Setting up Hospital tank

[jameson_uk]

I finally got round to purchasing a small hospital tank (clearseal 18x10x10) a small breeder sponge filter and a heater.

I don't want to have the sponge in my main tank and don't currently have space in the canister to keep it in there.

Just wondering whether my plan to setup the tank and then throw some bio media from the canister in a bag would actually work? I have some small media bags (12cm x 8cm).

Would this be enough to deal with the bioload of a single sick fish?

 

[Zeus.]

I would of thought so as your using mature bio media. No plants or gravel so less bio load again, plus any detritus is easily spotted and removed.
Sounds like a good plan.
Little inert hard scape for fish to hide in would also help keep fish stress levels lower too eg broken plant pot etc

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[dw1305]

Hi all,

No plants or gravel so less bio load again,

That is the wrong way around, plants decrease the BOD, rather than increasing it. An established substrate would lower BOD, new sand doesn't have any effect either way.

Little inert hard scape for fish to hide in would also help keep fish stress levels lower too eg broken plant pot etc

That is a good idea.

I would have some floating plants as well. Substrate is less important, but I don't like bare bottomed tanks, so I'd suggest a thin layer of sand.

cheers Darrel

 

[Zeus.]

plants decrease the BOD, rather than increasing it. An established substrate would lower BOD,

was thinking of a non established tank plus heathly plants., but I stand corrected , ( plus meant AS not gravel ) also depends on any other water treatments which the fish may need which may be toxic to the plants I suppose

 

[jameson_uk]

I have some plastic plants for cover but am planning on going bare bottom when I do need to setup it up.

The rainbows I bought it for didn't survive long enough for me to set it up so I might put it into use as a quarantine tank.

After draining it down, what would I need to do to get it up and running again? Presumably it will need a clean but what with? Is it worth running with some carbon in for a day or so before use to remove any left over traces of meds etc?

 

[Zeus.]

Milton's solution is a very mild bleach suitable for cleaning the tank/hard scape material too. That's what I would use then good rinse out then leave to dry out.

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[jameson_uk]

Just wondering whether I could get away with using media not from the filter. I have a cycled shrimp tank that has had a small bag of Coco pops media sat at the back of the tank for some time. Would this be enough to kick start a hospital tank or would I really need media from in the filter which has more flow over it?