Please help been dealing with columnaris for months

I have 10 tanks and Columnaris hit them all. They have had columnaris for months and took me a long time to find the right medication. Have lost 5 Bettas. Took all bettas out and combined them into 2 tanks (all separated) and am treating them.
Questions:

• How do I get rid of the Columnaris in the empty tanks? I just recently but a few guppies in emty tanks to keep amonia in.
• How to clean the filters from Columnaris. 2 tanks had flowing filters and the rest sponges.
• One tank has guppies that I have not treated yet. Do I treat it anyway? Definitely have cross-contamination with utensils from other tanks.
• What to do with plants in the empty tanks? Are they saveable?

Desperate for help. Been dealing with this for months spent a lot of money and time trying to fix this. Have done a lot of research but cannot find answers to my questions. Thanks

 

You can't get rid of Columnaris. If you put water in a tank you have Columnaris.

 

You can't get rid of Columnaris. If you put water in a tank you have Columnaris.

Thanks, and I have read that in many articles but what troubles me is I am so careful with my tanks. I clean them weekly ( seriously have never missed cleaning them every week.) 25 to 50% water changes. Major vacuuming and weekly spot vacuuming. The point being I keep my tanks clean. I At the beginning of my aquarium learning I was definitely taking out too much water when cleaning them. Because the bettas were all separated and by the time I got to the last divided area I did not have enough water in there to vacuum. I have since stopped taking out as much water.

 

Your situation sounds extreme. Most Columnaris outbreaks are usually specific to an individual fish. If the infected fish is quickly removed from the community tank & either treated or euthanized, that usually solves the problem.
An infected fish acts like an Columnaris incubator. The bacteria becomes more virulent and is more likely to infect tankmates if the sick fish is allowed to remain in the community tank.
It's possible your vendor sold you infected fish, or there exists a yet unidentified stressor in your system that's opening your stock up to infection.
IMO, most available fish antibiotics aren't effective against Columnaris.
My advice would be to euthanize the infected fish, do a routine 50% WC, wait two or three weeks & gradually restock. Maybe buy from another vendor.
I hope things get better soon.

 

exactly how do you clean your tanks an filters....complete step by step routine

 

As already said, columnaris is ubiquitous and in all tanks. It will come out in fish that have weakened immune system. Reasons for that are many and varied. If you got a fish that was actively infected and did not quarantine, it infected others in the tank. Cross contamination occurred to spread the active bacteria to other tanks.
Side-note: If you don’t think cross-contamination occurs, just add some duckweed or Malaysian trumpet snails to one tank and watch how they spread, lol. Unless you have ALL exclusive equipment for each tank and wash hands and arms after messing around in tanks, cross-contamination occurs.

I have successfully treated columnaris using kanaplex and furan2 combination. Here is a great article that I followed treatment recommended.

 

Probably feeding too much. There have been some youtubers who advocate feeding NOTHING to small fish like bettas. I don't think that extreme is doable but I definitely advocate feeding less than what most people feed.

 

as stated...bad parameters, over feeding ,not enough partial water changes, overcleaning tanks and filters leads to sick fish. the bacteria that causes this is always present...doing some basics wrong for long periods of time, can lead to huge rates of infections... You can still o everything right an have a bout of the disease...but doing lots of things wrong for a long time will certainly get things to here they are now. Knowing best practices and how to avoid pitfalls goes a long way to keeping fish healthy... it is work that not only needs to be done but also must be done....having lots of tanks only makes it more imperative to have a good routine and to stick to it religiously every week.
UNERFEEDING has its own set of issues too...there is a fine balance

 

As already said, columnaris is ubiquitous and in all tanks. It will come out in fish that have weakened immune system. Reasons for that are many and varied. If you got a fish that was actively infected and did not quarantine, it infected others in the tank. Cross contamination occurred to spread the active bacteria to other tanks.
Side-note: If you don’t think cross-contamination occurs, just add some duckweed or Malaysian trumpet snails to one tank and watch how they spread, lol. Unless you have ALL exclusive equipment for each tank and wash hands and arms after messing around in tanks, cross-contamination occurs.

I have successfully treated columnaris using kanaplex and furan2 combination. Here is a great article that I followed treatment recommended.
https://www./Columnaris.html#treatment1

I am un able to open the link do you mind sending it again.,

as stated...bad parameters, over feeding ,not enough partial water changes, overcleaning tanks and filters leads to sick fish. the bacteria that causes this is always present...doing some basics wrong for long periods of time, can lead to huge rates of infections... You can still o everything right an have a bout of the disease...but doing lots of things wrong for a long time will certainly get things to here they are now. Knowing best practices and how to avoid pitfalls goes a long way to keeping fish healthy... it is work that not only needs to be done but also must be done....having lots of tanks only makes it more imperative to have a good routine and to stick to it religiously every week.
UNERFEEDING has its own set of issues too...there is a fine balance

Thanks, I definitely think it overfeeding. I am going to start feeding every other day and see if that helps. I have one of my bettas that has been struggling with Columnaris for about a week. No improvement and only swimming to top to get air then down. Always heavy breathing, been treating him with kana and mono plex for a week and has stayed the same. When do I call it quits? Can they recover from this? I feel so bad for him. A few weeks ago another betta had the same thing and I kept him for 3 weeks medicating him hoping he would pull through but never got better. He was still eating and never got worse so I thought there might be a chance.

as stated...bad parameters, over feeding ,not enough partial water changes, overcleaning tanks and filters leads to sick fish. the bacteria that causes this is always present...doing some basics wrong for long periods of time, can lead to huge rates of infections... You can still o everything right an have a bout of the disease...but doing lots of things wrong for a long time will certainly get things to here they are now. Knowing best practices and how to avoid pitfalls goes a long way to keeping fish healthy... it is work that not only needs to be done but also must be done....having lots of tanks only makes it more imperative to have a good routine and to stick to it religiously every week.
UNERFEEDING has its own set of issues too...there is a fine balance

Thanks, I definitely think it overfeeding. I am going to start feeding every other day and see if that helps. I have one of my bettas that has been struggling with Columnaris for about a week. No improvement and only swimming to top to get air then down. Always heavy breathing, been treating him with kana and mono plex for a week and has stayed the same. When do I call it quits? Can they recover from this? I feel so bad for him. A few weeks ago another betta had the same thing and I kept him for 3 weeks medicating him hoping he would pull through but never got better. He was still eating and never got worse so I thought there might be a chance.