SierraDelta
New Member
I'm fairly new to fishkeeping and haven't needed a hospital tank so far, but I've read enough horror stories to understand their importance. I've recently bought a 10-gallon kit (on sale right now at Wal Mart for $25) and a heater that I plan to leave empty "just in case." With all the stress on cycling a tank before introducing fish, though, I'm a little confused about the whole hospital tank concept. Please tell me if I've got it right:
Obviously, if you move a sick fish to an uncycled hospital tank, you're moving an already-stressed creature to an even more-stressful environment where ammonia will build up quickly. This is a necessary action, though, because you don't want the sickness to plague the rest of the community. The hospital tank is not (and, probably, will not) be cycled. The ammonia production in the hospital tank will be small because there is only one fish in it, but it is managed with daily partial water changes.
Chemical filtration (like activated charcoal) should be removed from the filter so it doesn't adsorb any medicines introduced to the hospital tank. Once the hospital or quarantine period is over, the tank can be evacuated, drained and dried so that it is ready for the next emergency.
Have I got it right? I've been so indocrinated into only having fish in a cycled tank that I have a visceral reaction to the idea of a hospital tank because it will be uncycled.
Obviously, if you move a sick fish to an uncycled hospital tank, you're moving an already-stressed creature to an even more-stressful environment where ammonia will build up quickly. This is a necessary action, though, because you don't want the sickness to plague the rest of the community. The hospital tank is not (and, probably, will not) be cycled. The ammonia production in the hospital tank will be small because there is only one fish in it, but it is managed with daily partial water changes.
Chemical filtration (like activated charcoal) should be removed from the filter so it doesn't adsorb any medicines introduced to the hospital tank. Once the hospital or quarantine period is over, the tank can be evacuated, drained and dried so that it is ready for the next emergency.
Have I got it right? I've been so indocrinated into only having fish in a cycled tank that I have a visceral reaction to the idea of a hospital tank because it will be uncycled.
Just make sure you don't take all the media out of the main tank at once (to change or otherwise) as then you'll risk ammonia/nitrite buildup in the main tank. 
