Carbon In Filter (Help Needed!)

[Crossfire]

I am currently treating my 20 gallon tank with API's super ick cure and general parasite cure to rid my fish of ick and a suspected case of tapeworms. I don't have any carbon in the filter, but the first treatment of super ich cure did not work...and the blue water goes away after an hour. Then i discovered that the penguin bio-wheel filter cartridges had carbon built into them, and though the tanks been running for a couple of months now i was wondering if this is sucking up the medicine...If it is, can anyone give me some other filter cartidge options and how i will be able to change the filters without having to restart cycling. thanks

 

[Caprichoso]

Yes, it will remove medication and should be removed prior to using meds. Can you modify the filter to replace the carbon with some sponge or filter wool?

 

[Crossfire]

Yes, it will remove medication and should be removed prior to using meds. Can you modify the filter to replace the carbon with some sponge or filter wool?

i dont know how i could do that...the carbon is located between the sponge and the black rim...
it looks like this:

could i just get something like this and just cut it to size?
I have ceramic rings in a media bag in my filter, so if i take the cartridges out will there still be sufficent bacteria to keep the cycle going?

 

[ctsv510]

You can carefully cut/rip the filter pad from the plastic, dump the carbon out of the plastic, then re-attach the pads to the plastic with some thread, string or staples.

 

[Crossfire]

You can carefully cut/rip the filter pad from the plastic, dump the carbon out of the plastic, then re-attach the pads to the plastic with some thread, string or staples.

could i just remove part of the black rim where the carbon is located with a exacto knife? Is the black rim really important in filtration? Like this

 

[in2media]

the black rim is to hold it in place and for you to lift the cartridge out by the look of it. id cut the square you drew out

 

[Crossfire]

okay i slit open the part i drew and got all the carbon and i instead put some filter floss in. I redosed the medicine since is was all filtered out. Hope they get better! Thanks

 

[in2media]

personally thats what id have done, i may be wrong but someone on here may have a better idea,

 

[Crossfire]

Checked the tank this morning, water seems a bit cloudy and the water isn't blue...I did recently but a blue background on it, is that why I cant see blue water? any thoughts?

 

[Caprichoso]

If the water is cloudy, you should test your water to make sure ammonia hasn't made an appearance. The water shouldn't be blue, water is clear.

 

[Crossfire]

If the water is cloudy, you should test your water to make sure ammonia hasn't made an appearance. The water shouldn't be blue, water is clear.

I meant the water isn't blue from the medication like it should be...also, alot of my fish are breathing really hard! I checked ammonia and for some reason i have .15-.25ppm!!!!!! How is this possible? I have a fully cycled tank! I rinsed the filters with distilled water....what am i going to do

 

[Bignose]

If the water is cloudy, you should test your water to make sure ammonia hasn't made an appearance. The water shouldn't be blue, water is clear.

I meant the water isn't blue from the medication like it should be...also, alot of my fish are breathing really hard! I checked ammonia and for some reason i have .15-.25ppm!!!!!! How is this possible? I have a fully cycled tank! I rinsed the filters with distilled water....what am i going to do

The water isn't blue for very long because the proper dose of medication shouldn't give it much more than just a hint of blue. Also, the medication is almost surely reacting with the oxygen in the water, which is why it has to be redosed every 24 hours. That may also be why the fish are showing some signs of distress -- lower oxygen levels in the water. Adjust the filter return to cause lots of splashing if possible. An airstone will also help disturb the water surface to help increase oxygen transfer.

Lastly, most medications are pretty indiscriminate about what they kill. They tend to kill a lot of microorganisms in the tank. Both the microorganisms attacking the fish, and the microorganisms that help the fish like the cycling bacteria. The medications also harm the fish (another possible reason the fish are showing distress), but as a higher lifeform, the hope is that they can take the damage and survive long enough to kill the microorganisms that are attacking them. Long story short, when medicating, you have to watch the tank parameters closely, too, and do large water changes as needed. So long as the temperature, pH, and hardness is matched, there is no harm in doing as large a water change as you can handle -- even up to 70 or 80% if you can. And, if you use water from the same source (i.e. your tap water), the pH and hardness match is almost assured, so you really only have to get the temperature about right to do a big change. Just be sure to do the change before redosing the medications for that day.

