hospital/quarantine tank

[pucknut]

what size tank and what eqpt. do u all use for this?

 

[QTOFFER]

I find that a glass 10 gal tank is most convenient because they're cheap and small enough to easily dose with meds if necessary. Secondhand or scratched up wouldn't matter. You could also use a clean (new) rubbermaid container, a 5 gal bucket, or a small plastic garbage can - so long as there is a lid to prevent jumpers. Any quarrantine tank is better than none.

My quarrantine tank has no gravel, rocks, plants, or light - it's a completely bare bones operation, which makes cleaning and disinfecting a breeze. It's also less expensive.

You would also need a heater (50W for a 10 gal) and a filter. I always have cycled sponge filters running on my other tanks for this purpose. A slightly more expensive option is to have a small spare HOB running on one of your other tanks at all times - ready to be called into action when you need to set up the quarrantine tank.

Finally, you should have separate nets and water changing equipment for the quarrantine tank...otherwise, what's the point?

 

[gheitman]

I second the motion of a 10 gallon glass tank to quarantine and/or medicate fish as needed. This is handy since most medications are measured in relation to 10 gallons. I keep a quarantine tank with no substrate (for easy cleaning) and just a few plastic decorations that are easily disinfected if necessary. I use a sponge filter and I get the sponge from an already established tank. You don't want a filter that uses activated carbon because that can interfere with some medications. As was already mentioned you should also have separate nets, siphons, etc. so that you don't contaminate another tank.

 

[pucknut]

thank you......what kind of sponge filter do u use.......have seen the lustar on bigalsonline.com........seems like it would work ok

 

[Crusis]

I use a 10 gallon too, but it has an undergravel filter. The tank has plastic plants for a fish that feels poor to hide in, and a 50W heater as well as lighting. Minimizing the environmental stress on the fish is probably going to help, and definitely not going to hurt.

My local fish store has sponge filters for $2.99. Basically a sponge, a plastic fitting, a tube, and an airstone. Not a bad deal.

 

[gheitman]

The Hydro-Sponges seem seem to be popular but I found them somewhat difficult to get the sponges off for cleaning. I had to take the whole filter out of the tank. I bought the Azoo Oxygen Plus sponge filters which can be found at the link below.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produ...x=mode+matchallpartial&Np=1&pc=1&N=2004&Nty=1

It is very easy to slide the sponge off of the filter for cleaning. I use the Bio-Filter 3 model on my 10 gallon tanks and the Bio-Filter 2 on my 20 gallon tanks. Whenever I need to set up my quarantine tank I just slide a sponge off one of my regular tanks and replace it.

 

[coolchinchilla]

Although you can use buckets and the like for QT, but it's not near as easy to use as a 10 gal tank. I had a sick fish and I didn't have a spare tank, so I made up a hospital bucket for him. The problem was that I couldn't see him. I couldn't see if his wounds were healing or if he was eating or how he was swimming. I'd have to remove the sponge filter just to see how the fish looked. That scared him so much he jumped 3 feet in the air. 8O I believe this fish died because I couldn't monitor him well enough in a bucket.

You don't have to keep the QT tank running all the time. Just keep a spare filter running on your main tank and then set up the tank as you need it using old tank water and the spare filter.

 

[TomK2]

For Hospital, QT, and breeding I use a 10 gal also. Cheap (like $3 cheap) corner filters, sponge filters, or the exorbitantly expensive $15 aquaclear mini all will work.

To get it going, you can keep a sponge on the intake of your main tanks filter, then transfer it over to the QT when needed. After use, sterilize it and put it back in the main tank. Or you can take some colonized biomedia from the main tank and put it in the corner filter or aquaclear, then discard it after use.

http://home.comcast.net/~tomstank/tomstank_files/page0019.htm

There are many variations possible.

 

[cabezon]

how do you disinfect the sponge when you are done with the quarantine?

I want to quarantine new fish before they go to the main tank, it seems that new fish kill all the old ones for me.

Shaw

 

[TomK2]

I would wash it in a bleach solution, then rinse, rinse, rinse. Then rinse some more. After one more rinse, I would put it back in the main tank.