Jhn

When you set-up a quarintine tank do You need to cycle it and if so how do you keep the bacteria alive?

SereneReyn

keep feeding it... with drops of ammonia, or fish food, etc.

COBettaCouple

One idea for a quarantine tank is to have either an extra filter running in an established tank or extra filter media in the filter of an established tank. Then you can setup a q tank when you need it and bring over the filter and/or media for it plus a pantyhose sock full of substrate from the established tank.

This way you can run the q. tank just when you need to and cycle it more quickly when it's setup. Use Prime for the water conditioner.

Mike

COBC lists great ideas for you and while the fish are in qt you'll usually want to be doing frequent partial water changes to get them in shape, eating, looking for signs of disease before you transfer into the main tank. With the frequent (daily) partial water changes you don't need to worry as much about ammonia and nitrite buildup in qt, but a secondary filter already set up in an established tank would be a good safe guard.

Jhn

Could I keep fish in the qt when its not in medical use, to keep it cycled?

COBettaCouple

You could, but then you'd be moving them back & forth between tanks whenever you start/stop using the q.tank for new fish. The easiest way really is to move a filter back & forth. No stress to your fish that way and you'll cycle the q.tank pretty quick with a filter that's stuffed full of good bacteria. Since you use the q.tank for a relatively short time, a great filter for the job would be a sponge filter. LOTS of surface area in a big sponge for good bacteria.