hospital and quarantine tank question

[buggyboutbettas]

I've been hearing that you should use quarantine and hospital tanks. But I wonder if you really need both. wouldn't it be ok if you just had one or the other? Also I wondered what kind of setup it should be like (e.g. filter, size, substrate, etc.)?
Thanks for everybodies comments.

 

[heresmike]

You could use the same tank for both. After it's used as a hospital, you'd want to clean it extra good to eliminate all the bad stuff.

Size would depend on the size of fish you have. I have relatively small fish, and I use a 12 gallon for hospital/qt. Mine is an Eclipse with a built in filter. You'll of course need a heater too!

It's best if you keep it bare bottomed so you can easily vac the waste up. Good water quality is very important when treating fish for disease.

 

[buggyboutbettas]

so would I use some of an established tank's water, or use dechlorinated tap water?

 

[heresmike]

I recently had to set up a hospital in a hurry, and put some of the filter media from the main tank into the hospital tank filter to help cut down on the cycle time (it cycled in just a couple days!!). I think I used 50% main tank water + 50% dechlorinated water. You could probably just use dechlorinated tap water and acclimate the fish slowly.

Of course, when you use it as a qt, you should take the time to make sure it's cycled before putting your fish in.

 

[buggyboutbettas]

And it will cycle ok w/o any substrate? I thought substrate provided a place for good bacteria.

 

[heresmike]

It will for sure be OK w/o substrate. There is some beneficial bacteria in the substrate, but most of it will be in the filter media. And w/o substrate, the bacteria will find another place to set up residence.

 

[Ron9]

I am using a small (5 gallon) for both right now. It was a hospital tank a couple of weeks ago now it is “fancy diggs”.

I had a baby pl*co get ick/ich from a bad mistake (caused by me thinking the guy at WallyWorld knew what he was talking about) and I did a crash all nighter on ICK/ICH and saved him in that tank. He is now happy happy in the 55 gallon.

I cleaned the tank and put some gravel from the 55 (that is in good shape). I put in one Lyre Tail Molly (to later add to the 10 gallon with the other two). The drabness of the tank was depressing to me and to the little Molly. I caved in and did the queer eye for straight guys “thingy” and now the little fish is soooooo happy in his cool diggs.

My thinking is this. If and when (and it will happen) I need it for a hospital tank again - even sick fish will enjoy the nicer look/feel/atmosphere of a healthy “looking” tank.

When I took that plain drab tank and made it look as good as the other tanks (just smaller) that little yellow Lyre Tail really enjoyed the change. He then could start (and did start) moving in and around and thru the plants (phony but nice quality) in and out of the little cave. He/She or it (unknown at this time) was no longer in a WalMart tank (tank section) all alone - he/she was now “home” and his/her whole demeanor changed. I figured he/she would be in that tank at least two weeks - why not make it much more enjoyable for him/her - and more enjoyable for the next fish (sick or not).

I am not joking - that fish changed from “hey I am all alone - what did I do wrong?” to “hey check out my new diggs”.

 

[Bruce's Reformed Nephew]

Based on advice found here I will definately be setting up a small quarantine tank, perhaps a MiniBow 5 or Eclipse Hex 5. Something that I can fit in the den that will accomidate the two fish I am adding at any given time.

What I would like to know is: Is there an easy way to keep the biological filtration happy in a tank that will (hopefully!) see no fish once the main tank is stocked?

 

[heresmike]

The easiest way would be to keep a couple small fish in the tank. Then transfer those fish to the main tank when you needed to quarantine the new fish. Or you could keep the tank fishless and add some pure ammonia daily to feed the bacteria. But if you don't want to keep the tank up and running, you could transfer some filter media from your established tank to the filter of the qt tank when the need arises. With the latter method, you'd have to keep a close eye on the ammo and nitrite levels.