Hospital tank ideas

[sillyputty]

What do you keep for a hospital or quarrantine tank? I assume it will need a heater and filter. Do you keep one running all the time? What size?
I am going to be setting one up and looking for ideas.
Thanks!

 

[daveedka]

A lot depends on what fish you plan to keep. I use a 10g for quarantine, it also serves as a snail breeding and plant raising tank. If I needed a hospital tank for my fish some of them would require at least 30 gallons so I'd probably use a rubbermaid trash can. If you plan to keep all smallish fish, 10g's are great. Remeber that it is generally short term when used, so it can be marginal for size if filtration and maintenance are good. As far as filters. I find it is best to use a filter that is similar if not identical to your main tank. this allows you to swap media when you need the q-tank to be cycled quickly. it also gives you back-up hardware for your main tank.
Dave

 

[RTR]

Anything from 10 to 50 gallons - I have a lot of spare tanks, some of the smaller are always running (as daveeka's are) as snail production tanks, plant offset grow-out, or fry grow-out. Larger tanks as required are available not in service, and spare filters are always running somewhere. A few hour's warning and I have anything in the range operating with mature filters and aged water.

But usually new specimens are going into species tanks, so their tank is set and established and ammonia-challenged to be sure prior to the new fish coming home. Then their permanent home is labeled QT for the first 4-6 weeks, or until I am sure they are clean.