Quarantine tanks are recommended for all aquariums. If you plan to add new fish to your tank after the whole tank was complete, you should consider getting a quarantine tank. It is also considered to be a hospital tank because it is used to treat diseased fish. A quarantine tank is basically a place where the fish temporarily lives for the one of the two reasons listed above. Normally a ten to twenty gallon tank can be used as a quarantine tank.
When adding a new fish to the tank, it is very important to isolate the fish before adding it to the main aquarium. A newly bought fish need to be examined carefully. You want to make sure that the fish is not diseased or, in any way, unhealthy; make sure that it is behaving the way it is supposed to. If you add the fish to the tank right away without ensuring its health, it may spread to the other fish in your tank and possibly wipe out your entire tank population. It is better to be safe. The fish should stay in the quarantine tank for at least two weeks. It is considered a need for saltwater aquarium keepers. If you have a saltwater aquarium, not only will you need to quarantine the fish, but you should also quarantine corals. Corals can introduce different pests and diseases to your aquarium.
Quarantine tanks are more of a hospital tank for saltwater aquariums rather than freshwater aquariums because freshwater fish generally do not break out in disease as readily. However, for both, in order for the diseased fish to not affect the other fish in the aquarium, and invertebrates for saltwater aquariums, quarantining them is a must. When treating diseased fish, the medicine used can affect the whole tank. However, when the diseased fish is being quarantined, the medicine will benefit the diseased one without negatively affect the healthy ones.
In order to set up a quarantine tank, you will need a filter, a heater, an air stone, some sort of hiding place for the fish, test kits for pH, ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates, a fish net, and water from your main tank. The filter can be a hang on, power filter on the back of the tank. You can also use filter floss, however, without the carbon because then the medication will be removed from the water. A heater is only necessary for a freshwater quarantine tank because the temperature of the water for freshwater fish has to be 72 to 82 degrees Fahrenheit. An air stone is used to provide the fish with more oxygen. For the hiding place, you can simply use some PVC pipes; it is for the fish to hide and relieve stress. The test kits are to keep the pH, ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates level of the water at where it's supposed to be. When the list says fish net, it has to be a fish net different from the one you use for your main aquarium because you do not want to spread the disease to your healthy fish through the fish net. Finally, water from your main tank. Since that water contains the nutrients and everything appropriate for the fish to live in, it is what you will use for the quarantine tank, too. You will not have to do the process you did when you first started the aquarium.
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