QT/Hospital tanks

[chykityta]

Hello,

While responding on a thread and getting responses, I crossed upon an interesting topic: a nicely planted quarantine tank. I brought the point that when I get new fish, I fill up the quarantine/hospital tank, add the new fish, and medicate as if the fish were sick.

But, this same user responded that his quarantine tank runs as normal with a colony of RCS and plants. In addition to having an empty tank for medicating fish.

I may be doing this wrong all along, so my question is:
> To you, what is the difference between a hospital and a quarantine tank?
> Do you medicate new fish upon arrival on a hospital tank, or let them live peacefully on a quarantine tank until safe to move to the main tank?
> What is your setup if either the hospital or quarantine tank run permanently?
> If you medicate, for how long do you medicate the new fish and for how long do they stay in the hospital tank?

Please add any other information that may be useful to understand this topic.

Thank you in advance for your input!


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[Mebbid]

1 - nothing

2 - no, only medicate when absolutely necessary.

3 - its best to run a qt tank intermittently. Its best to create the tank with simple to clean decor such as pvc or plastic plants. Anything porous can potentially harbor diseases.

I also wouldnt run it with shrimp because the amount of shrimp safe meds are small. Medications will also often kill plants. Following that, you could never properly clean live plants.

 

[ScotJudd]

The OP was referring to my QT, which is bare bottomed but has a lot of plants, Java Moss and Java Fern mostly. I keep a fair size colony of cherry shrimp in there all the time.
I agree with Mebbid but I have chosen a different route from the norm.
The tank is constantly running and the filters are robustly cycled. I have found over the last few years that new fish settle very quickly into their 'half way house'. I keep them in there for 8 to 12 weeks and enjoy conditioning them prior to being let out into the main display tank.
The downside is that I can't medicate so any medication has to be done in a separate hospital tank. I have been lucky and not needed it to date.
I do get fish from a very good independent LFS and their tanks are good and the fish look clean. I know that they medicate the fish on arrival and during the shops quarantine period. This could be why my system works for me.


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[Delapool]

I run the QT permanently but one I have settled on is keeping it bare bottom. Plants are usually discards from the main tank so can be thrown out readily. However have been testing plant toxicity to meds as well.

 

[chykityta]

So I see that running a QT tank permanently may be a norm. How do you maintain the QT tank at any given point that there is no fish in quarantine?

I like the idea of having it be bare bottom yet with easy plants.


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[ScotJudd]

So I see that running a QT tank permanently may be a norm. How do you maintain the QT tank at any given point that there is no fish in quarantine?

I like the idea of having it be bare bottom yet with easy plants.


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You can keep a tank running without fish in it by either adding fish food to keep the bacteria in the filters alive or by adding ammonia, as if you were cycling the tank. About 2ppm ammonia once a week would do. Of course you would have to do do a massive water change before adding fish but I would use water from your main display tank rather than 100 % tap water.
As I said , I keep shrimp in my QT ( unusual, but I do) and they keep it cycled when there are no fish, which is not often because I quarantine for so long and generally as a batch of fish goes into the main tank then another is bought for the QT. when the time comes that the main tank is fully stocked then I will keep a few fish in the QT so I have something to look at.
In my case, I think having a QT is just a good excuse to have another tank ?.



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[chykityta]

LOL
Thank you very much. I am open to other suggestions!



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