How to Make a New Hospital Tank - kkacevas/Laskowski-Lab GitHub Wiki

When one of our fish is sick, we want to make sure to quarantine them away from other fish until they get better. To do this, we need to make a hospital tank. Here are the steps in making a new hospital tank.

Choose an empty tank on a rack and turn off the water flow to the tank. Leave the water flow off
Turn the overflow pipe on the outside/very back of the tank up all the way so that water is not able to drain out into the gutter.
Put at least 1 green yarn plant and 1 black plant into the tank for enrichment.
Put a label on the tank with all the information of the tank (date made, stock, ID, tank number, etc.)
Make sure the air stone is working in the tank as this is important for our fish to breathe!
Put sick fish in tank and make sure to do water changes at least once every day (including weekends)!

NOTE: We do not want to put all the sick fish in one tank if they have different diseases/illnesses. For instance, you can put all the fish that have ick into 1 tank, but if another one has no ick but is swimming erratically, make a new hospital tank for the erratic swimming one. The reason for this is to prevent fish to pass their diseases onto other fish that do not have that disease. So if needed, make a new hospital tank!

Stress coat

Stress coat is a water conditioner that removes chlorine & heavy metals from tap water and also has Aloe Vera that helps reduce fish stress & heal damaged tissue. It is something that helps our sick fish get better!

Stress coat should be applied to all our hospital tanks once every week (look at directions of specific stress coat container to see how much to put in the water). Here is a good brand of stress coat to buy if needed: API Stress Coat