Med Dosing And Water Changes Help

[Twinklecaz]

Hi

I'm pretty sure my fish have Fin Rot. One has a white patch on his tail and it's going see through and another does on his anal fin. Someone advised me to do lots of water changes to try and shift it (I should add I also seem to have a small ammonia and Nitrite problem this week) before I dose the Interpret med but I really don't wanna risk it and wait:

If I dose the med now can I carry on doing my daily 20-50% water changes (I do about 3 a week anyway) or will it effecitively take the med out again? It says not to redose for 7 days so I don't know what to do coz obviously coz of the stat problems I do need to do the water changes.....but I need to give them some medicine too.

Heeeeeeelp?

 

[fluffycabbage]

I'd love to know this too, as one of my fish has fin rot (i think)

 

[mike_980]

i would do a full dose followed by a 50% water change after 24 hours

i would then change a further 50% after another 24 hours and add a half dose straight after.

repeat doing that for 5-6 days then go back to doing 10-15% water changes daily and add no more medicine

thats just what i would do though someone might know better

 

[PDSimon]

I really feel for you caz, I don't think you've had one chance to enjoy your fish since you stocked! Good luck...

 

[Twinklecaz]

I know Simon. I think I have been paranoid at points but I'm deffo not imagining this one. I have NO idea what is wrong with my filter. I tested again this morning and I have 1.00 ppm Ammonia (tho could be the TPN) and 0.25 Nitrite - this is with a cycled filter and a 60% water change last night! I have no idea what I've done to cause it

Mike - thank you!L Hopefully I've caught it early. Only 2 (possibly 3) of my fish are showing symptoms and they're not bad yet. It just bugs me that this can be caused by bad water quality but I've done everything I can to keep it good.

 

[Miss Dib Dabs]

If you remove X amount of water you need to replace the equivalent in meds as that is what you removed. So if you take out 50% you are removing 50% of the meds. So top them up once the change is done. If you are changing water daily to counteract the ammonia and nitrite issue then keep an eye on your fish as you re-medicate. After all it is quite easy to overdose a tank which can cause as much damage as good. Have you no way to seed your filter? I have used bactinets in the past to reseed filters and it's worked very well. I know many ppl have issues with the use of such items but I can honestly say I have used a number of times successfully. Maidenhead aquatics tend to have them round here. Might be worth a go to get those readings down or gone.
P.

 

[Twinklecaz]

What is it, some sort of filter media? I've been considering trying to get hold of some very mature media from somwhere to see if that helps.

 

[Miss Dib Dabs]

Mature filter media would work brilliantly if you can get hold of some. Bactinettes (turned out I spelt it wrong) will help reduce the ammonia in your tank and I've cycled filters with them in the past. They're live bacteria that go directly in your filter (I've used them in my tetratec externals). Here's a link to a site with them on, not endorsing the site and I've never used it either so can't say if they're any good or not, but it does explain about the bactinettes.
http/www.underworldproducts.co.uk/index.php/aquatic/soll-cool/bactinettes
My first tetratec filter was seeded with only these for a 100g tank and the old filter from a 40g was moved with the fish so I did have a mature filter in use at the same time. Not sure I'd be totally confident in using just them if setting up a new tank but they should help with your current filter problems. Mature media is the best bet but these will help if you can't get any.
P.