Do You Have A Hospital Tank

[Tag2008]

Hi Guys,

Do you all have hopsital tanks set up for emergencies?

If you do what do you guys do? are your hopsital tanks all set up and running with no fish till you need them or do you keep fish in them and move them out when needed? or do you just set up your hospital tanks as and when needed and use media and water from your maintanks on them?

I have one that I consider a hospital tank and while I have no emergencies needing treated I have one fish in there to keep it cycled and I chop and change the fish and decor to amuse myself and save the fish getting fed up lol

Just wondered what you all do for hospital tanks..

Regards as ever
Les

 

[8inary]

Hi Tag, I think this one has been covered a few times, however I do have a hospital tank, I think its important to have one.

What I do 'not saying all should do as I do', however I have a 2ft tank with an air tube coming off my main hiblow65 airpump, heater and filter, the latter two whilst connected to the mains, are not turned on. As and when I need to use the tank, I will syphon off water from my main tank using a hose pipe and holding it near the outlet off one of my filters, this just helps push the water through the pipe. Once the water is in, i flick a switch and the filter and heater kick in. After that I pop the fish in, its all done within 5 mins. The water from my tank has been through UV sterilizers and some serious filtering. Ive never had a problem doing this and any ill/sick, or injured fish always come round and back into the main tank.

 

[murphyk32]

personally, no, i dont have one right now

 

[Tag2008]

Hi Tag, I think this one has been covered a few times, however

lol sorry m8, I should use the search more often, I miss loads of posts all the time as there are so many in here and I dont get in enough ..

 

[8inary]

lol no worries, it just gives you additional info should not many respond to this one 'i repeat threads myself anyway lol'

 

[Honeythorn]

I don't have one, but if you want to keep the filter cycled, just keep it running in your main tank and move it into the hospital tank on the day you need to.

 

[shelaghfishface]

i have one, but its been * touch wood* a long time since i have had to use it,, i dont have it set up, but i would just fill it with tank water and use some mature media from another filter,as and when its needed

 

[Gilli]

Ive just bought a smaller tank to use as a hospital tank. I put the new filter I bought for it up and running in my main tank. When I need to use the hospital tank I will be able to take the spare filter out of my main tank and it will have all the necessary mature bacteria. I will then take the tank water from the main tank to fill the quarantine tank ( treat it as a water change on the main tank ) so that will be good too and not a shock to the fish im removing.

I have also bought a spare heater and thermometer and some plastic plants so the sick fish are not in a barren tank and I will be able to scrub and disinfect them after use. (better not to use gravel so you can keep the tank spotless).

This way I dont have to have a quarantine tank running all the time, and hopefully never need to use it!

 

[Tag2008]

thanks for the replys guys,

This has probably been ansewred b4 to but I have to ask...

Ive recently realised how the nytrogen cycle works and how to cycle a tank with ammonia and grow a colony of bacteria to eat the ammonia and nI and how they balance to the mumber of fish in your tank...

So Im understanding that you put your hospital filters in your main tanks and allow it to seed so when you need them you can quickly set up a hospital tank and its ready to run right away..

With what I picked from the new to the hobby foums Im lead to believe that doing this may cause a mini cycle in your main tank because you cant control when and where your bacteria colonies will grow and if a good lot live in your hopsital tank media and you take it out is this not going to cause a blip? Or have I got it muddled?

Regards as ever

 

[Corleone]

A mature tank can handle losing up to a third of its biofilter at once without a minicycle - if you recently took media to seed a new tank or something happened to reduce the biofilter, you might get a minicycle removing the hospital filter, but I've never had that problem.

I did learn a long time ago not to keep it running with fish. Eventually you will give into temptation and it will become a stocked tank, and then you'll need a new hospital tank.

 

[5teady_2012]

I personally dont have one anymore, the disease i use to get (and if i did now) usually could effect the other fish so i just treat the full tank with the bad fish in to make sure all is clear and not just one fish.

 

[kribensis12]

I dont have one. Sure it would be nice to have one, but i rarely buy new fish, and what will be int he Hospital tank when the new fish is released? Also, if one fish gets something, i treat all my tanks any way to make sure no one else gets it.

 

[blodhi74]

No.

 

[Tag2008]

Thanks I appreciate the comments...

 

[chesterscot]

nope i treat my whole tank 2
scot