Hospital/Quarantine Tank 101

Discussion in 'Diseases' started by PackLeader, Mar 27, 2012.

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  1. PackLeader

    PackLeader Giant Squid

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    Hey all, after being gone and out of the hobby for awhile, and coming back, I see a lot of posts from newer members about treating diseases and setting up hospital and quarintine tanks. After recently suffering a bout of what I am calling "fish aids" (nearly lost whole tank, no obvious signs of disease, good water quality) I set up my tusty HT/QT system and thought I would share. It's currently housing a maroon clown that got beat to hell after a failed pairing.
    First, what is a hospital or quarintine tank, and is there a difference? Well, there can be depending on what you want. A quarantine tank is normally considered exclusive to new fish purchased, to house and observe for disease and eating habits, before adding to your main system. A hospital tank is used for treating fish, whether new or established, with medications that may normally harm or even kill other tank inhabitants, such as coral, shrimp, or even the bacterial load of an established tank. I use mine for both, with newcomers being treated for disease, whether they show signs or not.
    My system is simple, and may or may not work for you depending on your needs. Mine is a simple ten gallon, but a good rule is that yours should be large enough to house your largest fish for one month. A hospital tank requires a good deal of maintenance while treating, so keep in mind how much you want to be working with as well. Of course, larger is always better.
    Nest is equipment, and again it can be pretty simple. First and foremost, a heater that can maintain a good temp. A lot of experts point out a higher temp can help with ich treatment, so keep that in mind. Second is something for a little flow. On mine, I use just a piggy back filter, which helps also with large pieces of detritus and uneaten food, but a powerhead is fine also, or of course both. Keep in mind if your using a filter, avoid using carbon in a hospital tank, as it will absorb medications making it more difficult to keep them at appropriate levels. I also run an airstone in mine, giving a little extra movement and extra oxygen to a sick fish.
    I run mine bare bottomed, but substrate can be used. Technically, mine is not cycles, but if your going for quarintine only, you may cycle the tank. Some may cycle a hospital tank, but keep in mind, many medications and treatments may destroy the bacterial load, making cycling pointless.
    The next and last thing on the list is a place where the fish can hide and feel safe. I just use a few pieces of PVC and a fake aquarium plant, but your imagination and wallet are the limit here. But at minimum you want a few holes that your largest fish can hide and feel safe in.
    What about lights? You really do not need any. The dimmer lighting will help calm the fish, and the ambient room lighting is enough to tell them when its day or night. I do not run lights on mine, but make sure the room is at least bright enough to easily see the fish for visual inspection.
    And what about water parameters? You should be checking these very often, specially if your not going cycled. Also, you need test kits for the appropriate medications you are using, like copper. And you need to make sure you have the appropriate type of copper test kit. Commonly, copper medications come in two forms, chelated and ionized, and you need the correct test kit for each. If uncycled, count on frequent water changes. I need to do mine about every three days.
    It can seem very daunting at first to have one of these systems running, but it really doesnt have to be. I threw mine together for about $50 total, and it has served me well for many years. And the new hobbyist needs to realize this is money well spent. Just one infected fish can bring down a system, and for less then the cost of one flame angel or tang, you can gaurd against it. Do a simple inventory of all your fish, and you'll quickly realize how much losing them will cost you.

    [​IMG]
     
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  3. ZC42

    ZC42 Corkscrew Tentacle Anemone

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    Great write up, thanks! So I don't need to cycle if I'm qting a fish?
     
  4. PackLeader

    PackLeader Giant Squid

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    It's really up to you, how much work you want to deal with, and how you are using it. If its just a QT and you won't be treating fish in it, I would cycle. But if you're also going to be treating fish, you need to keep in mind that the antibiotics and sometimes even copper can destroy the bacterial load.
    If you choose not to cycle, its fine, but you'll need to be doing very frequent water changes. I also sometimes use the denitrifiers and liquid bacterial addeditves which do seem to help.
     
  5. PackLeader

    PackLeader Giant Squid

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    Just as an update, petco has a 10 gallon kit with hood, light, thermometer, heater, and filter on sale for $38 bucks. Awesome deal for a start on a QT/HT if people don't yet have one.
     
  6. cookesfish

    cookesfish Astrea Snail

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    Some QT tank questions.

    Here's the background. We rescued a tank and three fish from craigslist. It was badly overgrown with algae and we think the owners were just waiting for the fish to die. (They didn't even know there was still a goby in it!!!!) Anywho, when we first got them, we filled the QT tank with about 3 gallons of their old water and 5 gallons new clean water. Didn't want to shock them too much.

    1) was that a bad idea to use some of their old water?
    2) bad to have some live rock? we put two pieces of the live rock from their old tank into the QT tank so they'd have places to hide.
    3) we are adding water for the water changes from the main, established display tank -- is that bad? Should we just be using newly mixed water? the thinking was it'd be good to get some beneficial bacteria's going.

    Thanks!
     
  7. Vinnyboombatz

    Vinnyboombatz Giant Squid

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    Bacteria lives on surfaces not in the water column.(for the most part)
    Normally you would only want to use some old water to keep the parameters from swinging too wildly for the inhabitants (fish/inverts).
    Adding the LR to the qt is fine. From now on I would use fresh SW to do small WC'S to the qt.
    I would take all the LR out of the DT. You can put it in buckets of SW or if you have room in the qt. I would then remove the old substrate clean the tank add new substrate and then fill with fresh SW. You will then want to add some of your LR before placing fish back in. Also keep in mind if you are storing LR with no animals you must feed the bacteria colonies or they will die. A small pinch of fish food every couple of days should be enough to sustain the colonies.Good luck!!
     
    Last edited: Jun 4, 2012
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  9. epsilon

    epsilon Feather Star

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    question moved to a new thread...
     
    Last edited: Jun 5, 2012
  10. epsilon

    epsilon Feather Star

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