How to setup a Hospital or fry tank

[Panther28]

I know that you add water, heater and filter. I have a 10 gallon tank. My main question is how do you cycles the tank? Does it have to be cycled or not? The same question for fry tank. A hospital tank is supposed to be safe right? But wont a nitrite spike effect the sick fish or the fry? Could anyone tell me how to setup a hospital or a fry tank step by step.*SUNSMILE*

 

[SANND]

I run two filters on my regular tanks and when I need a hospital tank I take floss from one of the filters and one or two large rocks. Some people even use some of the water from the regular tanks.

If you can, it's best to keep one up and running all the time.

 

[Panther28]

It is best to keep one hospital tank up and running but if there are no fish in the tank wont the benifcial bacteria die off? as no ammonia! Its all a little hard for me to understand. Even if we take large rocks or the floss wont that take a little time for the bacteria to grow? I know I am a little slow. Sorry!

 

[tessalion]

Don't apologize panther, i've been wondering the same thing...just never got around to asking

 

[SANND]

I've never experienced a cycle using the method above. I always have two 5 gallons up and running with filters, gravel, plants and snails. If I know in advance that I'm going to put a fish in then I'll add a drop of ammonia a couple days before. Otherwise I just take floss from one of the big tanks.

 

[GIS Guy]

It seems as tho a 5g or 10g tank would be a good choice for a QT tank and snails and a running filter should be able to keep it going without much effort. Is this true?