Hospital tank from (clean) trash can for 16 fish

[michaelp]

I have an (approx) 50g trashcan that I'm going to use for a hospital tank for my sick fish (ICH in my reef tank).

I have a heater, powerheads for water flow, a light, a few pieces of pvc, and a hang on filter. The thing I'm worried about is the filtration.

Since it's a hospital tank, I can't run carbon, or put any LR in there. And it probably needs to be running for 1 1/2 months, so will weekly water changes be sufficient? Any recommendations for a simple filter system (copper friendly)?

The can was used for water changes (not trash). It's the best I could do for a temporary tank without spending a lot of money.

List of fish:
3 golden damsel
1 yellow tail blue damsel
1 blue hippo tang (small)
1 powder blue tank (med)
1 sailfin tang (med)
3 cardinal fish
2 firefish
2 clowns
1 blue/green chromis

 

[marrone]

That's a lot of fish for such a small container. You're going to run into some problems one being ammonia and the other fighting.You have a number of damsels that will fight with each other and some of the other fish too. And all those tangs in such a small container isn't going to work.

It best to get 2 or 3 of rubber maid tubs and break the fish up. The rubbermaid containers are longer and because of that the fish wouldn't be on top of each other. As far as filtration, you just need something to move the water around which a power head, hang on filter or canister filter will do the job.

 

[michaelp]

Like these?
http://www.rubbermaid.com/rubbermaid/product/category.jhtml?cat=HPCat100164

btw, what a pita this is.

 

[marrone]

Those would work. Home Depot sells 20-22gal containers, which are 2', and 50gal containers, which are 4'. Either 2 of the 50gal or 3 of the 30gal containers would do the job.

Yes it is a pain in the ass, which is why you would to QT all of your fish before you place them in your tank, unless you can copper your main tank which most people with reef tanks can't do.