Hello again,

I have a 15l baby biorb which I’m currently using as a quarantine/hospital tank. At the moment it sits empty in the corner of my room when not in use which looks fairly depressing and also means I need to go through messy filter material swapping when I want to get it up and running for a few weeks quarantine. Is their anything I could keep in there that would keep my filter bacteria healthy between quarantines? I thought shrimp/nerite snails but am not sure if a) it is big enough for either or b) these would keep the filter bacteria going? I know some people recommend triops for tanks this size but whether they’d keep the filter bacteria healthy or not I’ve seen all of the Aliens movies and I’d never sleep in the room with the thought that one might somehow get out, attach itself to my face and suck out my brain. I know they’re only small but then so is my brain.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Given that FK recommends a min of 20 litres just for one apple snail, I'm not sure you are going to get any 'recommended' species, the baby biorb is just far too small I'm afraid

You could add floating candles for a room centre piece perhaps????

Don't think triops are in the same league as the alien. Very unlikely to slime over you or go for your brain!

I understand nerites are quite a bit smaller than apple snails though? There doesn't seem to be a huge amount of info on them online, certainly nothing that seems definitive so unless there's an expert out there I'm inclined the veer on the side of caution and will consider the candle. Sounds like nerite snails are effective algae cleaners though so I might still get one for my bigger tank.

It'll take some convincing on the triops, those things give me the heebie jeebies.

Thanks for the help.

I am not sure but I think you could keep some red ramshorn snails plus I got a few babys I can send you for P&P price if your intrested?

Nerites are poo machines, I think a 15 litre would be too small. I understand the triops-phobia, they do look a bit scary. I think your brain is more likely to be eaten by a zombie though, they're about to invade you know.

I'd be tempted to put a tiny piece of bogwood in there and grow a nice bit of windelov java fern or dwarf anubias in there. They stay small and don't need fancy lighting or CO2 or any of that stuff. Makes for a more interesting table centrepiece than a bunch of flowers!

Then you could put some of the filter media from teh biorb in a bag in your main filter to keep some good bacteria in it and just transfer it back to the biorb if you needed to. I would look into getting a bigger Q tank though, it doesn't need to be set up all the time (mine is under a big pile of dust in the garage) so you don't need the extra space.

A planted only tank sounds like a good idea fishy-fishy. I appreciate it's not the ideal sized quarantine tank but I'm really pushed for space as I only rent a small single room in a flatshare. When I move somewhere bigger I'll probably get one of those foodsafe plastic storage boxes people talk about on here but for now I'd rather quarantine in the biorb for a few weeks with plenty of water changes than not quarantine at all. I already keep a few big lumps of biorb filter in the other tanks filter for just such an occasion.

Thanks for the offer on the Red Ramnshorn's coolboy but if I go down the snail route for the bigger tank then I think I'll go with 1 or 2 nerites. I just prefer the the look of them and as they won't breed in freshwater won't have to worry about ending up with more than I need.

Thanks again for the advice people.