So last year I learned a hard lesson. Always quarantine new fish and have a hospital tank. Unfortunately I didn't do that and lost many fish as a result of disease some new arrivals brought. So I plan to set up a 10g quarantine/hospital tank. My question is when it is serving as a hospital tank but not in use, does it still have to be on (the heater and filter) running all the time? Can you just have water in it and if a fish needs quarantined then turn it on? Does turning it off kill the cycle?
Does a Quarantine Tank need to stay on?
- Thread starter thewarning
- Start date
QT or hospital tank can be empty when not in use.
The way I do it is keep a sponge in the sump or in/on another filter.. when I need to set up QT I move the seeded sponge to the filter of the QT and set it up like a regular tank.
when done the tank is empty again.
the problem I have is..emptying the tanks.. I often wind up setting it up as another tank ...lol
(really tho I keep a 10 and a 15 g set aside for qt)
The way I do it is keep a sponge in the sump or in/on another filter.. when I need to set up QT I move the seeded sponge to the filter of the QT and set it up like a regular tank.
when done the tank is empty again.
the problem I have is..emptying the tanks.. I often wind up setting it up as another tank ...lol
(really tho I keep a 10 and a 15 g set aside for qt)
Yep, that's what happened with my 10g "QT". Well.. I'll just put a plant or two in there, maybe some shrimp. A couple little fish. Whammo! Permanent tank.
I still keep a couple cheap eBay sponge bubblers going in my 20L that gets nothing new introduced to it, in the event I need a seeded sponge. Aquaclear HOB sponges or bio bags are also nice for this purpose. Just outfit another tank with a comparable AC HOB and swap the media.
I still keep a couple cheap eBay sponge bubblers going in my 20L that gets nothing new introduced to it, in the event I need a seeded sponge. Aquaclear HOB sponges or bio bags are also nice for this purpose. Just outfit another tank with a comparable AC HOB and swap the media.
I concur with what has been suggested. In my case, I consider a quarantine tank different from a hospital tank. I have my 6 tanks in a dedicated fish room, so keeping a 20g planted tank running permanently to use for new fish (only) is easy. I prefer this, because it means the new fish which are arriving stressed are going into a very stable environment that is well established (tank is full of plant culls from my main tanks, and snails). Having the plants also calms fish naturally, quite the opposite of bare tanks. When I need a hospital tank, I use an otherwise empty 10g fitted with a sponge filter. I fill it with water from the tank the fish is coming from, when needed.
Byron.
Byron.
^ I do the same.
It calms them and can trigger some species to spawn. Then the QT tank becomes a growout tank.
It calms them and can trigger some species to spawn. Then the QT tank becomes a growout tank.
How do you select a size of quarantine tank?
Also, for those of you who keep your QT tanks set up permanently: Don't the beneficial bacteria die back when the fish are removed from quarantine and placed in the main tank? How do you avoid a mini cycle when you add a bunch of new fish to your previously empty (but running) QT tank?
Also, for those of you who keep your QT tanks set up permanently: Don't the beneficial bacteria die back when the fish are removed from quarantine and placed in the main tank? How do you avoid a mini cycle when you add a bunch of new fish to your previously empty (but running) QT tank?
The size may depend upon the space you have and how you acquire fish. I use a 20g (standard, or "tall") as I frequently acquire many new fish at one time, and I have a dedicated room for my tanks so space is no issue. But a 10g is minimum.
I keep my tank planted, with culls from the other tanks and floating plants. "Cycling" is not an issue with sufficient live plants. This tank can run empty of fish 9just the plants, snails, weekly water changes and plant fertilizer) for months, over a year once or twice, before new fish were added. The plants take up ammonia, and lots of it, when it is available. But aside from the plants, the nitrifying bacteria are actually not as "delicate" as many of us used to believe. I won't get into all that, but if plants are not possible you can still manage though I would be careful adding too many fish at once. I have sometimes brought home 20-35 fish at one go, and putting these in my 20g is no problem.
I keep a 29 gal qt running, if no fish are in it for an extended time then I might toss a raw shrimp in there to decompose, or cycle dirty filter pad material in to it's hob filter from time to time, I keep up on it's water change schedule even if theres nothing in there but snails. I also do a pretty big WC the nigjt before I plan on buying fish
