budget quarantine/hospital tank/tote?

[mcordelia]

What do you think the cheapest way to make a hospital/quarantine setup to support a 125 gallon tank would be?

The tank in question is going to have a penn plax cascade 1500 canister filter, and some other additional filter (haven't decided on what yet).

1) what kind of additional filter(s) should I get for the 125 to best support the ability to switch out filter media/filter to a hospital/quarantine tank when needed?
2) how big should the quarantine tank be? I am looking for it to last 3 years until needing to be expanded, and the fish going into the 125 are going to be juveniles to start with, but will include at least a blood parrot cichlid, so I assume that within 3 years the size of the tote needs to be large enough to sustain being able to medicate something a bit bigger too. I do NOT want to find myself in a situation where I have to medicate the entire 125 tank, so will be adding all fish through a 4 wk quarantine (or is 6 wks better?) and will be at least deworming them, don't know what else I should do during quarantine period? @Colin_T
3) budget is a factor - I'm basically breaking my initial decided-upon budget with the 125, and the other half will not look fondly upon me then setting up a second fish-habitat and spending even more $$$ (hence my question on filtration above, if I can somehow bundle it in with filtration for the 125 it will go over much much easier )

Interested in hearing your thoughts/advice! Thanks!

 

[PheonixKingZ]

I believe some people here use the big plastic totes you can find at your local supermarket for dirt cheap.

A couple of those may do the trick, depending on how big they are. Large, air pump powered song filters may do the trick for a filter.

 

[Jamesthecat]

Something like this you can stick in the garage or out of the way.
Minimal lighting, good external filter so if you need to add medication you can along with UV somewhere in the system

 

[Back in the fold]

I, personally, don't like plastic. Some say plastic leaches bad things into the water over time. I don't know if that is true or not but I suspect it is. I also just plain don't want to purposely create more demand for plastic. That's the tree hugging, bleeding heart liberal streak in me. Get yourself a ten gallon glass aquarium for a quarantine tank. They are cheap and you can quarantine all but the biggest fish in one. The advantage to glass is that it will not absorb medications and you can watch the fish better.

 

[eatyourpeas]

I used a tote and decided to get a cheap glass tank instead because it was hard to observe the fish through the plastic. @NCaquatics has a lot of good experience and advice on totes. I think you can avoid the leeching of chemicals if you use food grade polypropylene.

A sponge filter can be homed in the tank in order to have BB ready to go.

 

[mcordelia]

I see your points about plastic especially with medications. Considering tomato will stain tupperware, it's not a huge logical leap to conclude some medications can easily embed themselves into the sides of a tote.

How much is realistic to spend on a 10g? I see them going on FB marketplace anywhere from $25 -$150. I'm trying to gauge because I don't want this turning into a "project", just something simple and temporary that can be stored and set up/taken down when needed. Is a 10g really enough? even for a 6inch parrot (I assume that's how big it will be in 3 years?)

 

[eatyourpeas]

An Aqueon 10 gal. retails for about $16 around here, and I am sure you can visit a big box store and find good deals with other brands. They get you with the accessories, but if you buy just the tank you should be fine. Sponge filters are very inexpensive, under $10 for sure. A nano air pump is around $10, and I would not bother with having substrate. Not sure about the size for your fish, @Colin_T , @NCaquatics or others might help with that.

 

[CassCats]

If for long term quarantine I would say glass tanks have the best benefit of letting you easily see problems in your fish so you can medicate them. You can visually catch early signs of disease faster than you would in a tote.

Totes work good for emergency housing though or for breeding/fry raising purposes lol

But if for quarantine, I would say go for the glass one to be sure to see signs of problems in the quarantined fish

 

[mcordelia]

apparently, I move fast when I set my mind to something. Found a 10gal+heater+new sponge filter and pump from FB marketplace for $30. I am picking it up sometime next week. Hopefully it's not terrible, but the lady currently has a betta in there (she has a different tank that the betta is moving to). So, mystery fish tank which apparently holds water will be mine next week!

125 gal stand is getting picked up on Friday, and then I have to sell the original tank that comes with it (just to get rid of it) and then I can buy a new 125 gal (which will allow me to sleep better at night, I wouldn't trust myself to reseal a tank properly).

Then I guess I get to investigate all the accessories that I am getting with the 125, hopefully the canister filter and heaters are up to some kind of snuff, and then eventually I might be able to start cycling things! Things are moving in the right direction and I am excited!

 

[itiwhetu]

I would only use glass tanks for quarantine as you can see the fish. The whole purpose of quarantining fish is observation.