removing medicine

[tttnjfttt]

Last week I put primafix in my tank to help with some very suspicious behavior, and now my fish are back to acting normal, but the medicine has sent my tank into a mini-cycle. I have done two partial water changes, and also today I added back in the carbon filter, which while isn't the exact one for the filter, fits pretty well. How long until all the medicine is removed?

Once it is gone, i have a cycled spounge sitting in my bettas tank that I am going to put back in my main tank but don't want to kill the bacteria on it with the remaning medicine (the betta didn't like the filter, the currents from it were too strong for him).

 

[WILDER]

I would give the black carbon sponge at least two days just to make sure.

 

[canarsie11]

I dont understand why the tank went into a mini cycle? How long was tank cycled for?

 

[WILDER]

Some meds can send your tank into a mini cycle, or even wipe the bacteria colony out completely.

 

[canarsie11]

Really? Did not know that.

 

[tttnjfttt]

Thanks for the info. I really wanted to avoid killing the bacteria living on my betta's spounge.

 

[mlee0332]

actually, melafix shouldnt have done that. It has a special formula so that it wont kill the bacteria. Something else happened. When you removed the carbon filter, that could have caused it.

Do you have an aerobic pad? (a pad that has white or black floss attached to a "grid" and cultures live bacteria, it should go right behind the actual filter cart.)

Did you add fish?

Did you clean the filter and tank completely before the problem arose?

The mini cycle may actually be why the fish acted up, or was it fine before adding mela?

 

[tttnjfttt]

I used primafix, not melafix. From my understanding, melafix is to help with torn fins, while primafix is better for bacterial and fungal things. The tank was doing fine before adding primafix. I have never had a positive nitrite or ammonia reading in this tank, which has been running for about a month (upgraded from a 5 gal).

It could have been from when I removed my carbon filter. My old spounge (the betta one now) was kept in the filter against the carbon, and on the other side of the carbon was the new spounge.

The last fish I had added was about a week before this started. I had also just switched to sand, but most of 2/3 of my gravel was maybe 2 weeks old. The other third had been in a cycled tank for almost a year. The fish started acting up the next day, and i didn't/couldn't medicate until two days later. Every day, the ammonia and nitrite were at zero.

 

[mlee0332]

well thats why you mini cycled. It just had to catch up with it. Primafix is made by the same place, and it doesn;t mess with bene bacteria either. Removing the sponge, and carbon filter, and new fish, and changing substrate is quite a lot of bacteria being removed. Thats why. Now that you've added everything back, give it a day or so, and the nitrites and ammonia will be gone again.