coffeebean

when i need a hospital tank i usually do a fast and dirty set up and tear it down after. i have a 3 and a 5 gallon tank for this purpose. anyways, after a terrible week, loosing two of my favourite fish, im considering leaving it up and running...or not. im unsure. anyways, questions...


the tank was treated with antibiotics for bacterial infection. the fish died anyways. i have a sponge filter in there as well as two seeded sponges from the established tanks that i threw in there when i set it up. are the sponges now going to be carrying the bacteria?
can i put those sponges back in the tanks i got them from or am i going to carry over something?

if i keep the tank up and running, how do i keep the cycle established and going if there is no fish in it? shoudl i throw a snail in there or something? is that enough to keep it going?

Tony G.

You could keep the tank running by adding flake food. Or you coud add a snail.
I am curious to see what others say about the spoinges, i am going through the same thing

ray_sj

The antibiotics should have killed off the bad bacteria, but there's always the chance of a resistant strain. I never put sponges from my QT back into my main tanks without sterilizing them with very hot water and/or salt, and letting them dry first. Sometimes I just throw them away. It's not worth saving the few dollars for a replacement sponge vs the chance of infecting my main tanks with something.

If I need to keep a QT running without fish, I usually put a few drops of ammonia in every other day or so to keep the bacteria fed.

aquarist48

Coffeebean. I would be very reluctant to use the quarantine sponges in my main tanks after they've been introduced to disease. I recommend always having extra sponges or bio matter just for the purpose of having to set up a quarantine tank. You can never have too much bio media!
I would sterilize them. I don't know that I would add any fish to the quarantine tank either in order to keep the cycle going. It's risky in my opinion.
Sorry to hear about your fish loss
Ken

Shawnie

I would keep the sponge filters running on your established tanks at ALL times....when you need them in a qt situation, they are always ready to go..once you use them on a QT tank , with or without medication / sick fish, I would always put it back onto the established tank with totally new media and a good cleaning....as others have said, putting extra media in your tanks has some always available for such situations ...