Hospital tank bare basics?

I am curious of the bare basics of a hospital tank.
I am going to set one up so I can keep my display tank fallow for 4 weeks.
I have been battling ich(isn't everyone) my ich magnet(aka regal tang) got ich awhile ago. First little sign I seen I started treating the food with kent garlic. Once it started to worsen I treated with kick-ich (which seemed to work) after awhile my tang got a secondary infection so I had to wait and then change treatments to kill that(I believe the treatment killed my shrimp but my other inverts(hermit crabs, feather duster, corals, ect) are fine so it prob wasn't the reason. Back to the tang, when I swiched meds the ich exploded into a much worse problem. It used to be only a few specks now the fish have twice as many. I am concluding that kich-ich in my experiance only controls ich not eliminates it. So anyways now that the problem is worsening I am going to set up a hospital tank before it is too late.
I wanted to know the bare basics of one and if coppersafe will be ok for my regal tang?
Does livesand, heater, and filtration sound ok for a hospital tank? or are lights nessesary?

 

Alot of the live sand, I think, will die due to the treatment. A heater and skimmer along with a powerhead or so for water movement is essential!

 

I don't think that a skimmer is really necessary on a hospital tank. The fish should not be for that long.

 

I've been using QT/hospital tanks for years. I use 10g, 20g and 30g tanks. You want it bare bottom with 1 or 2 large pieces of pvc pipe in the tank for shelter. You will want a powerhead or HOT filter like an aquaclear and an airstone to help oxygenate the water because sick fish have higher 02 requirements. You'll need the other basics like heater, top for the tank and light so you can see the condition of the fish.
I do every other day water changes. If you treat with copper you will have to account for the lost copper in the water removed. And get a copper test kit to follow levels. Many fish are killed by copper because the levels are too high or to low to kill the ich! Check the levels daily.
Just a word about ich. I battled it for a year in my FOWLR tank. Its very difficult to kill in your main tank. Copper is the only effective treatment period! It kills the parasite, other treatments dont and the ich will go dormant in its cyst stage and lay on the bottom of your tank waiting to erupt again when conditions are right. I had to copper my tank 2 times to eradicate it. After the first time it came back and I totally tore down the tank, replaced the substrate and did a FW dip on of my live rock and then placed it in a 50g bin in SW for 12 weeks and the ich still came back. I finally eradicated it with 1 last copper treatment.

There is a new chemical available called LifeGuard with halo shield made by
Jungle Labs/Instant Ocean/Marineland. Its supposed to be a 5 day treatment for ich and other parasites fungus and bacteria. I am currently trying it on my new Powder Blue Tang which developed ich while in my QT tank. So far it has rid the fish of spots with no ill effects.

I didnt mean to run on, hope this helps some.
Larry

 

One last thing about a hospital tank. Always remove any uneaten food. The key to a QT/Hospital tank is to keep the water ammonia, nitrite and nitrate free. The fish is already stressed and it doesnt need poor water quality as well as a disease to make things worse.
A last word about treating a fish infected with ich, consider FW dips for a fish that is highly infected. PM me if your unsure how to do this.

 

Should a hospital tank be ran at a really low salinity?

 

It depends on what you are trying to treat. If you are treating ICH with hyposalinity then yes, although this treatment rarely works and takes a long time because you need to slowly drop it to around 1.011. Otherwise you want your water parameters the same as your main tank.

 

I need to know how to FW dip. Please inform.
Dogface looks like he's suffering.
Thanks'
Jen

 

Jen, put some FW in a large bowl, dechlorinate if your not using RO water. adjust the temp to the same temp as your tank water (I use the microwave for this) and then adjust the pH using a SW bufffer or plain Baking soda. I also add some SW from the tank about 90-95%FW and 5-10%SW. Then aerate the water with an air stone for 20 min and add several drops of methylene blue till the water is a uniform semi deep blue, not as blue as the web page though. Then place the fish in the bowl and dip for 3-5 minutes. The fish may lay on its side and look like its dead but don't worry. Puffers usually do very well with FW dips.

If you dont have methylene blue and or an air pump dont worry. You can still do the Dip. The methylene blue helps with oxygen transport in FW and also helps to calm the fish as well as being anti fungal.. To aerate the water you can place it in a jar or pitcher and shake it up really well.

Hope this helps some, if you have further questions or concern's, PM me.
Larry

 

Great Info Raven!!
Im not sure what to do. I QT all my fish for 4 weeks and treated them all with copper. They are ich free and back in the main tank. I bought a neon goby a week ago. I gave it a FW dip like always, and it got ich. So its in the QT now. How come all the rest of my fish are fine, and the new guy got ich?? Is it because the new fish was stressed?? I would like to get a few more fish someday, but now im to worried to buy anything. The tank has only been going around 4 months. It is hard for me to use a QT. I have almost no room for it. Plus if I get the angelfish I want they will kill each other in a 10g!!! Ive never had this bad of a problem with ich!! It is like ich is getting stonger!!

Michael