setting up hospital tank

[andy5268]

never done this before, some of my fish are rather large so i think i need to use something over 10 gallons and i have a spare fluval 204 which will be enough (or too much? is it possible to have too much filtration?)

My biggest questions is what to do with this tank when it's not in use, should i just run it anyway or only run it when i have sick fish? if i run it all the time how will the bactria stay established?

 

[TheGuppy]

The hospital tanks at the Aquarium store I work are run all the time. they're usually just an all-glass tank with no gravel, and a sponge filter. Having too much filtration depends on the type of fish you're going to be hospitalizing. Obviously if it's something like an oscar or catfish, you can never have too much filtration. However, if all you're putting in is small fish (such as my beloved guppie) you should only need a small sponge filter. The sponge filter is also good because it creates and retains massive amounts of bacteria in your aquarium.

-the guppy

 

[andy5268]

it's going to be for cichlids and i don't think i would use it all that often, my tank is large so i could certainly fill it with water from there but i'm not sure what to do with the filter, if i just start it every time i use it then it needs to cycle adding a challenge for the sick fish to get better.

 

[cloud]

I asked the question about keeping hospital tanks up and running on another thread and got a good response from Orion Girl.
She said that she doesn't keep hers running all the time, but instead prefers to just keep extra filter media in her systems, then pull it out for running a quarantine setup. The media is then replaced in the main tank, and either discarded or cleaned before re-use after the quarantine tank comes down.

 

[falcon]

Either 20g or 30g will be fine. I have 30g, bb, a/c 300 filter with sponge on the intake. BB is the way to go. Sometimes it's good to put one piece of wood for cover as some fish feel threatened without any decorations. I got 30g as I was planning to use this tank for breeding as well.

When you get that extra tank, try to find a multipurpose for it. When you're done with q-tine, you can just put it into storage but when the need arises, you better be ready to transfer some of the filter media from your established tank/s to the q-tine tank. Again, you can use it for breeding if an opportunity presents itself.

falcon