Quarantine Tanks

[Susielyd]

Hi all,

I have just had a few deaths in my little fish fam & in about a month I plan to get maybe 2 more (hoping, that is, that my existing 3 keep going...) Anyway, my question is - with the quarantine tank, as it is not used often, it will not be cycled. Do I need to do a fishless cycle everytime before I get new fish? It seems a bit pointless to just chuck them in an uncycled tank??
Also with teh hospital tank issue, that too would be uncycled - or should you maintain a constant fishless cycle there for 'just in case'

tia for the help
Susan

 

[BigFishSmallPond]

I am by no means expert but I think u would either maintain fishless cycle or put a fish or two in it. =]

 

[snowyangel]

If you have another cycled tank set up, just transfer water from it to your quarentine tank so it makes up atleast 1/3 and that will cycle it.

 

[Susielyd]

ok - those ideas both sound logical...
i did think though that the water itself didn't actually carry the bacteria?

 

[Skylar]

The beneficial bacteria are not free-swimming so there is no point in transferring the water. Don't bother cycling your quarantine tank, either. You should sterilize it after each batch of fish, anyways, to avoid the tank carrying any spores of disease.

 

[BigFishSmallPond]

so your are saying u use an uncycled tank as a quaratine/emergency tank?

I'm confused. =]

 

[Zeb]

hmm as a complete newbie,I would say it made sense to use an uncycled quarantine tank...

No Ammonia
No Nitrites
No Nitrates
Sterile

I guess you would need to do lots of water changes to keep levels down


Is my thinking flawed ???

 

[GSD]

i wouldnt put fish in!
wouldnt they get sick too?

 

[BigFishSmallPond]

If thewater stresses the fish out it doesnt seem to me to be an effective quarantine/hospitol tank. $0.02

-ak

 

[Raechal]

I guess you would have to thoroughly clean the tank each time a new fish was put in so I would leave it uncycled IMO. Just make sure you do like 50% water changes everyday or something depending on the size of the fish. I mean if you have one tetra in a 10 gallon hospital tank, I am sure it isn't going to produce enough waste in one day to kill itself and pollute the water that much. I would just keep on top of water changes and check the water params every day or every other day.

 

[Def]

This question has been answered loads of times before. YMMV, but I have a QT set up all the time. I keep the filters cycled with ammonia, so it's ready for fish to be added.

It's not a good idea to start with an uncycled tank, or run filterless. Both will cause a cycle to occur, which is going to further stress an already stressed fish (and what happens if the fish in the QT is a very sensitive fish?). Also, to keep levels down you'll need to keep doing water changes. But if you need to add meds to treat a disease, you can't do water changes at the same time. So you're in catch-22.

Just use a dedicated, cycled tank. I also have multiple filters on my main tanks, so if it's an emergency and for some reason the QT isn't set up, I can fill it with water and take cycled media directly from a running tank - instant cycle.

 

[Skylar]

But if your fish has a certain disease, most people would rather be safe than sorry and go and sterilize the tank. Then it would become uncycled?

 

[Def]

No. Let me start again. I have multiple filters in my main tanks. I can take some of the cycled filter media from one of those filters, and use it in the QT. When I'm done, if I'm worried about disease, I can bin the filter media. Then when I need the QT running again, I just take a little more out of the main tanks.

It all depends if you have enough filters and enough tanks to do it. Either do it my way, or fishless cycle it every time.