Do my platy have Columnaris ?

[candymancan]

I couldn't really get a great picture...

but I noticed 3 of the platy in my 30g have like white patchs on there heads or mouth. The one above has it on his lips.. the other 2 have the patchs on there heads.. It doesn't look cotton or fuzzy.. and it isn't ich it isn't spots... It looks like calcium deposits on there heads and mouth... One of them looks like he will probably die in the next day or so..

Is what I described columnaris ? If so what kind of treatment should I go about ? I have nerite snails and cory cats in the tank as well.. I did 3 huge 80% water changes in the last 3 days, my nitrates were out of control and I don't know why.. The tank doesn't have many fish and feeding was cut back.. I looked under the tank and the side of the Under gravel filter that doesn't have a powerhead was really dirt so I moved the clean side over and lifted the ugf up and down for it to suck up the crap on the bottom.. The tank was so cloudy I couldn't even see in it.. So I changed 80% of the water, and I did 2 big gravel vaccums the nitrates are now 5-10ppm.. I put some aquarium salt in the tank as well.. It is moderately planted but the plants cant keep up with the nitrates. But I think I fixed that problem. Im going to get another powerhead for the other side so I don't get a dirty half of the tank like that again

 

[Brad M]

I had an issue where nitrates went sky high for no reason. Local fish store said they didnt know why but its in the gravel. I tore my tank apart aside from the filter for cleaning and fixed the issue.

 

[candymancan]

Yea well tearing my tank apart isn't an issue... I think it was because the left half of the tank was nothing but crap... under my UGF it was just building up I could see the white plastic filter just brown sludge and the powerhead while very strong was only keep half the tank clean on the bottom. The right side was clear.. So like I said I moved the powerhead to the left side and lifted the UGF up and down slightly by the tubing and the power head sucked up all the junk from down there and then I changed 80% of the water... The next day I did gravel vacuums around my plants and lava rock and changed 60% of the water and I did it again today.. nitrates are way down now but well see ina week.