Want to setup a SMALL Quarantine - Hospital Tank

[Automate]

Two questions re this Issue:

1. Tank Size
I was thinking of buying a small second hand Aquaone tank and use it for a quarantine/hospital tank. The tank I was looking at was the 20-30 litre tank with light and filter built into the top. I know this is small however have little room to keep it. On the basis of a WC every day do you think this would be practical if I wanted to medicate one medium sized discus, or maybe keep a new discus in for a week. I was hoping for some feedback on the basis it needs to be SMALL and something I can put away when not in use and a little more upmarket than a bucket...

2. What Meds
I do not know what to dose new fish for...I am sure some will give me a month worth of dosing regime, however I was hoping I could quarantine and dose for the more common conditions/parasites I maybe introducing in my tank. So on the basis of not being able to keep the fish in the small tank for long durations I was hoping I could use say a 1-2 week quarantine/Med cycle and be 90-95% confident they are "clean".

Cheers

rob

[pcsb23]

Rob,

Sorry mate there really are no shortcuts :( 30 litres is too small so 20 is way too small. A medium sized discus will make the water toxic in a day unless there is a fuly cylced filter in there. Most qt/hosp tanks don't have cycled filters, often because the meds kill the filter too. Also you can't short circuit the qt procedure either imo. I'm sure others will disagree, all I can do is give the benefit of my experience.

Most times I won't medicate at all during qt. Exceptions are wild caught and if for some reason you suspected the source wasn't good - but as I've said before why would you then buy them???

Also what happens if you have 2 fish sick? or you buy say 8 juvenile discus to grow out? a 30 litre tank won't cut it even with daily 100% changes. Of course if you could do a 100% change every 2 or 3 hours...

My advice is to get a tank around 75 litres, much more workable.