Hospital tank / fry tank advice.....

[CraigMac]

I'm checking out Craigslist waiting to find a good deal on a small tank that I can use as a hospital tank or fry tank when the need arises. How do you guys set-up a fry tank or hospital tank? I'm mainly concerned with cycling. Should I leave the tank empty until the need arises and them do a quick cycle with filter media from my main tank? I shouldn't have it running empty until needed right?

 

[LyndaB]

It's a hassle to keep it running when you don't need it the majority of time.

I would have additional filter media in one of my main tank filters and then just grab it for the QT filter when necessary.

 

[CraigMac]

Yeah that's what I thought. My only concern would be how long would it take to cycle if I needed to get one of my fish out of the main tank quickly? With filter media from my main tank elwould you expect it to cycle in 24 hours? Or longer?

 

[kdpuffer]

You could also just run an extra filter on your main tank and move it over when the need arises.

 

[LyndaB]

Yeah that's what I thought. My only concern would be how long would it take to cycle if I needed to get one of my fish out of the main tank quickly? With filter media from my main tank elwould you expect it to cycle in 24 hours? Or longer?

You would want to have that excess filter media in there to seed for a minimum of 3 weeks before moving to a QT. That said, once you have the filter media available, you could fill the QT, grab the filter media and voila, instant cycle.

 

[CraigMac]

Ok great. I have 2 filters, one is an emperor 400. That has 4 slots for filter media but you only need to use 2 of them. So I'll use all 4, then pull one to use for my hospital tank if needed. Sound like a workable plan?

 

[LyndaB]

Sounds like a great plan to me.

 

[Fready]

Sure does! Ive set up my fry tank like that.
3/5 water from my main tank an then 2/5 new water
BUT YOU HAVE TO BE **** SURE THERE ISNT ANY CHLORINE IN IT ANYMORE

It also helps to use some decoration from a well running tank aswel

 

[LyndaB]

I've done all new water treated with Prime, bare bottom tank, no decor, and just the seeded media gives me an instantly cycled tank.

 

[CraigMac]

Good to know! Thanks my concern was I didn't think it would instantly cycle so I was worried if I had to quickly remove a sick or injured fish.

Thanks for the advice

 

[Jmedic25]

All these are awesome suggestions...Just dont forget if you are pulling a fish out that has some type of sickness...That sickness or virus/fungus/bacteria would be on the filter media that you transfer. In the case of bloat for example. You have to make sure you treat both tanks.

 

[CraigMac]

Ooh, good point. So it would be good for a fry tank or an injured fish but in case of illness both tanks would need to be treated anyway. I didn't even think of that, I was thinking id be preventing the other fish from being exposed unnecessarily to meds. In the case if illness, do you still suggest taking the sick fish out to treat or would it be better to just leave as is and treat the one main tank?

 

[Jmedic25]

depends on the disease