HOSPITAL tank set up HELP PLS 10g

C

ccorrow

AC Members
Mar 28, 2005
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Maryland
Attempting to set up a hospital tank w/ no chemicals (naturally)... I thought if I took water fr my established 55g (temp 84, ph 6.8...), maintained air, heat... This would work... My Nitrites skyrocketed in 24 hours... I refuse to scarifice fish... Been thru too much in the past, so would love some advise fr a pro...!!! Should I start over w/ just tap water...? PLS HELP. I have a wonderfully populated 55g community tank and want to be prepared for anything that could arise in the course of enjoying the wonderful world of Freshwater fish.
Signed... wanna be pro
 
do you mean the nitrites skyrocketed in the 55g? That may mean it was not cycled, or done cycling. In that case a QT tank would not help much.
 
If you use tank water-there are wastes in the process of being broken down-without an established filter, it will take a while for a balance. If you have no immediate need for the hospital tank, my preference is to have the spare equipment ready with additional media in the established tank filter ready to switch to the hospital tank filter.

An alternative is use dechlorinated fresh water-should be no dissolved wastes and by judicious light feeding or none at all-depending on the situation you can minimize wastes in the tank. Still nice to have an established filter ready to go though.
 
the water from the old tank has no established bacteria in it (or not much) that break down the nitrates and ammonia. although most are in the filter, some are in the gravel/ decorations of the old tank, get some gravel from the old tank and put it in the Q- tank, also get some gunk from inside your filter and either put it in the new filter or in the tank, in order to save fish (I would just buy a few cheep feeder guppies, if you do enough water changes none should die, and if they do its no biggie, if they dont, they can be fun to keep) for fishless cycleing id check in the articles section, or get someone else's openion, ive heard that you can either add amonia or a dead shrimp... dont do this until you get confirmation because i'm unshure.

also i believe the most 'natural' way to cycle a tank would be with fish...
 
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I agree with schiejr. There's no reason to a keep a q-tank running empty. Why are you setting one up?
 
Holly9937 said:
do you mean the nitrites skyrocketed in the 55g? That may mean it was not cycled, or done cycling. In that case a QT tank would not help much.
Click to expand...

No the Nitrites went HI in the 10 gal new tank... I'm assuming fr using the 55g water and gravel.
 
OrionGirl said:
I agree with schiejr. There's no reason to a keep a q-tank running empty. Why are you setting one up?
Click to expand...

The 55g community tank houses four beautiful Discus along w/ other community fish... but the Discus, as I am reading, can be quite prone to certain bacterial infections, etc... The digest I'm reading advises to have a hospital or quarantine tank available when needed... Am I interpreting that wrong.? What would I do if I needed to isolate to treat... it takes too long for a tank to establish... I think Lobo has the right idea w/ setting it up and housing some fish (tough ones) just to maintain the environment.
 
You don't need to keep fish in your Q-tank to keep it cycled. Most of us keep extra media in our main tanks to take out and use in the hospital as needed. For instacne, I use Sponge Filters in my 10 gallon Q-tank. When the Q-tank is not in use, I keep the filter over in the main tank. This keeps it seeded and ready to roll at any time. If you'd like to learn more about Hospital/Quarnatine tanks, There is an article I wronte in the articles forum that covers the basics. Here's a link
 
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