hospital/quarintine tank

[timwag2001]

i now have a 30 gallon tank set up to quarintine new fish and for a hospital for sick fish. do you keep fish in yours too keep it cycled? any advice to keep it running?

[mgamer20o0]

i keep it empty. i keep extra filters in other tanks and move it over.

[meegosh]

Yeah I just run a small sponge filter in my 10g just in case I need a QT/meds tank setup quickly. I would not keep fish in it, you risk infecting those fish with whatever you are treating the other fish for. Also, you would not want to have to catch them and move them to the main tank every time you got a new addition or had to medicate.

[jsoong]

I keep mine empty as well .... and run the filter in the main tank to keep the bacteria alive so it is ready for use.

[Innovator]

Be aware that if you seed a sponge filter in your sump it should be thoroughly cleaned and let completely dry before reseeding; otherwise, you risk contaminating your main display with either disease or residual medications from Quarantine.

[Zagz]

Here as well, empty but extra filters on other tanks to seed the QT tank in a hurry.

[timwag2001]

thanks a lot everyone!!! i really like the idea of another filter on my main tank to keep it seeded. would the filter have to be sterilized in between uses or is drying a good enough remedy?

[meegosh]

I usually let the sponge dry out before I move it between tanks. I also rinse with some tank water. I use a diluted bleach solution to clean the tubing that comes into the tank.

I must admit though, when I am QT'ing new fish and there are no problems after a few months, I usually just transfer the filter right over to the main tank again. It would probably be good to get into the habit of cleaning it every time, regardless of whether the fish in QT were fine or not.

[HooKooDooKu]

Can't you just keep the filters in the QT tank alive by just feeding them some pure ammonia (ACE Hardware Store brand is what I use for fishless cycling)?

[meegosh]

You can, its just more work that way, I think. You may go months without any new fish or need for meds... thats a lot of ammonia.

[HooKooDooKu]

Originally Posted by meegosh

You can, its just more work that way, I think. You may go months without any new fish or need for meds... thats a lot of ammonia.

Ammonia is cheap... $3 for a quart of ACE Hardware store brand (the one without other additives).

IF you have the QT tank already setup anyway (i.e. you have not broken it down and placed it in storage), all you have to do is get an old dropper bottle (anyone that wears contact lenses will have easy access to plenty) and keep some of your ammonia in the dropper bottle. Then at each fish feeding, you place a few drops in the QT.

I guess you would also have to do occational PWC on the QT, but given that nothing would be living in the tank, you could obviously space that out to once a month, once a quarter, or just do a 100% PWC when it's time to use the tank for fish.