Red wag platy

Hey guys. So I have a ten gallon tank that is divided with a dwarf gourami on one side, and a betta on the other. Recenty I have been treating my betta for fin rot with Trisulfa and Rid-Fungus. They are 5 day courses and after every 5 days, I do a water change. He had been looking better, but just today/yesterday, I noticed that his tail was missing some pieces. Naturally, I checked the nitrates, but the results were yellow, a.k.a. 0 nitrates. This is a fully established tank. I feed them peas, bloodworms, and flakes. Any suggestions/ideas? This has happened before (last time in August), and this has been the first time I have used the kit since then. All replies appreciated.

Dozey

A lot of medications will crash a tank's cycle.

Shawnie

most meds will destroy a cycle...so you will have to start it over with your cycle ..

by dozey LOL

Peterpiper

Not sure, but could the test kit be out of date?
Are the meds safe to use in the main tank?

Red wag platy

UGH! Test results are.....ammonia-.25 nitrite-0 nitrate-0

I was aware that it could destroy some of your bacteria, but didn't know it could destroy that much. How will I treat my betta then? It's either I give it the medicine and the bacteria is removed, or I don't give my fish the meds, and even though the bacteria won't be killed anymore, my fish will still have the infection. Ahhhhh! I am sooo stressed out. Please help me!

pinkfloydpuffer

Trisulfa kills gram positive and negative bacteria, so that would kill your cycle

Dozey

My understanding is that you will have to keep medicating until the problem is cleared up. Also you likely should be adding enough Prime everyday to treat the whole tank so the ammonia doesn’t get your fish first.

Then you are looking at doing a fish-in cycle. Sorry it’s going to be a hassle.

Red wag platy

Man. Christmas, I wish you would come sooner. Do you know of any other solutions?

Peterpiper

Have a spare tank on hand for when you need to use meds.
You just need to change the water to remove the toxins.
You will need to recycle the tank, but remove and clean every thing that has come in contact with the meds. new filter media required.
If you can get some media form a cycled filter and add it to your filter, that would speed things up a bit.

Dozey

Well having a Q tank around would certainly have been better, but we are past that point. If you have another tank you could certainly use media from it too help speed up the cycle process after the problem is cleared up. Aside from that if you know some one with a tank you ask them to keep some new media in their tank while you are medicating.

And in the event that you don't already know, be sure to add charcoal to your filter when the problem is over to clean the meds from the water. And hopefully you don't currently have any charcoal in your filter while medicating

Red wag platy

Does anyone else have any other solutions to treating with the medicine and maintaining good water parameters? Do you think I could get away with just using the rid-fungus until Christmas? Also, how would a quarantine tank prevent the medication from destroying the bacteria? I know that they are good to have for treating disease, but I don't understand why the same thing wouldn't happen in a Q tank.

Peterpiper

A Q tank is a tank with its own filter, heater etc, it is not connected to the main tank or uses any of the equipment from the main tank.
The water must be changed daily as the Q tank normaly is not cycled.

Red wag platy

Exactly, with some medicines, you can't change the water every day.