[bbleifus]

I am still reading and talking to anyone I can to get information on starting a reef system. Can 2.5 or 5 gallon tank be used for a qt. I am thinking of putting it in the cabinet of my 34 gal main tank. If I stay with smaller fish is the size okay? I would also darken the back and sides and install a small light in the cabinet. Also if you treat your new fish with copper can the tank be used for coral, invertebrates etc. later if it is washed out just with fresh water? Sorry for all the questions but I like to get all my ducks in a row before starting. Maybe that should be fish in a row. haha I have found everyone's responses very helpful.

[rlcline76]

I set up a 10 gallon a couple of months ago. I am guessing that it really depends on what kind of (and how many) fish you have when discussing the size of your hospital tank. Some fish cannot handle copper treatment, whatsoever. It also depends on what happens with your main tank. If you get uncontrollable ich and need to leave your tank fallow, which is what happened with ours, a 2.5-5 gallon may be too small to house more than a couple of fish for a month.
As far as the invertebrates, I wouldn't mess with tossing them into the quarantine tank, even if you get the copper out. We use an old freshwater tank for our hospital and we had not treated it for ich in years. We put a cleaner shrimp in there and it died almost immediately! The equipment probably still had some sort of residue.
One thing I have learned about quarantine tanks...it does not take a lot of fanciness. You do not need to worry about live sand and so forth, it makes it too hard to clean when you can't drop invertebrates in there. I'd consider keeping it simple.
Good luck!