Hospital/quarantine tank

[gm72]

I want to set up a quarantine tank to avoid introducing sick fish into my established aquariums. How do you have yours setup? Gravel/no gravel? Decorations at all? How do you keep it cycled? Lots of questions, I know, and your suggestions are appreciated, thank you!

[cocoa_pleco]

10g for most species
heater
no gravel
sponge filter or HOB
few plants/ caves for security

[gm72]

Do you keep it cycled or no?

[cocoa_pleco]

yep, i use a sponge filter and let it run 24/7/365/ Of course, if a fish is sick, i scrub the tank

[gm72]

Possibly a dumb question though--how do you keep it cycled? Just keep a few fish in there and remove them when it comes time to quarantine?

[Lady Hobbs]

I keep my 10 gallon set up with gravel, plants, the works....heater, filter, etc. To keep the bacteria going without die off, I just keep 5 neons in mine.

However, if you wish, you can just keep the filter running without fish. The bacteria will die off but if you end up adding only one or two ill fish, they will get it started again without a huge ammonia spike. Adding many fish will cause problems, tho.

If you add fish to this tank that have fungus, the medication will kill off the bacteria you have in it, anyway.

[xoolooxunny]

you can keep the tank up and running, and then seed the filter with some bacteria the day you get your fish, from your other tank's filter.

[RobbieG]

I keep mine setup also - filter - heater - decorations and some small fish. Right now it's full of small platies. When they get bigger I'll move them into one of my full sized tanks and get a couple of tetras for the ER tank. (Provided I don't need it before then!)

[cocoa_pleco]

to keep bacteria, whenever i do a water change on another tank i add some of the waste that gets in the bucket when i dont use a python to the quarantine