Quarantine tank

[Squirrelbuddies]

So, I am very excited about this weekend because I am setting up another tank!! I rescued a 29 gallon tank (complete with stand, hood and light) from a friend's basement.

I was thinking I could transfer the fish from the 20G to the 29 and then move the 20G upstairs to use as a quarantine tank. But it will look so lonely with no fish in it....

Those of you with quarantine tanks - do you keep them running without fish or do you keep fish in the quarantine tank and move them into another when you need to use it?

It seems like a waste of beautiful tank space to have it all setup with nothing in it!

 

[Raechal]

Set up the 20 gallon and 29 gallon with fish and buy a cheap 10 gallon and use that as a quarantine tank.

 

[pica_nuttalli]

i must compliment your assortment of fish!

if you're just going to run a quarantine tank, i'd plant it heavily and fill it with ghost shrimp to keep it cycled. i just put a few ghosties into my 60 and one of my little kribs went to town when he corned a shrimp! i bet yours would like a few to munch on as well. you probably should also put in a few hardy fish to further keep it running, maybe 3 black skirt tetras or some more congos? something that could handle being moved to a different tank whenever there's a new kid in town.

of course, one najor benefit of having a heavily planted tank full of just ghost shrimp is it's pretty low maintenance...

if you want to use it as a hospital tank as well, then you'd be better off not setting it up at all. most meds will kill plants and very few won't fiddle with the bacteria in your filter system. i'd keep a sponge filter and/or a couple of airstones running in the big tank that you could remove to the hospital in the event of an emergency.

 

[Squirrelbuddies]

Thanks for the replies!

I like the idea of heavily planting the 20 gallon along with the black skirt tetras -- maybe 5 of them!

I already have an empty 10 gallon so I can use that for the hospital tank as needed.

How long do you normally quarantine newly purchased fish? One week? two weeks?

 

[Tolak]

I have a 20 long that stays cycled with 6 zebra danios. It gets used as a quar/hospital tank.

I keep extra sponge & hob filters running on my tanks, along with a couple of empty 10s & 20s. If needed, just fill a tank, switch a filter, & it's good to go.

I quar fish for 4 weeks, no matter who they come from. A couple of breeders in the club I'm in got upset that I quared their fish, but they won't be the ones dealing with some sort of disease outbreak.

Tolak