quarantine

[sarah-j]

I was just wondering about a quarantine tank do you set it up as you would a normal tank? cycle it etc. what equipment should be in it? you see i 've had a tank for about three weeks but would like to get a smaller quarantine tank for any new fish as I've had casualties myself already. What size should a quaratine tank be?

 

[SandMan8388]

Hi Sarah, A quarintine tank doesn't really have to be all that big. I just have an eciplse 6 gallon tank with a Bio-Wheel filter. In the tank itself I just have regular decorations. The main point of it being that you just put your new fish in there for a 2 week period to see if they develop any disease, if not then you transfer them to your main tank.

You would cycle your quarintine tank just like a regular tank. My setup cost me about 60 dollars, but there are many less expensive setups as well if you are on a strict budget. See the Tropical Chit Chat forums for ideas.

 

[sarah-j]

thanks I will do. my lfs have some decent small tanks, hmm where to put it though. lol

 

[Ethos]

I have a 5 gallon mini bowl. It seems to work just fine for me. I cycled it the same way I did my main tank(s)(Whichever 10G you consider as my main tank)

 

[rdd1952]

Petsmart sells a glass 10 gallon for $9.99. All you would need is a filter (nothing elaborate really required), heater, some gravel and maybe some plants (fake or live). You could probably get those online for less than $30. To cycle, you can probably seed it with some gravel or an old filter from your other tank. In an emergency, you can set up a q-tank or hospital tank straight out and just do daily water changes to keep the ammonia and nitrite down. After all, you generally wouldn't have more that 3 or 4 fish in a hospital/q-tank and that's not a huge bio load unless it's an oscar or somethng big like that.

 

[FalconStorm]

How would you keep a quarantine tank cycled? Could you keep a few ghost shrimp in there?

 

[SarahBravo]

It's best not to have gravel or a substrate in a quarantine tank, because if your new fish do bring in a disease you will have to sterilise the tank, and this either means throwing away or boiling the gravel - easier to have a bare bottomed tank.

With regard to cycling, keep an extra small filter running in your main tank - when you use your quarantine tank just transfer the filter over - instantly cycled. If you need to sterilise it either throw the filter media away or boil/disinfect them. Or use the same sort of filter as your main tank, and just steal some filter media from that when you need to use your quarantine tank.

You don't need to keep your quarantine tank set up all the time. When you get new fish just get it out, fill with the right temp water, put the heater and pre-cycled filter or filter media in, and you're set! Don't have too many decorations, maybe a plastic plant or two and a clay pot - anything that can be easily sterilised if necessary, just enough so the new fish have something to hide in. Also, by not having too many decorations it's easier to keep an eye on your fish, and by having a bare bottomed tank it's easier to keep an eye on their poo to check for parasites/infection etc.

HTH!!!

 

[AngelMax]

I brought a Q tank from the Japanese Koi Centre for £10.99, it's a small 14L tank (takes about 4 jugs of water & is made of acrylic, so is lighter) I got the small green spnge filter which cost £3.99 and a 50w heater for £9.00. You should find these in most good LFS.

I have the Q tank sitting right next to the 30G tank. The filter is just connected to the pump that controls the bubble thingy in my main tank. I put the filter in the main tank to mature and just top up the Qtank with water from the main one and transfer the little filter to the small tank when needed. (Continually run small filter in large tank in between)

Hope this helps.

 

[LongNY]

I just set up a quarantine 5.5 gal tank with no gravel, a heater, and a filter that I kept in my main tank until it was cycled....

then put my new fish in the Q-Tank for 3 weeks...all was well with the fish, so I transferred them to my main tank....

I broke down the Q-Tank, rinsed the filter and the filter media in old tank water and put in back in my main tank for the next time that I need it....

This was the best situation because there was no disease, but if there was I would have had to sterilized everything especially the filter and put in new media before placing it back into my main tank, but....

all is well......

John NYC

 

[LoachLover]

Petsmart sells a glass 10 gallon for $9.99.

They sell them for $8.99 at Walmart here.