Had To Put Sick Fish In Uncycled Tank!

[lotus3]

Thank goodness my Jack is looking so much better,( even the red streak is fading now) as I am more confused than before. I can hopefully and cautiously say I may not have to deal with meds killing/not killing bacteria, however I did find a trace of ammonia in the water (less than.25ppm per my latest test) so I did a 40% water change. I too am of the opinion large water changes cause a lot of stress, but I daresay rising ammonia levels are of more concern. I am going to put the cycled sponge filter in the tank too, and was also wondering if I should switch my dechlor to Amquel+ which has ammonia, nitrite, chlorine and chloramine detoxifiers as opposed to what I've been using, Aquasafe by Tetra which is nothing but a dechlor? I was thinking of putting him back in the main tank as suggested but my Firemouth was bullying him, I guess because he was too sick to fight back, normally they are fine together., 
BTW, is maracyn for treating illness caused by gram negative or gram positive bacteria? I've had occasion to use it twice and both times it killed off the bacteria.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Maracyn is erythromycin based and is a gram-positive bacteria treatment.
Maracyn 2 is mincycline hydrochlor based and is a gram-negative bacteria treatment.
 
Maracyn Plus kills both.

 

[rms]

lotus3 - Glad to hear your JD is on the up.
 
EA - Many thanks for the info. 
 

 

[star4]

If you are worried about doing large water changes daily, split it into two smaller water changes, one in the morning one in the evening.

 

[lotus3]

I wanted to give an update on my JD condition, not an emergency anymore so this will be my last post in this forum but I'm not leaving- have more questions to be posted in the appropriate forum!
The JD now appears fine (yayyyy!) I know the 20g tank is too small for him, but I hesitate to put him back with the Firemouth who chases him all the time- so I want to get him his own tank, will a 40g be ok for him (he's about 51/4 
inches ) and maybe a tankmate?
He has 1 very comical behaviour- I put a plastic cup filled with old gravel from my cycled tank in his QT tank, well Jack swims up to it and turns himself upside down about 5x! It is hysterical, I've never seen a fish do that. At first I was alarmed thinking he was flashing, but he never touches the cup and doesn't scratch against anything else in the tank. He also picks up gravel and spits it against the sides of the tank, you can hear rock-throwing going on half the night! 
I can't thank you all enough for your help. This emergency is OVER!!!