quarantine tank

[2manyFish]

I have a 55 gal tank and a couple fish werent lookin good soni setup a 5 gallon quarantine tank. I put one of my tetras in there to try to correct his swim bladder and he died 2 days after. Then I cleaned the tank ran it a day and tried to quarantine another tetra for his fin rot. And he seemed fine but when I woke up this morning he was dead. Not sure wat im doing wrong

 

[Mebbid]

What kind of setup do you have for this quarantine tank? Do you use a filter and heater? Is it cycled?

 

[2manyFish]

I have a heater and just and air stone. A lot of things I read said a filter wasnt neeeded

 

[Mebbid]

Filters aren't necessarily needed in a QT. Something to add water movement should be sufficient although you need to do frequent large water changes to keep the water quality as good as humanly possible.

 

[Coyne]

Are the water temps for both tanks the same or really close (+/- 1 degree)? How about pH?

 

[2manyFish]

The ph is the same and temp. But the main tanks water is harder than the qt and nitrate level higher

 

[Coyne]

Hmmm... Maybe the difference in GH is shocking an already weaked fish. I dont know enough about water hardness to say for sure. It could also just be a case of the fish being too far gone by the time you got them into the hospital tank.
This is probably a silly question, but I'd hate to overlook something. Are you treating the water in the QT for chlorine and what-not?

 

[2manyFish]

I used tap water conditioner thats all

 

[Mebbid]

It's a possibility. It would probably be a good idea to do a slower acclimation to the tank in the future

 

[2manyFish]

How should I acclimate them?

 

[Coyne]

The same way you acclimate them when you bring them home from the store (I'm assuming).

Float them in a container of the original tank water. Every 5 mins remove a little of the water (down the drain) and add a little water from the new tank. Do this for about 30 mins. This will help the fish slowly get used to the new waters chemistry.