You know me and being long winded. Please bear in mind what follows is how I do things. It is my way but by no means the only way. But it works for me.
I deal with Q and H tanks differently. I do not usually waste filters on H tanks for one simple reason, I do not know what I might have to treat until I am faced with a specific problem. It is at that point I must decide what a fish might have and then figure out the best form of treatment. Some of those treatments can destroy a cycled filter making it useless. Some things may contaminate filter media and stick around. So I have a protocol for H tanks which does not normally involve a cycled filter.
I medicate according to the direction for the med. But I change water in the H tank aggressively. At the vert least it is 50% every other day. This may effect meds which need to stay in the water. In such cases when I refill the tank I replace the amount of medication I removed. A 50% water change means a 50% dose of replacement meds. If a dose of the med is normally due on a day where I normally change water, I will change the water then dose- obviously.
But there can be a variety of things one might have to treat and some treatments will not bother one's filtration. So I want to have such an H tank filtered. I have two option here. One is that I always have a small bottle of Dr. Tim's One and Only bacteria in the fridge. But at times I also have my bio-farm running and this contains several cycled sponge/foam filters. These are able to have a 10 gal. or 20 gal. tank instantly cycled. The nice thing about this is that those filters may also go into a Q tank.
I keep a medical kit with an assortment of meds. I only use these when I know what I need and my H tanks are always empty and sterile until needed. I also keep some plastic plants and other decor to provide cover for the patient which usually helps to keep them less stressed. The one thing that doesn't even go into an H tank is wood. The reason is simple, if I use an H tank, never accurately diagnose and medicate using my best guess and the fish dies, I have to sterilize the tank and all its content after I lose the patient. Or I may accurately diagnose but fail in treating, depending on the problem the tank contents may also need to be sterilized. For this I use bleach.
And for this reason I never use live plants in an H tank.
Now as for the idea that one can keep an H tank with a broad treatment med in it at all times will not work. Meds do not last in the water for extended periods unless one is treating with salt. Consider antibiotics. We are usually dosing these for about a week or 10 days for a full round of traetment and we are usually dosing the medication every day or every other day. That is done for two reasons. The first is that a single treatment is not sufficient and the second is the medication doesn't last. Antibiotics will degrade and become useless over time. Other meds will outlast their expiration date.
A good clue as to how long any given treatment might last in the water should be obvious from the directions. If multiple dosing is required that is usually because the med fades and must be re-added to maintain the needed dose. Trying to keep a general med in open H tanks wont work well because of this and then what if the general med is not the right one? Only medicate when you have a good idea of what is wrong and how to treat it. Of course there is always the best guess soltuin where if nothing is tried the patient will die. Using the wrong med here and having the fish die is no worse than not treating and having it die. So in some cases we must take out best shot.
In an H tank one of two outcomes is possible, we diagnose correctly, treat with the right med and the fish recovers. So we know what we need to do. This can be as simple as rinsing everything well and it is safe because we have wiped out the cause. On the other hand, when it may be something virulent and contagious and we fail to find the right med. Then and the fish dies and we need either to sterilize everything or we kave to throw it away, This would include live plants or some cycled media or substrate if we used them. I try only to put things into an H tank I can bleach and re-use if I have to.
It is important to understand than in most cases of something serious, the patient will likely be recovering or dead withn a couple of weeks or less. In all my 23+ years of keeping fish, I have only ever had to do a long term treatment routine once. I was treating a large clown loach (10 inches)with a severe case of wasting disease. Long story short the final straw was to pull it from the 150 gal. to a fully cycled H tank. The meds I planned to used would not harm the filter. If I eliminated the cause, I would then need to power feed the fish for some time to restore its signifivant loss of body mass. The treatments worked and the fish was in the 20L for about another 6 weeks if I remember right. When it left, I converted the tank for other uses and fish. I just did a few water changes, ran it empty and was dosing ammonia and then it was a regular tank in a couple of weeks.
My idea of an H tank is an empty tank, an air powered stone or cheap foam, a heater, fake plants and decor. All of it must be OK to be bleached. When I need it, I set it up the H tank and am ready to go pretty fast.
Now how about Q? This is a more interesting challenge based on how one approaches the time a new fish needs to be in the tank and healthy. I have a basic rule that works for me. Most of my newly acquired fish come shipped to me. But some I do pick up. Depending on the source, I use the following rules:
- If the fish originate in this country by being born here or are from tanks I know to have done a proper Q and have had the fish for some time, I Q for 30 days.
- If the fish are imported and/or or are wild caught, or if they are from any source I cannot trust, then I Q for 90 days.
The above times are not an absolute, They mean that number of consecutive days with no issues. So if it turns out after 60 days a wild caught fish evidences something that developed slowly, and I then treat it successfully, the Q calendar resets to 0.
So, I tend to approach Q as cross between a real home and an H tank. Most times I leave both an H or Q tank either bare bottom or with a light colored sand. I want to be able to monitor both food and poop. I am willing to add some live plants to a Q tank understanding they may have to be thrown out. So I do not overdo this. I use potted and/or floating plants. The same applies to a piece of wood where appropriate. This may have to be dried out or even thrown out if it might harbor eggs from something for some time even when dry. Fake wood is sine as it can be bleached.
Really, there are two concerns with either type of tank. One is that they serve their purpose well in terms of size and contents while not being hard to maintain. The other is that we want to minimize the level of stress the inhabitants and patients may undergo. Some meds are not fun for the patient. Being shipped, handled bagged, shipped again and then dropped into a strange environment is not exactly the ideal way to live a low stress life. So the journey of new fish to us means how we do Q is important. The same applies to how we treat sick fish besides the medicating part.
Phew- my keyboard is smokin
edited to remove the word and where it did not belong.
