About to treat tank with Triple Sulfa. How do I prepare for loss of my filter?

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threnjen

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Nov 19, 2013
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Title kind of sums it up.

My fish have columnaris. I've had some other outside help diagnosing it. I ordered Triple Sulfa, overnighted, to try and save them since in the tank it's in its early stages (several fish have died of it already, but I quarantined a few of them so its taken a while to root in the tank)

I'm aware that Triple Sulfa is going to wipe out my beneficial bacterial colony, and frankly I am terrified.

I've seen it suggested to stop using the filter during meds and just rely on daily WC. But if I bypass the filter, I'm not doing anything to medicate it so it could still harbor the bad bacteria. This is especially relevant because I have a sump not a "normal" filter so imagine the 29g of water that is part of my tank needs the meds as well.

What should I do?
 
Jake about moving your filter to a tub or tote and feeding the bs fetish with either pure ammonia or fish food while you treat the tank? If you do stop the filter make sure you have a power head to help keep the water oxygenated.
 
My mistake it's TMP Sulfa - but still formulated to kill both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, so it will still kill my good bacteria (gram-positive)

I can definitely bypass the filter. Just concerned because that still hypothetically leaves a whole tank (29g sump) infected, along with all of my filter media. However there are no fish in the sump, and it technically has the "cleanest" water. Hrm hrm hrm...
 
Hmm...that is a pickle. How heavily stocked is your tank? With daily wcs, maybe even twice daily could you keep your fish safe if you have to do a fish in cycle after treatment?
 
What if I hook the sump up to itself (bypassing the main tank) and treat the sump with solely a gram-negative treatment, while I treat the main tank with the TMP sulfa?

This should get rid of any of the bacteria clinging in the sump, without killing off my BB filter.

However during this time... my main tank won't have a filter at all!! For 10 days!! That is terrifying =/
 
My tank is about 80% stocked, but all of my fish are juvies, so the bioload is actually less.
 
All right, continued research tells me TMP Sulfa is less bad for the filter than Triple Sulfa... and that it will be impacted but hopefully not die off.


  • TMP Sulfa (Trimthoprim and Sulfathiazole Sulfa)-$5.75
    • TMP Sulfa is a newer generation sulfa drug with better solubility, wider spectrum activity, and less resistance than traditional tripple sulfa
    • TMP Sulfa treats essentially all the disease that doxycycline treats with the exception of fungi and some gram positive bacteria
    • TMP Sulfa is one of the few effective antibiotics that will not kill all of your beneficial bacteria but it will make a dent in it
    • TMP Sulfa is very easy on fish and can be used in the food while using a combo treatment such as Nitrofuracin Green in the water as a bath
    • A full course of treatment is treating for 8-10 days; 8 packets are included in each lot.
Just going to have to cross my fingers.
 
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