Hostipal Tank Paradox

[confusion]

I have a bit of a paradox. I have a 10G hospital/quatentine tank. Currently, I have 6 harelquin's in it. One of them has a nasty fungal infection. Before they go into my 55G tank, I want to clear up that infection. So, I used some anti-fungal meds. Well, anti-fungal meds (as with most anti-biotics will) completely nuked my bio filter in the hospital tank. Now, I have already sick fish in a tank with ammonia on the rise. The only thing I have come up with so far is using ammo-lock while these guys are in the tank. I have changed the water, but that just takes the meds out. The anti-fungal I have says it works over 4 days.

I know I'm not the only one to face this. How does everyone else handle this situation?

 

[black angel]

Maybe the meds are giving you a false reading as some meds can.
You can still do water changes, just re add the meds you take out.

What are you getting for ammonia

 

[confusion]

The tank was cycled before yesterday. I added the meds two days ago. Yesterday, I noticed the fish acting strange - completely uninterested in food, etc. I tested the ammonia and it came up at 2PPM. I did 3 water changes back to back, got it down to about .2 or so, and checked nitrates - 0. I tested them again today - still no nitrates and ammonia of about 1ppm.

 

[Tolak]

With most meds I do a 50% water change daily & remed.

 

[Bignose]

With most meds I do a 50% water change daily & remed.

what he said. Do the water change to lower the pollution levels, then re-medicate. Most medicines would be completely used up in a day or so anyway, so remedicatoin is necessary for most (but do research the medicine you are using!)

 

[ImperfectFaerie]

What about the good bacteria in the filter though? Doesn't the med kill that?

 

[Bignose]

What about the good bacteria in the filter though? Doesn't the med kill that?

It is a quarantine tank. The whole goal is to try to cure the disease, while doing water changes so that the fish's own pollution levels dont kill them. If the fish can be cured of their disease, they will be places in a cycled tank -- so it is unimportant to cycle the quaratine tank. Just do water changes enough to keep the pollution levels low.