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How do you guys set up and maintain your tanks used for quarintine? Do you have it fully cycled and keep it running with no fish, or do you just have an extra empty tank and start it up anew when you need it for a fish?

Do you keep substrate and filtration etc running in it all the time?

Please let me know about your set up.

Thanks!

My quarantine is a ten gallon tank, because if the fish need medication, almost all of them go by ten gallon increments and it's cheapest to medicate a ten gallon.

When I don't have fish under quarantine in there ( which rarely happens), I keep it cycled with pure ammonia. I keep no substrate nor live plants...sometimes you'll need to medicate new fish, and depending on the source of the new fish, run antibiotics and anti-parasite meds right off the bat and treat them as if they were diseased, SOoooo anyway, these medications are sometimes good at killing plants so what's the point of having any in there. Its the only tank I have silk plants in because I want the fish to be comfortable and have hiding places, but don't want plants dying in there compounding problems.

Filters like box filters and sponge filters are the best for quarantine tanks, simply because they don't cause a lot of current. If you're putting a sick fish in there that is having problems, especially swimming problems, the last thing you need is a powerful filter sucking weakened fish to the intake or sloshing them around the tank. The water should be as calm as possible yet still maintaining proper filtration.

Lighting - medium lighting. Ya don't want the fish in the dark but you don't want super high lighting stressing them out further. Whatever lighting came with the tank, if any, would be ok. If incandescent, no wacky colors...I'd suggest the "plant gro" incandescents that look blue but don't give off blue light.

I painted three sides of my Quarantine tank to keep them calmer. Don't ask me why this helps, but I've noticed that it does. On my large tank I painted the back and sides "Hunter Green" with krylon paint ( so it can be peeled off if I change my mind) and have NEVER had any fish in there show any signs of stress. If you have ever had a fish that just swims up and down, up and down, up and down a tank wall, you will find that this will stop it for whatever reason /shrug. This is optional, of course, but I've found that it helps.

If you won't be using a Quarantine tank much, you can always just run an additional filter of some sort on an established tank , and when you have need for the quarantine tank you can fill it up, dechlorinate the water and what not ( matching the temperature as well), and move the filter over to the quarantine tank right before you add the fish to be quarantined. This is good for people that only have a few fish and don't buy them very often at all. If you only have a dozen or so fish and won't be buying another fish within the next 3 months, for example, this would be a good option.

Whilst I've had mine I've kept it empty, and when I need to use it i use a mixture of established tank water, and fresh water, filter media from my main tanks filter, and a splash of cycle.

However - with my latest schwarzi cories I'm having a bit of trouble with ammonia and nitrate in there, So I may keep it cycled with 3 of the danios from my main tank.

Keep a ten gallon handy, and run a small HOB filter on your main tank. When you need it, fill with water from main tank, and put the heaters/lighting and the filter running on your main tank on it. The media on the filter will be colonised and be able to handle the ammonia put out by your sick fish. The benefit of taking water from your main tank is that if you need to QT a fish from that tank, it will have exactly the same water parameters, thus reducing stress.

Fix the fish, and then sterilize everything, including the filter and add new media, then place it back on the main tank to gather bacteria. Hopefully you won't have to do it often, but that's how i do it.

I think we're confusing quarantine tanks with hospital tanks? They wanted to know about quarantine tanks - tanks set up for the purpose of receiving new fish...keeping them in quarantine until they are deemed healthy enough to place into the main tanks. Hospital tank- to treat fish that you already own in a solitary tank so they don't get picked on and can recuperate.

I always thought they were different things.. am I mistaken? I run both a quarantine tank and a hospital tank, as I don't want to place new fish that "may have" something into a tank with a fish that I KNOW has something. Maybe I'm crazy, someone enlighten me please...like I said, I thought they were seperate things.

I would be using it both as a Quarintine & Hospital tank, for one fish at a time, depending on it's given need at the time.

Thanks guys!

"Quarantine tank" is the subject...

Easy. When required just fill with same temp water and pH, start the filter and heater and dose the "New Improved Cycle".

"That's all folks".

--garyroland.