HELP!!!! my water is horrible

i think since he medicated his main tank it killed off the bacteria.

 

Oh yeah, antibiotics should be administered to sick fish in a QT tank, not a display tank.
All the more reason to QT new fish.

 

what product did you use also? Might want to....actually want to increase the air circulation in the tank!

In my FOWLR tank I treated with Lifeguard (DONT EVER USE!). It "relies on powerful oxidizing action" to treat bacterial infection....which basically must have just pulled every bit of oxygen out of the tank.

The LFS told me how dangerous this medication was and instructed me to place extra powerheads in my tank during the treatment. I added 2 extra Koralie 3 during the treatment, plus they let me borrow their gigantic multi-air stone pump that had 8 different air stones on it to put in there.

At that point I knew this was not a good product...however I knew that if I did nothing it was going to die anyway it was so bad. After the first treatment my fish literally went to those airstones and stayed right there until it died a few days later. Poor thing sat in front of the stones and did not move...can tell it had no oxygen.

But it never hurts to add circulation to your tank...I ended up taking the tank down afterwards but the meds caused a MAJOR CYCLE afterwards....so the cycle is from the meds

FYI....puffers dont generally do well with ICK treatment...I understand about having no other choice...trust me!

 

How are things going today?

 

I am sad to say, that at this time you can do a 100% water change and it wont do more harm than good, it does not take bacteria (aerobic) a whole lot to die off, that explains your ammonia spike.

 

so today i did a 15 gal water change, it was almost half the tank due to live rock and sand \, but anyway, woke up this morning and 3 stripe damsel was dead, now the trigger came out of his hiding spot for the first time in 2 days, he has not eaten on over a week and he is not swimming too well, im going to add more ammo lock in a min and more prime, i have been using both of these to detox the tank, seems to work for awhile, but i think r34 is right 100% change at this point is where im heading, bristle worms are dead, trying to get all of them out, but my hermit are doing great and i still have a astrea smail alive, even though i thought the puffer ate all those awhile ago. soooooooo lets see what happens tomorrow

 

oh and from now on if i get a sick fish that cant be move without dying, well hes going to the ocean in the sky, this has been a lot more than just an expensive mistake

 

I wouldnt blame it on the kids that work at the LFS your supposed to already researched yourself beforhand on the proper QT fish that are sick, I guess you learned the hard way which sucks. Hope your other fish survive

 

Quarintine tank should always use for treating a fish especially when you have to use a medications, but not only that, it should always use to quarintine a new fish before adding it to the display tank. People recommend fish quarintine for 1 month with low salinity. At this point, you can add cupramine which is a less toxic and can be remove by carbon use, but this is optional if you want to speed up the quarintine to two weeks. Usually, ich can be trigger by stress whether it could be due to bad water parameter, environmental factors or adding fish infected with ich. How is your trigger fish doing by the way?

 

Hello stud, Excessive water changes will deplete the beneficial bacteria and only exasperate the problem. Also, they will alter the over all chemistry of the tank especially because it is only a 60 gal. You have created a re-cycle by using the EM which I believe is erythimicin. Even though it states it will not deplete the bacteria, that can't always be trusted, unfortunately. Stop the water changes and give the tank a chance to settle down. The prime is a good idea. Add double the dose of Cycle every 3 days fore 3 doses to re-establish a good base. The tank will re-establish itself naturally if left alone now. Use the carbon or similar product to rid the tank of the EM. Hope all goes well, we all do things with the best intentions in this hobby that don't always work out. Keep your chin up!