Main Tank and Quarantine / Hospital Tank

[powerdyne6]

Hey guys / girls

Once my aquarium stand I built is complete I will be getting my new (bigger) tank.

The stand is big enough for my 15 gallon to sit underneath if I choose to keep it set up.

My question is for those who have a main tank and a hospital/quarantine tank how do you keep the “good” bacteria thriving in the quarantine tank when nothing is in it?

Also looking for suggestions in how to accomplish this.

Thanks.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

I usually keep a spare sponge filter running as a second filter on one of my main tanks, so I can swap it into the hospital tank when needed. Simple sponge filter doubles as oxygenation, and can be sterilised with bleach if disease does break out in the QT. I really only set up the QT when I need it, and I rely on moving some fast growing basic stem plants like hornwort or elodea to the QT tank to do most of the heavy lifting in terms of handling fish waste.

 

[Essjay]

I just set up the QT as and when I need it, and buy a lot of cheap plants (eg elodea/anacharis) at the same time as the fish and leave the plants floating. When I've used mature media from another tank and tested it with ammonia, there was no drop in the ammonia level for around 3 weeks then nitrite showed up - in other words I had to do a fishless cycle.

If you keep the spare tank planted and take care of the plants, that would be enough for a quarantine tank.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

You can keep a tank cycled indefinitely by adding about 2 ppm of ammonia every couple of days. You also need to do water changes at leasr every other week to remove nitrates and replenish other things the bacteria need.

I never cycle an H tank as many meds will kill a filter, Also, if I fail to diagnose properly and lose the patient, there may be nasties left in the tank and that requires sterilizing anything you may want to reuse. I do daily or every other day water changes and replace meds I remove with the water change.

A Q tank can be cycled, but one must be aware that if the fish show problems, that cycle may not last. Then the Q tanks becomes an H tank.

I have fake plants and other decor I can bleach when done that I out into an H tank. Cover can reduce stress in many fish because they can hide. I may have live plants in a Q tank but I am aware they may have to be flushed under certain circumstances.

 

[Byron]

To me the easiest method is to keep the QT permanently running as a normal aquarium though without fish. I had a 20g tank in my former house and after I moved a 10g tank running with a sponge filter, heater and light, and it had floating plants. This eliminates any and all cycling issues so the tank will easily take new fish. Another big advantage is the fish are going into an established tank which significantly reduces stress and that means they adjust much quicker.

 

[Elena82x]

To me the easiest method is to keep the QT permanently running as a normal aquarium though without fish. I had a 20g tank in my former house and after I moved a 10g tank running with a sponge filter, heater and light, and it had floating plants. This eliminates any and all cycling issues so the tank will easily take new fish. Another big advantage is the fish are going into an established tank which significantly reduces stress and that means they adjust much quicker.

Sorry if I’m being really thick.. how does this eliminate all cycling issues? Does it not need regular ammonia to cycle and stay cycled? I can’t get my head round QT tanks but really want one.

 

[Essjay]

If the QT is kept running all the time with live plants - especially floating plants - it doesn't need to be cycled. If there are enough of them, the plants will take up all the ammonia made by the fish in quarantine. I don't keep my QT running all the time; I set it up when I need it and buy a few bunches of elodea/anacharis at the same time as the fish and move floating plants over from my main tank. I've never seen any ammonia or nitrite doing this.
When I used mature media from the main tank and checked by adding a dose of ammonia I ended up doing a 7 week fishless cycle because as I later realised the plants in the main tank mean I have only background levels of bacteria in the filter.

 

[Byron]

@Essjay covered it well. I had the space as I had a fish room, so a running 20g tank was not an issue space-wise. I kept it planted with runners from other tanks, and of course floaters. There were times when it ran for a year or longer like this, before I acquired new fish. I did notice the plants esp the floaters would perk up more when fish were added, due to the increased ammonia which was minimal previously, but there was never a problem. I used a comprehensive liquid fertilizer during the no-fish periods, and of course there were snails in the tank too, and decomposition occurred although minimally.