Treating fungus

[griff5499]

I have a 36 gal bowfront tank. Some of my black skirt tetras have mouth fungus. I bought API fungus medicine. My question is I took my carbon filter out per directions on bottle. Will this mess up my cycle? It says to dose for 7 days!
Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[griff5499]

By the way I have my temp to 86 because one of my sunset platies has been showing signs of ich, bouncing off of plants. I also have 0 ammonia, .10ppm nitrates and lots of nitrates. I have been changing the water about 40% per day to keep the nitrite levels down. My tank has been running for 7 weeks now. Nitrite levels were decreasing yesterday.

 

[BBradbury]

Tank Issues

I have a 36 gal bowfront tank. Some of my black skirt tetras have mouth fungus. I bought API fungus medicine. My question is I took my carbon filter out per directions on bottle. Will this mess up my cycle? It says to dose for 7 days!
Thanks in advance for any help.

Hello griff...

99.9 percent of the things that can go wrong with a tank are water related. So, you need to keep the water pure with large, frequent water changes. Make the new water a bit warmer than what's in the tank. 80 degrees is about right. Half the tank's volume every couple of days isn't too much. Do a good job of vacuuming the gravel. A little salt will help. A couple of rounded teaspoons in every 5 gallons of new, treated tap water will help heal the fish. Reduce the food to a little frozen a couple of times a week.

I'm no fan of medications. They're like prescriptions. They have side affects. Meds in the water can hurt the fish, damage the plants and sometimes kill off good bacteria.

You don't want to shock the fish and these steps will be helpful, but not drastic. Maintain these until the fish improve, then you can ease back into the normal routine. But, I'd keep up with large water changes every couple of weeks.

B

 

[griff5499]

Should I pull the old filter cartridge out and run with no filter? I already dosed with API fungus meds. I'am just worried that my cycle will stall without the filter.