My Deadly Hospital Tank
 

If I was ever sick I'd for sure not want to visit my hospital tank because nothing ever survives the night! (This has happened twice now).

So my theory is, by the time I am able to catch them and move them to the hospital, they are either beyond recovery and that's why they don't survive the night,

OR

I'm doing something wrong.

I've had my 90G with 30G sump for a year now and everything is well. But it's also more forgiving due to the water volume. I've got a dozen small fish and a few soft corals, all doing really well.

So both times I've setup the hospital tank, I've done a partial W/C and used the water from the DT to fill the hospital tank. I then use a normal heater set at 79 and I have an aerating maxi-jet style power head (Hagen maybe?). So I adjust it so it's moving normal amount of water in the hospital, and I open up the air valve so it starts aerating as it moves the water. (also throw in some PVC elbows, etc).

I setup the hospital Thursday night during a W/C and left it running overnight, and then Friday after work I caught the flame angel very easily and transfered him to the hospital tank. He's sick because a Clown has been bullying him and nipping at his fins, which were looking very poor (and he has that sick look to him with barely any tail fin left).

I dosed it with 5ml of Melafix, a drop of garlic, and a drop of selcon, fed him a very small amount of food and he went after some pieces.

Well all was well and he was eating, and then really early this morning about 1am before bed I noticed he wasn't swimming and was doing the rapid breathing thing. I checked the power head and it was aerating the tank still, so I figured that he must be on his way out.

And by the time I went downstairs to check on the tanks at 3:45am (Power outage -- another interesting story), well he was dead.

I also noticed the water in the hospital tank started to have a little tinge of opaqueness.

I ran across this today as well: http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/...dont-work.html

Maybe the good bacteria in my DT are what's toasting my hospital tanks?

What am I doing wrong, or is it just bad luck?

tells us a bit more about the tank.... like, how big is it? and does it have anything in it like rock or sand? If you don't have a good bacterial population in there I suppose a sick fish could die simply from the ammonia it's generating. Just a thought, but give us some more details.

Age
 

Seems like you only set the tank up when you need it? So you don't keep it stable and ready 24/7?

Do I understand correctly?

If so, I would say set the tank up and let it cycle. If it is an empty tank... maintenance should be minimal but would be ready for use anytime without having to question the tanks integrity.

+1 the ammonia rises from the stress so you should have some live rock at least

I keep a sponge filter in my sump. I set up my hospital tank the same way you do but I also run the sponge filter. When I take the hospital tank down...I clean the sponge and put it back in the sump.

i was always under the impression not to use live rock or sand or anything that could soak up medications you may use, i know water parameters are a must as well as water changes. a quarantine tank could be used maybe with a little something depending on what your using for meds, but in a hospital tank id keep it to the basics but i would try to let the hospital tank run for a few days or a week to let things "even out" . all the things you use in a hospital tank need to be cleaned constantly , like a human hospital your not wanting to add any more bad bacteria. get some water tests done and if anything shows change some out with new saltwater , dont do it in a hurry to stress the fish more do it in small amounts where the fish barely knows your doing it:)

also losing two fish doesnt mean your meds arent working or your methods are flawed could possibly mean two accounts of bad luck, alot of fish dont make it through punishment like losing fins while alot of others do , it could be the timing:)


interesting read though on the link you posted but i would imagine that theres always going to be a stradnd of bacteria we cant treat for, so its best to treat for what we know we dont want:)

wetwebmedia is a very informative site and has some great advice on things like hospital tanks and quarantine procedures

agreed with adding a sponge but before medicating though and i would be sure to wash it very well if your planning on adding it back to your system personally i would add new sponge and let it colonize again:)

Meds
 

Keep in mind also... medicating can make things worse for your fish in the long run by weakening immune systems and what not. On top of that.... medicating for the sake of medicating is never a good option. Would you take meds yourself if they were not necessary?

Hospital tanks are difficult to keep water parameters in check so that could be the issue but for some reason (don't know why because it's supposed to be safe to use on saltwater fish) whenever I have tried to treat a saltwater fish with melafix if has killed the fish within a few days. I have noticed that something in melafix seems to make it hard for saltwater fish to breathe properly.