Quarinted tank and hospital tank >> Are they the same?

[lokobreed]

Hey

I ams etitn gup a 55 gallon tank and I have a hospital tank up and running but now I hear about people having a quarinte tank, that they put the fish in when they buy them form a store before putting them in the real tank...

Why is that?

What should you put in a quarinte tank?

Is it a good idea to have one?

Is it the same as the hospital one?

Anby info would be much appreciated

[ninoboy]

Q-tank is used to check whether your new fish has any disease. Some of diseases don't show up right away and will be disastreous if you have those fish in your established tank. It's somewhat the same with hospital tank of which you need to keep it running to maintain its balance so fish can be transferred there any time. However you want to make sure that you clean up the medication from the hospital tank. I usually do a lot of water changes and carbon filter.

I use a same tank for both purpose. But this is because I haven't gotten any sick fish for the last 5 years. My hospital aka q-tank is just an empty established tank.

[lokobreed]

Thanks for the info, anyone else have any opinons?

Also what size should the hospital tank and/or quartine be? Is 10 gallons enough or should it be like 20 ?

I have both

Thanks

[ninoboy]

That depends on what size of fish you have in your tank or planning to have. Mine is a 29gl because I have discus also. Placing them in a 10gl for quarantine purpose could kill them instead.