Quarantine/hospital Tank: My Guide

[dgwebster]

When I first started fish keeping, I didn't have the facilities for a quarantine tank/hospital tank and everything ran along fine until one day I learned a harsh lesson I suspect many of us here have suffered. An unwelcome hitch-hiker in the form of disease was not visible when I bought the fish from my LFS but 24 hours later, illness set in on the new tank mates before spreading to the rest of my tank. I lost half my stock in a week and ultimately, my bad practices were to blame for this.
 
Operating a successful Quarantine/Hospital tank (I'll shorten this to QHT from now on) was something that I pondered for a long time. When not in use, is it not wasteful to heat it for example? It could be months, even years, between uses. The filter would suffer problems here too, unless I was manually dosing it with ammonia all the time which seemed like a lot of effort.
 
Then I came upon my solution and I have decided to share it in the hope that others who have not really bothered in the past can make a change. The concept is to maintain simplicity and can be scaled as you need it.
 
 
For me, I operate a community 4' tank and for the fish I have and the purposes of a QHT I opted for a simple 15" x 8" tank. I used to sit this on a small table from a Swedish furniture store when needed but it now fits in a permanent home in my new tank stand. This has the benefit of now being kept in the dark as well, reducing some of the stress on the fish after a trip home from the LFS.
 
The key to the QHT being successful is preparation. You will need:
 
Filter foam
QHT - a small tank, RUB (Really Useful Box) etc. work well and allow you to scale easily.
Heater
Airline
Airline T adapter
Airline 1 way valve
Airline stop valve
DIY or shop bought spare air driven foam filter.
 
The first is adding a piece of filter foam to your existing tank filter. Leave it there, allow it to become colonized for a month to two.
 
Also, cut your airline hose, add the T-piece then add your one-way valve. [Note: Many people will place the one way valve between the air pump and the T-Piece - this does not prevent water from transferring between your tanks! Add them AFTER the T-Piece.]
 
Add your stop valve (to block airflow when the QHT is not in use.)
 
When I need to use my QHT I then simply do the following:
 
I fill the QHT with water from my existing tank.
 
Allow a small 25W heater to adjust for 10 minutes then turn it on.
 
Retrieving the foam from my filter, I put a new piece back into it: this is key, it will be your filter foam next time you need your QHT.
 
Add the colonised foam to the QHT air driven foam filter.
 
Open air valve.
 
This may seem like a lot of effort, but it allows you to run a small QHT easily & efficiently. You keep medications away from your healthy fish & away from your healthy filter. Sometimes you may need to treat a fish but a medication is not suitable for some tank mates: problem resolved. The medicated water is simply dumped later on and for quarantine fish, whilst not receiving the exact same temp and water quality, are being acclimatised close to your tank water statistics. More importantly though, you are able to observe your new fish for health issues.
 
If you need a larger QHT, I thoroughly recommend a RUB (Really Useful Box.) They come in a range of sizes and could easily be sat to the side/in front of your existing tank. They are extremely strong and are capable of holding 50 -70 litres of water in the largest ones and come with lids to stop your cats from taking a swim. You can also make it dual-purpose and store all your fishy stuff inside it when not in use
 
 

 

[Fizzy77]

This is a great idea thank you! I had been musing over a QT but didn't want to have to buy another tank and set it all up to then not ever use it lol.

 

[dgwebster]

Welcome. Many people do not quarantine animals before introducing them to their existing stock. I've had disease in my fish tank once before from this and my wife went through hell dealing with mites when she used to breed hamsters and took some rescues in. Never again will this error happen.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I have never believed in using a cycled tank for H purposes. I believe it is mostly a waste to do so.
 
For a start, if you are using meds that will harm the bacteria, it is a waste having cycled media in the H tank. In fact when you kill off bacteria, it creates ammonia.
 
Then lets assume the worst, you never get a handle on the diseases and the fish dies. Now you have a tank and everything in it likely infected and in need of being sterilized. I use a very strong bleach solution for this. It will pretty much kill everything. It will also degrade sponges. So I tend to use air stones and water changes in an H tank rather than cycled filtration.
 
Under no circumstance will I ever fill an H tank with water from a sick tank. That is a good way to move pathogens right along with the fish. New clean water is what I want. I feel the same way about moving over any media. I also will add rocks and fake plants to make the patient feel safer and which I can bleach safely when done.
 
For a quarantine tank cycled media etc. is a different story. However, bear in mind part of the point of a Q tank is to prevent disease transmission to one's other stock. If the new fish have no problems its a snap. But if the new fish need certain treatment, you may find you are going to wipe out the bio- filtration in the Q tank as it becomes an H tank.
 
There is no simple easy rule for how to do either an H or a Q tank. In my case I run so many tanks that it is a simple mater to set up a new tank and instantly cycle it than to keep a spare one cycled but with no fish. I also usually have at least one smaller tank with a minimal load in it which I can move elsewhere leaving me with a cycled tank to use for Q. Moreover, it is a good idea to plan for new fish and this should normally allow one options as to getting the Q tank going.
 
Whatever method one chooses to use for having a quarantine tank, it is always far better than not doing quarantine at all.

 

[dgwebster]

You've pointed out a couple of errors: with sick fish I do use fresh water, when quarantine for new fish I will add existing tank water as part of the quarantine & acclimatising. The use of filtration is as well there to be beneficial for Q mostly. And yes, any method is better than none