Rich wrote:
I didnt take down the 30 gal that they are in, i took down the hospital tank
and washed that one out.
As for the permanganate i'm going to take a trip into the city. Right now i
live about an hour from the closest town (small city if that is what you
want to call it) and the 2 pet stores there do not carry it nor did any of
the pool stores that i could find. I'm sure i can find something in the
city. I will make some phone calls before i start my search. I did look
around on line and there was some interesting stuff on the web about it.
Even found some that have instructions for treatment for tank/fish.
I'll also do some searching for AmQuel. I dont want to leave the poor
little guys in the hospital tank (thats if they pull through) for very long
but i will have to wait for the 30 gal to cycle. You wouldnt happen to know
of a fast way to get a tank to cycle?

And if i havent said it yet....THANKS A TON


Rich


You're welcome! Glad to help someone else's tank since I'm having such
trouble with my own (see the ich thread). ROFL!

There's a VERY easy way to seed your 30 gallon tank with bacteria once
it's cleaned and not have a cycle at all. Once you have moved the fish
out of the hospital and into the 30 gallon tank, take old carbon, a
third of the sponge, less than half the biomedia or anything else from
the filter in your large, cycled, healthy tank and stick it in the
filter in your 30 gallon tank. In a pinch, you can even use a filter
media bag full of gravel. Ideally, put it in the water flow before or
in the biomedia layer so bacteria will move easily from the old media to
the new. The bacteria you've taken from the large tank will quickly
regrow. Bacteria on the filter media from the large tank will
immediately begin to filter the water and colonize the smaller tank's
filter and you will not have a cycle. You can remove this media in 30
days or so.

Two brand names for permanganate are Kordon Permoxyn or Jungle Clear
Water. I hope you can find some. PetSmart's website lists Jungle
ClearWater so maybe there? Since permanganate treatment is hard on
fish, I would personally only treat with permanganate if there are still
cottony growths of bacteria on the skin or fins that the permanganate
can actually reach. Treating the fish in the main tank will reduce the
bacterial load on the tank, so you won't need to move the fish.
However, if you want to sanitize the display tank more thoroughly
(understandable), move the fish to the hospital while the tank is
disinfecting. Then add old filter media and fish at the same time and
your 30 gallon tank should re-establish seamlessly.

Oh - and don't bother with the AmQuel. Prime does the same thing. I
didn't even think of it. Follow its instructions for ammonia.
Honestly, I don't think you'll have any ammonia at all if you start your
filter from the big tank.

Hope those fish keep getting better.

--
__ Elaine T __
__' http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__