quarantine and hospital tanks

[thepirate]

quick question......do you guys have hospital tanks, quarantine tanks in addition to your main tank and sump????

if you do, how and where do you keep all of these surely each one would require lighting and filter systems??

what size of tank do you use for quarantine and what sort of filtration and lighting do you use?

do you quarantine all of your fish prior to putting them in your main tank?

most lfs have a large filtration system servicing all of thier tanks so how do they quarantine thier fish?

surely shops need to quarantine thier fish otherwise it could wipe out thousands of pounds worth of stock.

cheers everyone

mark

 

[sevise]

I just set up my first quarantine tank for a pair of percs I wanted to add. I bought a "kit" from my LFS that consisted of a 10Gal tank, HOB filter, hood w/ light, heater and thermometer. A lot of people reccomend 20Gal for there quarantine tanks, I used a 10 because I needed something relatively small. I ran the HOB filter in my main system for 2 weeks to build up the bacteria. Lighting isn't imporatnt for a FO tank, I haven't even plugged the lamp in yet, the tank is in my kitchen so it gets plenty of room light.

I did not quarantine my 7 chromis or the bar goby I added. However from the clowns on I will be quarantining all new additions. I realized last night in addition to protecting against disease it will also insure I take my time stocking the tank, 4 weeks between additions.

Some LFS have 1 central system, its probobly the cheapest solution but it leads to disease. As long as the fish look healthy and dont stay very long then the LFS can still sell them, if they lose a few its not going to kill there profits.

Other LFS run a system for each of there tanks, its more expensive but it protects against disease.