 

[Crossfire]

If the water is cloudy, you should test your water to make sure ammonia hasn't made an appearance. The water shouldn't be blue, water is clear.

I meant the water isn't blue from the medication like it should be...also, alot of my fish are breathing really hard! I checked ammonia and for some reason i have .15-.25ppm!!!!!! How is this possible? I have a fully cycled tank! I rinsed the filters with distilled water....what am i going to do

The water isn't blue for very long because the proper dose of medication shouldn't give it much more than just a hint of blue. Also, the medication is almost surely reacting with the oxygen in the water, which is why it has to be redosed every 24 hours. That may also be why the fish are showing some signs of distress -- lower oxygen levels in the water. Adjust the filter return to cause lots of splashing if possible. An airstone will also help disturb the water surface to help increase oxygen transfer.

Lastly, most medications are pretty indiscriminate about what they kill. They tend to kill a lot of microorganisms in the tank. Both the microorganisms attacking the fish, and the microorganisms that help the fish like the cycling bacteria. The medications also harm the fish (another possible reason the fish are showing distress), but as a higher lifeform, the hope is that they can take the damage and survive long enough to kill the microorganisms that are attacking them. Long story short, when medicating, you have to watch the tank parameters closely, too, and do large water changes as needed. So long as the temperature, pH, and hardness is matched, there is no harm in doing as large a water change as you can handle -- even up to 70 or 80% if you can. And, if you use water from the same source (i.e. your tap water), the pH and hardness match is almost assured, so you really only have to get the temperature about right to do a big change. Just be sure to do the change before redosing the medications for that day.

I have a power filter, air stone, and live plants so there should definatley be enough oxygen. I did though turn my air stone up a bit so its a bit stronger. I did a small water change to reduce the ammonia ammount. I dont think the medicine im using targets bacteria, their both for parasite infections but the ich treatment does say it treats for secondary infection....My neon tetras are the ones infected with ich, and now they've all huddled under my driftwood and they are breathing fast. My guppies and otos are fine, but one of my kuhli loaches is behaving very strangley, swimming up and down and even swimming up to the filter intake and just..hanging there. At first i thought it was dead or stuck but as soon as i tried to poke it it swam away...The manager of my LFS said the medicine im using won't hurt loaches so he recommended a full dose. But that kuhlie loach is breathing very fast also...

 

[Caprichoso]

A "small" water change isn't going to remove enough of the ammonia to prevent damage or death to your fish. You have to do a huge water change of at least 75% with temperature matching of the water as to not shock your fish any further. Tomorrow, test the water again and be prepared to do another large water change if there are any signs of ammonia. Ammonia will kill your fish faster than ich. You need to forget the meds right now, the ammonia is your biggest problem atm. Get the ammonia to 0 first, then worry about meds. I don't like to use meds for this very reason, as Bignose stated, many meds can wipe out the beneficial bacteria in your filter.

 

[Bignose]

I dont think the medicine im using targets bacteria,

As I wrote above, most over the counter medications (for fish) are rather general purpose and the are going to attack most any organism in the tank. What is billed as an 'anti-bacterial' medication may be a little better at killing bacteria then fungus, but it probably still kills fungus, too. A big difference between treating a cat or you or I is that you add medication to the tank water. The only comparable would be to infuse your air duct system in your home with medication. That is, you infuse the entire environment with medication. That means everything exposed to that environment gets exposed to the medicine.

In short, whenever you medicate, it is safest to just assume that the filter bacteria will always be affected. It is a 'cost of doing business' to attempt to cure your fish. It also means that you are in for a fairly lengthy process. Your fish catch something like ich. You try to treat the ich and then the filter bacteria are affected. The higher ammonia levels in the tank help to further your fish's immune systems, and they develop a secondary bacteria infection, so you treat with anti bacterials, further damaging the filter bacteria, etc. etc.

Really, as my history of posts show I am a huge advocate of: this why quarantining is such a good idea. Your Q-tank typically isn't filtered anyway, so you know that you're going to be doing large water changes every day anyway. And, you treat any issues the fish have before they get to your show tank, so you don't ever disrupt the environment in there.