Help with my Quarantine Tank

shaunnadavies

shaunnadavies

AC Members
Sep 4, 2009
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I'm reading over and over on this website the importance of having a quarantine/hospital tank, so I'm off to buy one in about an hour from a lady off of Craigslist.

My questions are...how should I go about cycling it? And should I keep anything in it when there aren't new fish being quarantined, or a sick fish that needs treatment? What I mean is should there be something (snails, goldfish, shrimp) living in the tank when it's not in use?

Thanks guys!
 
I get to pick it up in 2 hrs. What a sweet deal! Tank, filter, heater, gravel, decorations...EVERYTHING for $20. The tank was only used for 3 months. :headbang2:

I'm excited!
 
I setup a Q tank last week and added fish to it the day I bought it. They all seem to be eating and doing well. I read you should quarantine for 3-weeks. Is that correct?
 
fishorama said:
You can just run the Q filter on your main tank to keep it cycled & move it over when you need it. Congrats on the tank, a wise decision.
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That's a great idea! I might just do that.

So, is there nothing that's really "safe" to keep in the Quarantine tank, just so that you don't always have an empty tank sitting there. It would be kind of nice to have something to look at.
 
shaunnadavies said:
That's a great idea! I might just do that.

So, is there nothing that's really "safe" to keep in the Quarantine tank, just so that you don't always have an empty tank sitting there. It would be kind of nice to have something to look at.
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Well make this a real tank...

..you can use a clear plastic tote as a Q-Tank...anything that will hold 10-15G of water will do.
 
RDTigger said:
Well make this a real tank...

..you can use a clear plastic tote as a Q-Tank...anything that will hold 10-15G of water will do.
Click to expand...

No no, that's OK. I didn't want another display tank, just a quarantine tank. I just thought it may be easier to keep a couple of snails or shrimp or what not in the tank to help keep the tank ready for the new fish to be quarantined, and just to have something in the tank to look at. If that's a silly idea, then I'll just go with an empty tank. Not fond of the plastic tote idea.
 
You don't actually need animals, they are optional.

Just a small bit of food every few days will keep everything working. It breaks down in the water with the microorganisms.

For fishless cycling people use ammonia because it's faster, you don't need to wait to get ammonia, but just flake food works too, just takes a bit longer to reach full cycle.

When you move fish into quarantine, they will generally give a bunch of waste right away from what they ate before coming home, feed sparingly at first so tank can ramp up to bigger load.

Marv
 
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