Hospital Tank Help Please.

[Roryland]

Hey guys I am looking at setting up a hospital tank just as a safety precaution for my discus.

It is a 6ft tank and has shrimp in it which will make medicating it out of the question,correct me if I am wrong.
Thank mother tank has ADA soil which keeps my PH stable around 6.0-6.5 in my 6ft tank.
I have a big Fluval Fx5 + Aqua 600 on the mother tank.

Now If I need to use my hospital tank should I have ADA Soil in it too just for the PH to be the same as the mothertank?
I live in south sydney and my PH is about 7.5+ from tap.

I was thinking if I needed to use the hospital tank I can just drain the mother tank water (I usually do 30% WC from the 6ft tank anyway) into the hospital tank and swap the Aqua 600 from the mother tank to hospital tank too.
Is this possible or do I still need to cycle the hospital tank?

Any help would be much appreciated!

Cheers
Rory

[swifto]

Yep keeping shrimp in a hospital tank will make any discus healthy :lol:
Your hospital tank should b bare,just a heater and sponge filter.

[mawhins]

Hi Rory,

A couple of thoughts:

6ft is a lot of water to medicate if you have to do baths to deliver an agent to the fish. They're often off their food when ill. You'll also likely be doing big changes of water although big tanks ameliorate this need to a degree.

It's not ideal to have gravel in the hospital tank. Medications can knock out the bacteria leaving you with mechanical methods to keep the tank clean ie water changes and no left over food. Bare bottom is simplest here. Having said that I can't think of an ideal alternative to match your PHs. I've read your AL post so know you're running co2. If you don't have plants that require the lower PH maybe you could run your main tank higher ie 7. Of course this means more co2 and your hospital water will pop back to 7.5 as soon as it is released from.that system and you still have a difference in PH not a big one but also not ideal.

If you can get rain water you mix this in with tap water to get a lower PH but you will also have lower hardness. Still a stressor, perhaps worse then PH, on a fish needing hospitalization.

Not a solution sorry but hopefully helpful in some way.

[Hooked]

Hi Rory,

great point by Mawhins re the large volume. I have a 200 lt qt/hospital tank. If I'm using expensive meds I lower the level to about 100lts. I feel it still gives the fish room yet not wasting the meds. If I'm doing a Potassium Permanganate treatment then its cheap so I do the 200lt volume. I find 200lts allows me to easily treat 20 odd large fish if doing a group treatment. With frequent water changes etc of course depending on whats being done. I age and treat my change water for all my tanks in 220lt barrels. I was recommended ages ago to use Hydrocloric Acid to adjust my ph and its been a great money saver. It does a great job. I keep my qt/hospital tank bare as its easier to keep clean and also to see the tell tale signs of illness. Usually the type of poop that's deposited on the bottom. I keep a spare canister filter on hand that I seed from my display filters when setting up the qt/hosp tank.
There are some great tried and true meds. This forum is full of great info re them. I have had great success also with the Huey Hung range of meds recently.
I watched your tank progress over on the other site. Nice job mate.
Eventually you will have to medicate your Discus for something, I'm sure. Might be time to think about moving the shrimp or possibly better to set up another tank of a smaller size for the hospital. That 6 footer will make a great grow out tank for your future Discus fry! : )

Cheers

[ILLUSN]

hospital tank 2, footer bare bottom with a 150w heater with or without a sponge filter, it will save you big $$$ on meds and its small enough that if the worst happens you can take it out side, bleach it scrub it and dry it before it next needs to be used.

[Roryland]

Thanks for all the input and replies guys.

Sorry my bad,I didnt mean the hospital tank was 6ft.
I have a 2ft hospital tank and the main tank is 6ft,sorry.

[Roryland]

Thanks for your feedback,
Would you guys recommend driftwood to lower the ph in the hospital tank? I posted this on AL as well and that was an answer I got from one of the helpful members.
Hi Rory,

great point by Mawhins re the large volume. I have a 200 lt qt/hospital tank. If I'm using expensive meds I lower the level to about 100lts. I feel it still gives the fish room yet not wasting the meds. If I'm doing a Potassium Permanganate treatment then its cheap so I do the 200lt volume. I find 200lts allows me to easily treat 20 odd large fish if doing a group treatment. With frequent water changes etc of course depending on whats being done. I age and treat my change water for all my tanks in 220lt barrels. I was recommended ages ago to use Hydrocloric Acid to adjust my ph and its been a great money saver. It does a great job. I keep my qt/hospital tank bare as its easier to keep clean and also to see the tell tale signs of illness. Usually the type of poop that's deposited on the bottom. I keep a spare canister filter on hand that I seed from my display filters when setting up the qt/hosp tank.
There are some great tried and true meds. This forum is full of great info re them. I have had great success also with the Huey Hung range of meds recently.
I watched your tank progress over on the other site. Nice job mate.
Eventually you will have to medicate your Discus for something, I'm sure. Might be time to think about moving the shrimp or possibly better to set up another tank of a smaller size for the hospital. That 6 footer will make a great grow out tank for your future Discus fry! : )

Cheers

[mawhins]

I woulnt have thought dw would get it down by that much but I could be wrong. I know peat is used for this but its the humic acid from the peat that does the shift and it also softens the water I believe. Water chemistry isn't easy in my opinion so I try to keep it simple. If your tapwater is hard changing the PH won't be that easy. It also may take a while for the dw to affect the PH so might be a lag between deciding.g to treat and setting up the hospitl tank and time it's ready for fish.