# Quaratine / Hospital Tank



## B&amp;K (Dec 11, 2008)

I finally set up a quarantine / hospital tank and am wondering what the common practice is to keep it cycled when not in use (for the intended purpose). In other words, how many fishes should I keep in a ten gallon so that it is ready to go when needed?


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## Aulonocara_Freak (May 19, 2011)

I would put 4 otocinclus catfish in there. They stay around 2" and are awesome algae eater's.


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## B&amp;K (Dec 11, 2008)

Oops! I meant to post this in the General Aquaria Discussion section, sorry. That said, thanks for the advice A.F.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

You can also keep just the small _filter_ for your hospital/quarantine tank cycled as opposed to the whole tank. Or even just the filter _media. _ This way you can store the tank dry and just set it up with a mature crop of beneficial bacteria only when needed.

Run the filter on an established tank 24/7. Or just store a filter cartridge or sponge for the hospital/quarantine tank in an established tank.


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## B&amp;K (Dec 11, 2008)

I actually was storing media in an established tank before. The problem I had with that was quickly establishing an appropriate and stable water temperature if I needed a hospital. It always seems to take me a good day to get that right. How do you do that quickly in an emergency?


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## irondan (Nov 22, 2007)

i keep extra hob filters on all of my tanks and have several 10 and 20 gallon tanks empty and clean. i can set up a qt tank in 10 minutes using water from a healthy tank, one of the extra hob's and a 25 watt heater. never had a problem doing it this way and they come in real handy for fry.


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## B&amp;K (Dec 11, 2008)

Interesting, I never thought to use water from an existing tank. That would solve the temp problem. Good idea.


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## Aulonocara_Freak (May 19, 2011)

B&K said:


> Interesting, I never thought to use water from an existing tank. That would solve the temp problem. Good idea.


Well then that defeat's the whole purpose, you have a sickness in your tank it's also in the water, so the transfer of water from the main tank to the Qt would still contain the bacteria.


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## irondan (Nov 22, 2007)

Aulonocara_Freak said:


> B&K said:
> 
> 
> > Interesting, I never thought to use water from an existing tank. That would solve the temp problem. Good idea.
> ...


thats why i said healthy tank. i have 4 tanks so i would use water from an unnaffected tank. as long as you have healthy media, new water is good, as long as you can match the approx temp


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## Aulonocara_Freak (May 19, 2011)

irondan said:


> Aulonocara_Freak said:
> 
> 
> > B&K said:
> ...


Oh ok! :thumb:


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## irondan (Nov 22, 2007)




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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

I just mix the temp from the tap and add 100% new each time.


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## BelieveInBlue (Jul 17, 2011)

I used to use a thermometer  but after a while you can pretty much tell by feel what is around 78F and what's off. Bacteria are stronger than you think, and a few degrees off won't harm them.


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