Setting up quarantine/hospital tank?

Ryi

Ryi

Shrimp fear me
Feb 10, 2009
54
0
0
Sunny Florida
Is there a sticky I can't find?
I'm actually setting up a hospital tank, have a little lip fungus on a danio and want to keep treatment localized.
I have a 20l available, empty.
I assume barebottom? Simple sponge filter? I also have a well-cycled in-tank whisper that I just pulled from a nano(no carbon just floss & ceramic bio-media).
Can I (should I) throw plants in? Since he's coming from a heavily planted tank I think being in en empty glass box might stress him more than the treatment.
Planning on using Maroxy to treat the fungus.

Helpful hints appreciated :)

Thanks in advance
 
Most any container can be a QT, even a rubbermaid tub. Some of us keep sponge filters running on tanks just for the purpose of setting up a QT when needed.

Have you identified the illness yet? You may need to treat the tank it is in, even if it is the only one showing signs.
 
I'd use plastic decorations since they can be detoxed easier. (I pile in a bunch of plastic cups for caves) and then cover the surface of the tank with floating plants that will be thrown away after the med cycle so they don't carry anything back into the display tank. Other than that, keep a filter running in another tank so its fully seeded so you can filter your QT, you've got a good idea with the sponge filter and frankly I'd say you're ready to start treating. Oh yeah, almost forgot, when I fill up my QT tank I try to fill it with water from the display tank the fish came from, makes it so you don't have to acclimate the fish too much, just float for temperature differentials (i.e. the glass of the new tank will be cold and will cool the water you add a little bit) and then they're good to go. Keep in mind if your fish are sick because of poor water quality in your display tank then you'll not want to take that same water to your QT tank. I just never see ammo or nitrite on my display tanks and have a UV sterilizer so that in case there is anything gross floating in the water column it will be killed quickly in QT. Run the sterilizer and filters for a few hours or a night, then pull the sterilizer and start dosing since you don't want to alter the chemical state of your meds with the UV light and make some sort of uberpoison.
 
Rbishop said:
Most any container can be a QT, even a rubbermaid tub. Some of us keep sponge filters running on tanks just for the purpose of setting up a QT when needed.

Have you identified the illness yet? You may need to treat the tank it is in, even if it is the only one showing signs.
Click to expand...


Very very true, my QT tanks actually are two giant rubbermaid tubs, all of my tanks have two filters running on them so that I can just pull one off for QT, and like Bob said, do not stop watching your display tank for simptoms thinking that you've gotten everything dealt with. Many times the actually disease that you see is secondary to some other aspect of the tank, whether poor water quality or the chemical signature (i.e. keeping discus in basic mineralized water that is good for an African cichlid will keep the discus continually sick if you actually manage to keep it alive and visa verse for an african cichlid living in a blackwater environment.)
 
Thanks for the quick responses.

I've been shuffling and heavily adding plants to the tank. The danio stressed when I was 'scaping and I think he ran into the tank wall hidden behind the new plants. It's the standard white growth on his lips. It's been probably 10 years since I've had to treat a fish illness but the circumstances were similar.

While I wouldn't mind treating the whole tank I also am hesitant to treat the healthy fish. Maroxy shouldn't hurt my bacteria but I don't know the effect it will have on my plants (crypt, val, swords, wendelov etc)

Think I'll throw some cuttings in the 20: I've got some cabomba, moneywort and ludwigia cuttings that need to root anyway . If I add the Whisper10i and throw a seeded sponge bubbler in the other corner I should be ready to go?
 
Yeah, I'd just be cautious of reintroducing the plants from QT back to your display. I guess if you really wanted to be safe you could do a 1:30 bleach:water solution and dip each plant for 1-3 minutes to kill any hitchhiking nasties, but yeah, sounds like you're good to go. Do you have any only plastic decorations you can put in there for hardscaping?
 
I'll root through the closet where I keep the endless supply of obsolete air pumps, hoses, hob's, odd color rocks, etc. I'm pretty sure I have the mandatory treasure-chest-opens-with-bubbles. I may have some plastic deco wood If not I have plenty of ceramic pots (unused).
Looks like I have my weekend project:

Awesome help, thanks again!
 
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