# Hospital tank



## danilykins (Dec 22, 2010)

I just bought a 1 1/2 gal tank for a hospital tank. What do I need to do to set it up? Anything I can do to help the cycle of it?

TIA


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## jbrown5217 (Nov 9, 2011)

Hospital tanks are there to be quickly set up. When I used mine I added water and a filter and did water changes everyday. Hospital tanks are extremely hard to keep cycled because fish are generally only in them for a short period of time. If it is barebottom (which I recommend because it is easy to see food that you can suck up) the only place that bb will settle is in the filter. I also recommend adding fake caves and fake (silk) plants.

So basically set it up when you need it and do water changes everyday.


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## danilykins (Dec 22, 2010)

So are you saying the hospital tank doesn't need to be cycled? Wouldn't an uncycled tank just continue to stress out a fish? I was also gonna use this tank for newbies for quarantine.


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## scooterlady (May 10, 2011)

If you do daily pwc's, the ammonia, nitrites and nitrates can never build up to dangerous levels and the fish are only in there temporarily. If you're not worried about cross contamination, you can always have a second filter in the main tank and then when you have to use the hospital tank, you can easily move the filter, which has been colonized by bacteria from running in the cycled tank.


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## navigator black (Jan 3, 2012)

A bare 1.5 gallon tank will be a stressful environment anyway - a small hospital tank like that is good for one fish at best, if it is a tiny fish. You can keep a sponge filter running in a regular tank until the first time you use it, but there isn't a heck of a lot you can treat in a 1.5.


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## danilykins (Dec 22, 2010)

Well, I have mostly guppies. If more than one is sick, then I would probably treat the whole tank to be on the safe side. I have added a little bit of gravel and a plant.


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## jbrown5217 (Nov 9, 2011)

Yea if you do daily wc/pwc nothing will build up enough to harm fish. It is extremely hard to cycle a 1.5 gallon tank anyway, so I would just remove the gravel and use it as a barebottom quarantine tank.


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## snail (Aug 6, 2010)

I agree it's a pretty tiny tank but it would probably be okay to treat a single guppy. I'd add a plastic/real plant or some other decor for the fish to feel comfortable. I second the idea of running a small sponge filter in your main tank to transfer over when you want to use the hospital tank.


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