A Good Size For A Quarantine/hospital Tank

[marleth]

I never expected that getting a 2.5G tank and a betta would spark such an interest in fish keeping. To be honest, I got that tank to function as a television for my cat. That was one month ago. I've bought a 10G, and in true new tank syndrome fashion, put fish in it before it had begun to cycle. Despite the daily water testing and over 3 gallon water changes, I'm still interested in the fascinating aspects of this world within our world.

My plan is to get a 30G, and if I can prove to myself and the Mrs. that I can maintain the tanks without going insane, I'd like to get something bigger such as a 75G for the downstairs. These are just dreams at the moment, but in either case, I'm pretty sure I will end up needing a quarantine tank and or a hospital tank for new fish and any fish that fall ill while in my care. I will definitely be doing fishless cycling for any new tank I get, and this brings me to my question:

What is a good size is for tanks such as these that won't house fish for long periods of time?

 

[skimmy290]

for small fish 5-10 will suffice. for bigger fish 10-30 will work.
i use a ten for small to medium size fish and keep it bare bottom for cleanliness and it's so much easier to clean up that way. i have a few clay pots in mine and use a sponge filter and power filter.

 

[OldMan47]

It sounds like you have some good advice from Skimmy290. I find that a 10 gallon is a decent size for most of my community occupants to use as QT. So far I have not had need of a hospital tank and, if I continue to quarantine, I don't expect to need one. If I kept large fish such as many of the cichlids, I would need to either get them while they are small or have a bigger QT. When it is not in use, a QT can be kept empty and the filter can be run on one of the larger tanks to keep it cycled. Right now I have 2 filters running as extras on other tanks that I can use on a QT and I am fishless cycling 2 more on small 10 gallon tanks. One of my larger tanks runs with 2 sponge filters on it that can be run separately if the need arises but I am going to a club meeting tonight so I may have less spare filters tomorrow. Some may get pressed into service tonight.

 

[Jazzzz]

I have a 6gallon clearseal for a hospital/quaranteen tank cost £16.99 with free food and water declrinator.

 

[NonstickRon]

I was curious about this myself now that I have a free 10 gallon.

Here are some more questions to expand on this topic:
Is it good to keep something in a quarantine tank to keep the cycle up? Like what? Guppies? Platys? Just a bunch of snails and shrimp?
Is it ok to just dry-store a tank and a filter till you need it for a quarantine or hospital?

 

[waterdrop]

Hi Ron, I think a lot of people just keep the tank dry on the shelf, but keep its filter running on their main tank.. that is they either have a hunk of foam somewhere in one of their big filters that they pull out to use for the QT tank or they have an actual small HOB filter on the main tank running and cycled that fits the small tank when they pull it off and use it. Of course, who know? The approaches are probably all over the place, with some people having fish rooms and plenty of "mostly empty" tanks that could be put into QT service I guess. Always indeed interesting to here from folks on this...

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Corleone]

I just run the filter on another tank.

I did learn the hard way about keeping fish in the quarantine tank to maintain the cycle. It's a major enabling factor for multi-tank syndrome. It's only a matter of time before you want a fish and can't put it where you want it, but realize it could go with the guppies or minnows you keep in the quarantine tank, and now the quarantine tank becomes a permanent tank and you buy a new quarantine, which you get a different fish to maintain than the last one... And you set yourself up for the same thing again. If you don't stop yourself, you might even convince yourself you could use a 30 gallon quarantine tank.

 

[Brette]

I did learn the hard way about keeping fish in the quarantine tank to maintain the cycle. It's a major enabling factor for multi-tank syndrome.

HAHA!

I have a 5 gallon with a tiny filter that is small enough to store easily. I have an extra bit of filter floss in the main tank that i would pop in the quarantine tank filter to get it off the ground when needed. I learned the benefits of having a quarantine tank the hard way!

 

[waterdrop]

OK, so we immediately have a couple examples of both approaches I mentioned. In keeping with what Ron was saying, can we expand on more details?

Do we have any opinions on exactly what type of mature media is easiest to move back and forth between a main tank and a QT tank or what type of small filter is the best for this purpose. I know the easy answer is to use whatever extra filter you happen to have, but I was thinking more whether we might glean some insight that someone has had when doing this. As beginners, we might wonder how much media volume is needed, say how many ceramic rings might work or what size sponge might work, or other things I'm not thinking of...

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Corleone]

I prefer to run a regular cheap HOB on one of my tanks. As long as it's been there a while before I use it, it seems to be "cycled enough." The filter shouldn't be too small, since if you're quarantining a shoal of, say, serpae tetras or even a single big gourami in a 10 gallon, it may be slightly overstocked.

When moving media, move as much as the quarantine filter can hold, but don't take more than a third of your main tank's media - you want to make sure the quarantine tank can handle the fish without a mini-cycle, as the fish will be stressed already from transport, but you also don't want to put your main tank through a mini cycle. With this method you can just remove the media from the quarantine filter and add it to your main filter. This can get crowded if the tank also has a hanging filter, but with a canister you can just dedicate one tray and you're good.

If I lose fish in quarantine, I usually dry out the quarantine filter's media and kill the bacteria for fear of brining the disease back to the main tank with it. If the fish stay healthy through quarantine, there's no worry about that. If it was something like ich, with a well defined lifespan, I crank up the temperature and do a fishless cycle for a week in the quarantine tank and keep the media.