Question About Melafix

[Hiya70310]

I noticed some holes and split fins in on my Black phantom tetras today...So I have some Melafix from back when I didn't know why my Tiger Barbs were dying. Anyway, this will clear it up i'm sure. What I wanted to ask was about taking out my filter. The directions say to take out the active carbon and I'm sure they are talking about the black rocks inside my filter. So i'm wondering if I take my filter out for...7 DAYS!!! Won't my bacteria die even if I keep it in water and there will be nothing keeping my ammonia and nitrite down.
I don't even know what brought on this anyway. I do 50% to 60% water changes every week. I haven't had any issues with split fins since I finished my cycling.
any help would be appereciated.
Thanks
Dany

 

[mixmaster jay]

you only need to take out the carbon its either a black sponge or little lumps of charcoal basically usually in a bag or net of somekind. take that out and do your coarse of meds then at the end of the meds (a week usually) put the carbon back in or new carbon , leave the rest of the filter media in the filter just give it a quick rinse in a bucket of tank water at the end of the meds

 

[Hiya70310]

you only need to take out the carbon its either a black sponge or little lumps of charcoal basically usually in a bag or net of somekind. take that out and do your coarse of meds then at the end of the meds (a week usually) put the carbon back in or new carbon , leave the rest of the filter media in the filter just give it a quick rinse in a bucket of tank water at the end of the meds

Thanks, I have the blue filter cartridge that has lumps of carbon in it. So what I did was I cut a hole in it and took as much out as I can. What I didn't do was rinse the filter off before replacing . So...the water got really mucky. now I'm terrified for my fish. I did a 60% water change now i'm just waiting to test my water. I'm scared I might have killed my bateria. My poor fish. Why did they have to end up with a keeper like me I'm so fustrated right now.
At the end of the dosage period can I get another filter and just cycle that one while I have the filter that is already cycled in there. My filter has space for two media cartridges.

 

[waterdrop]

Murky filter water -looks- bad but it usually won't bother fish, I wouldn't worry.

In situations like this just step up your testing like you did during cycling and remember that water changes with recharges of your medicines or whatever else you need in there will work wonders for various problems.

~~waterdrop~~