Quarantine Tanks

[Creature Seeker]

Hello,

I recently bought a small tank for quarantining and hospitalising my fish.

My question is that how do you keep the valuable bacteria alive within your quarantine tank? Can you leave a few small fish in the tank to produce ammonia for the bacteria? Do you start cycling it a few weeks prior to buying your fish? Does it need cycling? Does it need a light?

Thanks,

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[scubadoo]

I keep a spare filter running in my main tank and just switch it over when needed.

Alternatively you can put the sponges ( i assume that a small HOB type will have them) in your main filter and just add those to the filter when needed.

Both of those are for if you dont want the tank runnng permanently.

you could of course do as you suggest and just keep a few fish in it permanently if you have the room.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

you've a few options, either keep it cycled by fishless cycling, add ammonia each day to keep it going, then when you've quarantine some fish and put them in the tank you can steriles the filter equipment and start again. This means the system is always 'clean' but requires some effort.

I wouldn't advise keeping some fish in there, as you'd have to move them when you want to use the tank so would always need to leave room for them, and lots of moving can be very stressful.

You can keep a small filter running in your main tanks, this will be cycled then when you want to use the quarantine tank you just transfer it over and fill it with water and away you go. however if you have a disease or problem with your main tank you could transfer it to the quarantine tank that being said you shouldn't be adding fish if you have a problem so in theory shouldn't be an issue.

For us, we have several tanks so have at least 3 internals we could 'borrow' for hospital/quaratine so there's a fair chance there will be one in a disease free tank for us to use if need be.

 

[Creature Seeker]

That's a great idea. I'll just keep the small filter in the the large tank and use when ready.

Thanks!

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[dwarfgourami]

Two excellent ways described in previous posts. The way you do NOT want to go down is mine:

purchase two tanks so that one can act as hospital/quarantine tank

then fill them both up with fish

so that you are obliged to

purchase another tank next time a fish falls ill

then use this tank to ease your stocking problems

so that you are obliged to

purchase another tank to act as a hospital quarantine tank

then fill this up with fry.....

 

[blackbat]

haahaa multiple tank syndrom

so would the bactiria in a mature filter die if there were no fish in the tank then?

 

[Tommy Gunnz]

I would NOT transfer a filter from a tank used as a hospital tank into a main display tank because you could also be taking bad bacteria or introducing Ich into the other tank. These bad bacteria and parasites can live within filter media and so you might as well not quarenteen any of your fish. Keep in mind that your tank does not automatically have Ich in it, it must be introduced into a tank from another source. This is one of the principles behind using a quarenteen tank in the first place; to notice and identify any potential problems before adding a fish into a main tank.

You can keep a hospital tank up and running easily by cycling it first (for this, you can borrow your main tank's filter in order to 'clone' the tank as well as using some substrate from the other tank in the new tank. Bacteria will be in the substrate as well). For times that your hospital/Q-tank will be empty for extended periods, I suggest simply 'feeding' the tank (adding some flake food, maybe every other day) in order to feed the bacteria or by keeping some ghost shrimp in it. These shrimp are very cheap (usually used as feeders) and do not live very long so they are not going to be a big committment for you as far as keeping them healthy and what not. They will eat dang near anything so you can just feed them like you would if there were fish in there. They also add very little messy wastes and so you could most likely get away with changing the water on this tank every other week rather than every week. You can also use the water that you take out of the main tank when doing a water change to add into the hospital/Q-tank. This will suppliment some nitrites and a few nitrates to the tank. Keep in mind though that the good bacteria does not live in the open water in any quantity big enough to cycle or keep a tank cycled.

I HIGHLY suggest not transferring filter media from one tank to another though. I understand the principle behind it and it does make sense, but like i said, when you put the borrowed filter back to its origonal tank, you could be adding more than you think. I have only heard of this method being used when wanting to cycle a new tank or even in preparation of a planned tank purchase in the future (some people will buy the filtration system first and hook it up to an existing tank in order to 'seed' it)