Dumb question but necessary, for me!

[FishNewbee]

I have some disease issues cropping up in my tank. I am going to treat with Maracyn II and Coppersafe. I know I'm supposed to remove the carbon from my tank but not sure how to do that. I have a Penquin Biowheel 150 and Penguin Biowheel 200 running on this 55g tank. I use the corresponding filter cartridges with the carbon attached inside the cartridge. Am I supposed to rip the cartridge apart, leaving just the filter itself, or do I just take the whole cartridge out of my filters so they are just basically pumping water? Just not sure what to do and don't want to needlessly destroy my expensive filter cartridges unless necessary. This one particular situation has already sent me to the store for $100 worth of stuff. Thanks for any help. Please respond quickly as I am waiting to treat my fish until I know what to do about the carbon.

 

[neilanh]

I assume you've confirmed the MII and coppersafe are what you want to treat with?

as for the carbon, how old are the filters? If they're more than a month or so old, the carbon is probably spent anyway, so no harm.

If you do want to remove them/save them, just replace them with some foam to give you some mechanical filtration, you'll be fine like that.

 

[FishNewbee]

Unfortunately, I just replaced two of them yesterday so they are new. So, where do I get the foam? Is this something that I would purchase at a fish store or is it just regular foam I might find at Walmart?

I have been using expert.com and corresponding with a person on there regarding my particular situation and she is telling me to treat with Coppersafe and MII. I hope she is correct because I have been getting so much wrong information and it is leading to loss of fish for me.

I currently have a pair of jewel parents with about 35-40 6-week old fry on one side of a 55g tank, and as I'm using a tank divider, I have 6 barbs, 1 rainbow shark, 1 raphael catfish, a peacock cichlid and 2 glass barbs on the other side. I have been doing water changes every 2-3 days since the fry were born since I have to feed them so much and it's way too many fish for a 55g. I certainly was not intending to "make babies", it just happened and once they were born my inclination was to do everything possible to save them. Unfortunately, it has put such a huge bio strain on my tank that now some of the inhabitants are showing signs of disease. The daddy jewel is the one who looks like he's at death's door so I am frantic about trying to save him. All of my other fish "look" healthy with the exception of a few barbs whose fins seem a little "shredded", but not discolored or red. None of the other inhabitants are gasping for air or anything.

I just ran to my LFS and bought another filter for a tank I had in the garage that I am going to use. It's a 30g and I just finished setting it up. I am planning to move the jewel family to that one in a few days. However, this other person has told me to treat my entire tank now for disease and to leave the jewels in there. I'm so sick of guessing at the expense of their lives. I don't know if I should treat the old tank (55g) and leave all the fish in it, or if I should move the jewel family to the 30g and treat both tanks? I should mention, that in a panic yesterday, I moved the daddy jewel over to a 5g I have with 5 harlequin rasboras and an apple snail in it. I did 1 tsp of Melafix in that tank. Now I'm thinking I've just contaminated that tank and should I treat that one also?

What a frickin' mess!!! In all of this, my water parameters have all been reading normal with the exception that my nitrates were a little higher this week (about 30ppm) and I usually keep them at less than 10ppm. I did a 50% water change on the main tank yesterday and I'm in the process of doing another 50% change on it today even though the parameters read okay. Don't know where to go from here except to start dumping massive chemicals into all three tanks and hope for a miracle. Thanks and sorry for the lengthy post, just very frustrated and frankly quite devastated by all of this.

 

[joy13]

Do you know disease you are treating for?

 

[FishNewbee]

After reading the Fish Disease Guide that came with the MII, it sounds most like Dropsy and fin rot. I have seen fin rot firsthand and his fins are not red or bleeding, but he is a red jewel whose fins are normally red anyways so it's tough to tell. However, they are badly shredded looking and his coloration is absolutely horrible. I cannot believe he is still alive. The area around his mouth appears very red and almost blood-like. Also, yesterday his eyes were cloudy and popping out however, that seems to have cleared up a bit.
I just put him back in the main 55g tank with his fry and the female cichlid. I did this because another person advised me it would be best for him. However, my instincts told me that the female would reject him and I was right. She chased him around the tank for about 10 minutes, pretty viciously, trying to bite him. I decided I couldn't watch that another second. He absolutely is in no condition to be any more stressed than he already is. So I made another tough decision to take her away from her fry and move her to the other side of the tank divider with the other fish. They are leaving her alone and although she looks incredibly sad, I felt it was the last best hope of trying to save daddy jewel. He really has no where else I can put him where he won't be harassed to death. His fry are leaving him alone and my husband is currently at the store getting some batting that I can use to cut into filter strips so I can begin medicating the tank.
Does anyone know if using the MII and Coppersafe will be too much for 6-week old fry? I'm now afraid that in attempting to medicate the daddy, I may end up killing all the babies. I absolutely can't believe this mess. Please help anyone!!!!!

 

[joy13]

Some medications will make your tank go into a mini cycle or might have to be totally recycled. I believe maracyn maybe one of them since it is a broad spectrum antibiotic.

 

[happygirl65]

You could take the new filter cartriges out, and hang on to them put them in a bucket or something for a few days....then stuff foam or polyester fiber fill (filter floss) or something like that.

 

[FishNewbee]

That's exactly what I just did!! I took my regular cartridges out and used batting from Walmart, folded them in half, stapled the sides, threaded some thin wire through the sides to make them stand up better, and so far, they seem to be working!
Update: my male jewel who looked like he had already died is making a beautiful recovery. He has no fins left and it's a sorry sight, and I think his eyes may be just a tiny bit swollen, but otherwise, his color and normal healthy redness have returned. Today he has been out and about the tank swimming with his babies and he is eating well. I am so relieved but still cautious. I'm on day 3 of treatment with MII and hopeful that we'll pull through this. However, some of my other fish, my barbs are beginning to show signs of fin rot and I had to remove one from the tank and put her in the 5g because the other fish were really harassing her and shredding her fins even more. I'm not sure if she's going to make it. Does anyone know what to do if you finish the course of MII and your fish are still showing signs of illness? Do I start another round of treatment or is there such a thing as over-medicating them?

Thanks!

 

[happygirl65]

Nice job! That is great news. Remember it is a 10 day course and you are only on day 3, you will see this get WAY better.

The fins will grow back. I brought a discus back from the brink using Maracyn and Marcyn II and daily water changes. Like you I started out treating only one fish but then I ended up putting all three in QT and treating them all to be on the safe side. The company seemed to help the sick one heal faster too since it was a schooling fish.
If for some reason you do still see signs when you are done I would just do daily water changes (2 x if you can) for a while and see if that helps. There are a whole host of problems that can be corrected with lots and lots of clean water. It may be a pain but you are not risking your bio filter or medicating without knowing exactly what is going on.
But I think you are on the right track currently. Keep doing the daily water changes and using the maracyn II in the QT and you will see more improvements everyday.

 

[FishNewbee]

Thanks for your support. I'll let you know how it goes!