of live rock in there. I'll start checking ammonia tomorrow. They won't have a chance to make the water too bad before then.

 

Oh okay grubbs...so you just take water directly from the DT and then add new RO water to DT to replace it? That's a good idea. Thanks!

 

Well, not just RO but salt mixed/RO/DI in to the DT, as you would for your normal water changes....just instead of tossing the water removed form the DT it goes into the QT....unless I vacuuming the substrate and the wast water is "yuck"....

 

for a qt tank, there shouldnt be a need for a cycle. water isnt gonna cycle , nothin should be added to cycle the tank. i.e live rock . do you use ro water for your DT? check your ammonia levels daily, and watch they dont spike, you will prob want to do 5-10% water changes every few days. the clowns shouldnt be that big of a bioload , just keep an eye on things,

 

that is a good method. right from dt to qt. You should be ok, you got a filter on there which will help by building bio for the bioload. Just test for ammonia.

 

That's what you think.