Help please with a hospital tank for my clown

[Triatik]

One of my two false clowns looks like its skin is turning white. Not specific spots but not like his mate, which looks fine. Yesterday I went out and bought a 10g kit with a filter, heater, hood and light. I filled it with filtered water and want to know exactly how to proceed.

Do I need to mix some tank water to get the biological mix started in the Hospital tank?

What is the best medicine to use?

Do I keep my SG and Temp. the same as the main tank?

Thanks for helping me save my fish!!

Homer

[Minnreefer]

I don't know all the answers, butI am pretty sure that you want the water the same as the main tank as well as the temp and everything. You can add tank water to the hospital tank but not the other way around. You might want to add some type of place for the fish to hide, a lot of people use pvc pipe, you don't want to use any sand or rock because medicine may stay on that stuff.

Hope that helps
Jonathan

[tdwyatt]

No substrate, unless you have some type of fish that hides in the sand (i.e., Halichoeres or Thalissoma wrasses); cut pieces of PVC pipe long enought and of large enough diameter for the fish to adequately hide in, usually with a few holes drilled in it as well; NO LIVEROCK; Normal Output lighting, if any, and a grate cover (i.e., eggcrate from fluorescent fixtures) to prevent jumping by stressed fishes; good heaters, usually two or more of sufficient wattage to meet 4 watts/US gallon; a maxijet with the sponge filter on it, and a replacement filter as well, and the other things you'll need to monitor the tank, i.e., thermometer, etc. The powerhead setup is for the biological filtration as well as particulate filtration, with the idea of keeping the powerhead and sponge filter and the back-ups for it in the sump of the main system until you actually need it. Keep one of the two sponges in your regular system at all times. The use of antibiotics in the hospital tank will usually kill the mineralizing bacteria in it, so in order to maintain the deammoniaification (heh, I made that word up!) activity of these little biofilters, it will be necessary to thoroughly clean, rinse and change these filters every 48 hours (by that time, most, if not all of the bacteria in them will be dead. If you use copper in the quarantine tank, I would suggest discarding them after each use and keeping a supply of the filters stocked in your sump. Plan on doing a 10% water change every 4 or 5 days, and test for ammonia every 3 days. The presence of ammonia indicates the need for an immediate 10% change, and it wouldn't hurt to do a change every day UNTIL THE AMMONIA IS EITHER TRACE OR UNDETECTABLE. Keep in mind that lower pH corresponds to higher ammonia toxicity, and the addition of buffer to the q tank will help minimize toxitity due to the inevitable presence of ammonia in such a system. Keep feeding light, and siphon out any left over food after 10 minutes. I would keep a seperate hydrometer and net for this system to minimize the possible reintroduction of pathogens/parasites/copper back into the main systems. Although I do keep an empty 30 gal tank just for this purpose, it is just as easy to keep a large rubbermaid container in the closet as well. It doesn't have to be fancy, just hold water and be non-toxic... Probably good for it to be empty in between uses, as this prevents providing a refuge for pathogens.

Hope this helps, there are probably fancier systems and methodologies out there, but this has proved over time to be about the best way to do it.

[Brooke]

I know that www.petwhse.com has a little ammonia detector that sticks to the side of the tank. I believe it is made by seachem. It would be worth the 6 or 7 bucks to be able to glance at the tank and see when a water change is necessary. They also have cheap sponge filters. I think that keeping one or two of these in the sump is a great idea!

Brooke

[Triatik]

Thanks all for your help. I want to do my best to keep these guys healthy.

Homer

[tdwyatt]

[quote] . Keep in mind that lower pH corresponds to higher ammonia toxicity, and the addition of buffer to the q tank will help minimize toxitity due to the inevitable presence of ammonia in such a system.

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I have to beg everyone's forgiveness on the above typo, I really don't know what I was thinking. The above statement should have read [quote] Keep in mind that higher pH corresponds to higher ammonia toxicity, and addition of buffer to the q tank will help minimize toxicity due to the inevitable presence of ammonia in such a system.

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I am so sorry for this, the use of buffer prevents swings in pH either high or low, and I have unfortunately fallen victim to the "lower acidity, high or low pH???" phenomenon...

...too many late nights, accuracy of the information is much more important than petting my own personal ego...

[Doug1]

Good catch Tom, I couldn't believe my eyes when I read that
Falling pH makes ammonia less toxic which is what allows fish to survive being shipped in a small bag and the reason most LFS use the float and scoop method of acclimating new arrived fish

[JennM]

Before I went to all that trouble I'd try a FW dip and monitor the fish's condition for 24-48 hours.

Jenn