SOS! SICK FISH!/chemistry help, please
Today is the 5th day since I discovered white sores on some of my fishies.
I think it's fungus. Fishies living in upper pond, approx 1900 gal; total system 2550 gal. Pond was enlarged last year but smaller pond still not finished, so I have not added plants and I put up a fish gate at the step-down stream to keep fish out of it. Water crystal clear, no algae, plants healthy. No ammonia, no nitrites or nitrates. pictures at: http://community.webshots.com/user/skndeep1 *I have added malachite green/formalin three times on consecutive days. *I have added rock salt slowly to increase salt concentration from 0.02% to 0.1%. *pH over 9. Some mortar must be leeching into the water. I added 16 oz of muriatic acid, which did not touch the pH but dropped the kH from 80 to 40. I then went out and bought a pound of "pH Down" (powdered sodium bisulfate anhydrous) and have added a third of the jar without it lowering the pH, but the kH is back up to 80. *Today I bought some antibiotic fish food and fed the fishies once. They are eating well. The fish whose sores I am tracking appear to be getting a little better- the sores have less white and aren't getting deeper, BUT I see previously unaffected fish with new white areas on their sides. I bought a 20 gal "plantainer" at Lowe's and a 10 gal $9 aquarium at Walmart, but the fishies are too fast for me to catch, so please don't tell me to catch the fish and treat them in a hospital tank! I suppose I could catch them if I drained the ponds, but I would prefer not to do that. so- what do I do now? How high can I get the salt concentration without hurting my flora? How do I get the pH down without losing my buffering capacity? thanks for any advice! Jo Bohannon Richmond, Va Gregory Young wrote: 7) The first step, is to test your water parameters (at the very least pH, ammonia, nitrite, alkalinity (kH), dissolved oxygen, and of course temperature) |
SOS! SICK FISH!/chemistry help, please
Jo Bohannon,
It is good that you are trying to get your pH down. If your problem is Flexibacter columnaris as speculated by Gregory, you are only making it happy by keeping the pH in the higher regions for it likes this condition. Also, if you have Flexibacter columnaris using salt (NaCl) is not a good idea either because this animal likes environments high with sodium. Instead of using NaCl you would be better off using the Salt CaCl2. It is a little more expensive, but has no sodium Even though Flexibacter columnaris likes harder water it does not do well with CaCl2 (Calcium Chloride) in the water. Stay away from Magnesium salts also. Dips in PP or copper sulfate can be effective at the start of the infection, but in advanced cases Oxytetracycline is a good water borne antibiotic. HTH Tom L.L. "Jo Bohannon-Grant MD" wrote in message ... Today is the 5th day since I discovered white sores on some of my fishies. I think it's fungus. Fishies living in upper pond, approx 1900 gal; total system 2550 gal. Pond was enlarged last year but smaller pond still not finished, so I have not added plants and I put up a fish gate at the step-down stream to keep fish out of it. Water crystal clear, no algae, plants healthy. No ammonia, no nitrites or nitrates. pictures at: http://community.webshots.com/user/skndeep1 *I have added malachite green/formalin three times on consecutive days. *I have added rock salt slowly to increase salt concentration from 0.02% to 0.1%. *pH over 9. Some mortar must be leeching into the water. I added 16 oz of muriatic acid, which did not touch the pH but dropped the kH from 80 to 40. I then went out and bought a pound of "pH Down" (powdered sodium bisulfate anhydrous) and have added a third of the jar without it lowering the pH, but the kH is back up to 80. *Today I bought some antibiotic fish food and fed the fishies once. They are eating well. The fish whose sores I am tracking appear to be getting a little better- the sores have less white and aren't getting deeper, BUT I see previously unaffected fish with new white areas on their sides. I bought a 20 gal "plantainer" at Lowe's and a 10 gal $9 aquarium at Walmart, but the fishies are too fast for me to catch, so please don't tell me to catch the fish and treat them in a hospital tank! I suppose I could catch them if I drained the ponds, but I would prefer not to do that. so- what do I do now? How high can I get the salt concentration without hurting my flora? How do I get the pH down without losing my buffering capacity? thanks for any advice! Jo Bohannon Richmond, Va |
SOS! SICK FISH!/chemistry help, please
Where do I get CaCl2?
I happen to be a dermatologist and have boatloads of free doxycycline samples. I didn't know it could be added in large volumes to pond water; I'd appreciate some dilution/application guidelines. Again, I would also like help in decreasing the pH safely, especially when using muriatic acid, which has no buffering capacity. How high a salt concentration can plants withstand? TIA- Jo Bohannon Tom La Bron wrote: It is good that you are trying to get your pH down. If your problem is Flexibacter columnaris as speculated by Gregory, you are only making it happy by keeping the pH in the higher regions for it likes this condition. Also, if you have Flexibacter columnaris using salt (NaCl) is not a good idea either because this animal likes environments high with sodium. Instead of using NaCl you would be better off using the Salt CaCl2. It is a little more expensive, but has no sodium Stay away from Magnesium salts also. Dips in PP or copper sulfate can be effective at the start of the infection, but in advanced cases Oxytetracycline is a good water borne antibiotic. Tom L.L. "Jo Bohannon-Grant MD" wrote in message Today is the 5th day since I discovered white sores on some of my fishies. I think it's fungus. Fishies living in upper pond, approx 1900 gal; total system 2550 gal. Pond was enlarged last year but smaller pond still not finished, so I have not added plants and I put up a fish gate at the step-down stream to keep fish out of it. Water crystal clear, no algae, plants healthy. No ammonia, no nitrites or nitrates. pictures at: http://community.webshots.com/user/skndeep1 *I have added malachite green/formalin three times on consecutive days. *I have added rock salt slowly to increase salt concentration from 0.02% to 0.1%. *pH over 9. Some mortar must be leeching into the water. I added 16 oz of muriatic acid, which did not touch the pH but dropped the kH from 80 to 40. I then went out and bought a pound of "pH Down" (powdered sodium bisulfate anhydrous) and have added a third of the jar without it lowering the pH, but the kH is back up to 80. *Today I bought some antibiotic fish food and fed the fishies once. They are eating well. The fish whose sores I am tracking appear to be getting a little better- the sores have less white and aren't getting deeper, BUT I see previously unaffected fish with new white areas on their sides. so- what do I do now? How high can I get the salt concentration without hurting my flora? How do I get the pH down without losing my buffering capacity? thanks for any advice! Jo Bohannon Richmond, Va |
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