Hospital tank advise

[Weirdfish]

Hi, I've had a bit of a bad month with losing a Black Phantom Tetra & 3 Praecox Rainbows (not to mention the total disapearance of 3 Panda Corys which is a whole different story). So I thought it might be a good idea to sort out a small hospital tank.

So I'm looking for some advise. what do you guys do? keep a spare tank up and running all the time, if so how do you keep it cycled?

I have seen mentioned using 2 external filters in the main tank and then using one on the hospital tank as required. That sounds do-able if i get another filter. Do I then just fill the hospital tank with water from the main tank and switch over the secondary filter when needed?

Sorry if thats all a bit basic but my confidence has taken a bit of a hit this month.

Cheers

Steve

 

[pendragon]

I have seen mentioned using 2 external filters in the main tank and then using one on the hospital tank as required.

That's the idea - the least troublesome way, IMHO; but it's really your preference. You can use an external filter for your hospital tank if you choose, sure - but a small, internal sponge filter is generally just fine for a hospital tank (I have a Fluval One Plus; very inexpensive). You can either set the hospital filter up in your primary tank and let it run in addition to your main filter, or alternatively you can just leave the sponge from the hospital filter in the main tank.

I keep a spare 10-gallon tank and small heater hidden away in a closet, and I keep the sponge for the hospital filter in the supplemental media container of my Emperor power filter (the sponge is quite small) on the community tank. When I need the hospital tank I take it out of the closet, rinse the dust out, put in a couple handfuls of gravel from the main tank (doesn't have to be much, just enough to let the fish know 'the ground is here'), fill it up with treated tap water, install heater, pop the sponge in the Fluval, install filter, put in a couple of small fake plants (so sick fish doesn't feel so exposed) - and viola! Instant hospital tank - complete with nitrifying bacteria. I probably have forty bucks in the whole setup, and can hide it away when I want to and set it up in a few minutes when I need it. When I use the hospital tank though, and it's served it's purpose (fish either passes on or returns to big tank), I throw the sponge away and use a new one (I think they're like three sponges for five bucks at the pet shop); the new one goes back into the big tank to gather bacteria for next time. I just don't feel good about putting the sponge from the infected tank back in the big community. Probably just my personal level of paranoia.

You can, of course, setup a complete hospital tank and leave it running all the time, but in order to keep it cycled you have to keep some fish in it, or manually inject ammonia fairly frequently. More trouble than I want to go to, but I know die-hard fishkeepers who do it. I think my method works fine, but if you want to do the full-blown thing, more power to you.

Hope that helps.

pendragon!

 

[Weirdfish]

Thanks for that. Your set up suits my needs perfectly.

 

[Leslie]

I keep a quarantine tank running and have a Betta in it. If I need to put anything in there out comes Mr Betta into a nice big bowl for the time needed. Fortunately I've only needed the quarantine tank when I was bringing new fish into the house.