hospital tanks?

[Fish Woman]

We are setting up a 20 g hospital tank - bare minimums. Thin layer of gravel. No plants. Submergable filter. Throw away filter. Maybe a few pieces of clay pot so that the fish could have a place or two to hide. And a dark background on the aquarium. It will run 24/7. And do partial water changes when necessary otherwise if its empty just do basic maintenance to mimic the same levels that our other tanks so that the ill fish will have less of a shock value when going to the hospital tank.

I wouldn't put your hospital tank filter in another established filter - I would leave the hospital tank up and running instead that way you won't infect (or reinfect) your other healthy fish. Just my opinion though.

[Mishdut]

I had heard that a bare minimum was suitable for a hospital tank - clean tank, no gravel, airstone, thermostat and thermometer. Just same water quality as main tank. No need to cycle as daily water changes are required and medicine will kill good bacteria as well as bad.  

Reading this thread seems some of you agree.

Is it common to Quaranteen new fish before adding to a community tank?  For how long?  Is the basic QT as above suitable for this?

[Fish Woman]

We QT for a minimum of 3 wks but usually its at least 4. If we are treating it for something then its more like 5-6 wks. No one gets to go to their specific watery homes unless they are the only resident in that aquarium.

[dorn27]

I only quarintine for 1-2 weeks.  Most disease pop up within 2 weeks, though some rare ones do take longer.  My fish store is pretty reliable, however if I got my fish else where, they'd stay in at least 3 weeks.

[guppylover]

wouldn't you need a heater in the QT tank to keep water temp? I read that most don't.

[BettaNewbie]

I use heaters, depending on the fish.  For some, room temp is fine.

[Jamin]

I think that a quarantine tank would be a good idea if the ailement is only/will only affect the fish that it's already infected.  A smaller, quarantine tank would also keep the sick fish away from it's healthier 'friends', who may pick on the sick fish. 
If you're concerned about stressing out fish, a water conditioner with a stress coat may be a good idea.  To get the cycle going in the new tank, there is a product called 'Cycle' that releases bacteria into the water. 
I find quarantine tanks are nifty for housing new fish, just to ensure that they are healthy.

[Zoso]

Just purchased a 16gal hospital tank and am treating a fish in it. I went with a nice bowfront and will be doing it up nice once I get this fish on the mend. Once the fish is up and running I was thinking of what to do with this tank. I can't see just letting it sit idle while waiting on a patient.

Would there be any issues with using it to grow plants that my fish chow down on?

Anarchis and Wisteria are the 2 that seem to be popular as I have already have had to buy new ones. I was thinking of putting my 5 danio's in this hospital tank as they seem to leave the plants alone.

The plan would be to transfer plants from one tank to the other as needed and if I got a sick fish I could move the danios back the primary tank while I treated the sick fish.

Is there anything that I should be aware of and does this sound like a good idea?

[nrich]

I use an apple snail to keep my tank cycled. Between its waste and the left overs from its meals (I do a water change and gravel vac every other week), the tank stays very stable. Then, if I need the tank, I just pop the snail in a 2 1/2 gal tank for a while until his home is back up and running again. This method has been working pretty well for me for a couple years now.

[niko001]

Quarantine or Hospital Tank

Quarantining new fish is an essential thing to do when purchasing new fish. Some might suggest that it is not essential. The aim of the quarantine tank is to keep your fish apart for a certain period of time away from the main tank. It is in this way that you are able to keep the main tank free from any diseases which the newly introduced fish might carry. This also allows them to be slowly acclimated to your water conditions. 

Isolating the fish from the rest is an integral process that we do in order to remove any sick fish which we intend to cure. This helps to stop the spread of the disease to the rest of the fish. Highly priced fish cannot be afforded to lose them and sometimes the best way is to isolate the diseased fish. There are a number of benefits when of having a quarantine tank and here are some of these:

• New fish come from a different water environment than your tank, so it helps to acclimatize your fish to the environment.
• Eliminating possibility of any diseases.
• The tank is smaller and thus smaller dosage for the use of meds.
• Less stress on your fish which are healthy when using medications.
• Some medications have an adverse effect on plants, fish and invertebrates. The quarantine tank diminishes the adverse effect on your tank population.

Setting up the Quarantine tank

A quarantine tank can be set up and kept running all of the time or can be setup as needed. Requirements are a heater, thermometer, mechanical filtering and some method of biological filtering to eliminate the toxic ammonia built up through fish waste. It is very important that these tanks are not setup when fish are to be introduced or when there are any diseases. Such would be the effect that the tank would have to be cycle and thus it would have a more adverse effect on the fish rather than a beneficial one. So, having a cycled tank at hand is an essential. Here are some ways of maintaining such a tank.

• The tank must be separate from the rest of your setup. Introducing hardy fish to your tank helps. One use livebearers or danios for this. This is done in order to help cycle the tank. Once there is the need they are removed and placed in another tank. A sponge filter is necessary large enough to withstand the bioload.
• A second option is to have a filter inside another tank which is later moved to the quarantine tank. This form of seeding has the same effect as above. Keep in mind that the bacteria require food to develop and therefore the filter must be transferred as soon as the fish is introduced. This would give you an instantly established tank ready to use.
• One may also use Zeolite to absorb the toxic waste from the water but make sure that there is no carbon in the filter as this would adsorb the medications.

Another point to keep in mind that the quarantine tank must not have any gravel at the bottom. This is to maintain a clean tank as much as possible. When it comes to the cleaning regime, quarantine tanks must be treated with care. The cleaning regimes must be more than normal as you have to keep water quality as clean as possible. When using medications, sometimes you have to carry out water changes to ensure that there is no over-dosage of any medications. After use there is always the recommendation to disinfect your tank so as to stop spreading to other fish. Keeping the sponge filter bacteria alive is essential for later use. Never clean the sponge in tap water which was not treated.

If you are introducing new fish, keep them in the quarantine tank for at least two weeks, three weeks would be ideal. Observing the fish is essential and make sure that what you are treating is what the fish have as otherwise the effect of the medications would be useless. This would cause undue stress on the fish and might even kill it rather than helping it.