Quarantine Tank?

[socal surfer]

I have some old fish tank stuff i was thinking of making a quarantine tank. I have a few questions about the tank though first is a ten gallon tank big enough to house the fish that will be in it temporarily? I have a heater an eclipse hood with mechanical and bio filtration and a powerhead and lights is this goood nough filtration? Should i use the lights, i dont want to because i dont want to have to worry about doing water changes and scrubbing algae as much. How should i keep the tank cyclced so instead of having to recycle it everytime a i put a new fish in there? I dont want to risk the fish i bought dying because of an ammonia spike. Should i keep a fish in the tank at all times. Do any of u use quarantine tanks?

TIA!

[beach bum]

It seems that very few people actually use them, and on this board in particular, it is rare. Most people either wait till the fish has been in the store awhile or trust their "source". Certain reef fish don't fare well in a q-tank type setup.

A hospital tank OTOH is indispensible IMO, I buy aggressive fish (cuz' I'm such a tough guy ) and sometimes personalities don't mix well or a fish gets stressed or something and I need to have an alternate residence ready if that happens, hopefully I'll find a good 'balance' soon. Also for outbreaks of disease on a fish where treating the main tank is impossible a hospital tank will be handy (if the fish are catchable).

I use the emperor series of powerfilters on two tanks (and an eclipse hood on my 10g) - so if I need a true hospital tank I'll remove the bio-wheel from the main tank to the q-tank and fill it with water from one of the main tanks - voila, instant setup. Others keep sponge filters in their sump/sandbed then switch them into the q-tank when they need to use it.

Hope I made sense

[socal surfer]

Thanks that helped a lot. I think ill try the bio wheel technique, or mayb just leave some fish in there all the time like a damsel, theyre agressive but it might work. i think ill go through with setting it up, just in case. When my tank crashed a couple months ago i lost all mmy fish due to ich and the secodary infections, and only one clown lived. I guess thats why i need a hospital tank.

[socal surfer]

Oh just realzed that maybe i could tank the bioballs in my overflow out and put them in my filter, do u think that would be enough filtration?

[OodleyBoodely]

I think adding the cultured bioballs to the Q-tank would work well, but, you would probably need to sterilize them with bleach after use before placing back in the main tank system to avoid introducing parasites or pathogens to the display tank. Also, don't reuse them if you use any copper based medications. They would become re-cultured again pretty fast in the main tank.

One thing that is important when quarantining fish is to do frequent water changes and test for ammonia and nitrite 2-3 times a week, or, until you know that the bio filtration can handle the fish load. Remember, some medications, especially antibiotics, will affect the bio filtration. That is why it is so important to test often and be prepared to do lots of water changes as needed.

When I know I will be purchasing more fish, I set my q-tank up and establish the biofiltration ahead of time. I keep the bacteria numbers up by feeding the tank every couple days with a pinch of flake food just like I was feeding fish. The ammonia produced by the decaying food feeds the filters. All water changes use aged water from the display tank. HTH

[socal surfer]

Thanks again, Maybe ill try ur way instead sounds easier than replacing bioblalls all the time, ill prolly just leave my q/hospital tank up all the time just in case...Im thinking of settin it up tommorow yay.