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I am setting up a 10 gal tank for treatment or quarantine for new fish.
My question is how do you keep the tank running if there are no permanent fish living in it. do you add ammonia each week or do you have a fish or two that you move back and forth to the main tank ???
The new tank will use gravel and old filter sack from main tank to cycle before adding any fish.

Hi,
Having a QT tank, and, a hospital tank is the ideal
situation. IMO, a QT tank should be around 25-30G.
A QT tank should be like a second "show" aquarium in
that it should have gravel, filter, heater, plants,
lights, and a functioning air stone.
Ideally, a QT tank should have a few permanent
residents, that are not aggressive to new "visitors."
Perhaps a few guppies, platties, etc. To keep
the population stable, harvest the fry and put
them in the main tank(s).
With a QT tank this size you can purchase nearly any
fish(s) in a school, or shoal, and keep them in QT for
a period of time. The plants and any hard scape can
provide hide aways for the shy fish, and still allow you
to observe them for signs of disease.
When setting up a QT tank, you might take a black felt tip
pen and put a mark at the 50% and a mark for each 10% point
up to full. That makes doing a 30% or 20% water change easy
as a breeze. Simply siphon down to the appropriate
percentage and then refill.

A Hospital tank should be bare bones. It normally is all
glass, no gravel, an air driven sponge filter and a heater.
Set a piece of black construction paper under the tank
bottom so the fish do not see their reflection off the
bottom glass. If they do, then they become even more
skittish as they think there is a fish swimming under them,
a possible predator. A good tank for a hospital tank is a
10G tank (for most fish) as the math when deciding how much
medications to add is easy as you divide by 10. Generally
one isolates a solitary fish, another reason for a 10G
tank rather than scooping a whole school or shoal out of
the main tank. If several fish are affected, its best to
treat the main tank rather than moving all the ill fish.
If you must use a HOB or even a canister, remove the
carbon. Carbon will adsorb the medications diluting them
or eliminating them in the tank.

Once the fish have been successfully treated, you can
shift them to the QT tank to be sure. Then drain and
sterilize the tank and everything in it.
I'd disassemble the filter, throw the used sponge away
and purchase a replacement.
Then set the tank aside for future needs.

Hope this helps...
Frank


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