Spare Tank/ Hospital Tank

[poohbear1]

Hi,
I got a small tank (17 litres) to use as a hospital tank or a spare tank to seperate my male krib from the female when hes being horrible to her.
The tank came with a filter and I had a heater already here. I used some filter media from tanl already set up to start it off and am testing daily.
My question is do I need a light if the tanks only going to be used occasionally and if so can led lights be used?

 

[OldMan47]

Lights are needed if there are live plants in the tank. If there are no live plants then you don't need a light. To keep the filter cycled quite easily, hang it on one of the other tanks and let it run. When you need the isolation tank, just move the filter over.

 

[ALEXF]

I agree with oldman. the media that you transfered over, might eventually not do any good. If you dont have something keeping the bacteria alive, hince bacteria food ammonia. they stay cycled with fish in them and the media of with ammonia dosing and the media. I personally keep the filter for my q.tank in my other filters on my main tank so if i ever need it it is there.

 

[Scotty001]

one other option with the filter media, i have a fluval 3+ for my hospital / QT tank and a tetratec ex700 for my main tank, when the qt / hospital tank isnt in use i take the media out of the fluval and place it in the main tank filter, when the QT is needed i take the Fluval media out of the main and back into the fluval, this way the media is fully loaded with the good stuff. and if only used for QT and had no illness / desease and the QT is no longer needed, just put the media back into th main filter till it is needed again.

If i did have probs i then ditch that media get the spare pads out and put them in the main tank filter.

if using to QT new fish i also fill my QT with water from my main so the water and media the fish is QT'd in and is aclimatising to the same water it will ultimatley go into. and the main tank gets its water change at the same time.

the main reason i do it this way is don't take up valuable space in the main tank with a 2nd filter housing running.

Scott

 

[poohbear1]

Just now it has a male krib who was bullying his partner after having second lot of babies and 2 neons. My plan is to keep the tank running with neons in it and if I ever need it I can transfer the neons into my main tank.
Oldest son is quite excited that Im thinking about letting him have it in his room. (Hes 14 and is capable of looking after it with some help)
I was replacing filter media from my main tank anyway (and know only to do one piece at a time) so I used that for the new tank. Im not putting any live plants in apart from mayby java moss but that seems to grow like wildfire so if it dies in that tank I still have it in my other one.