Can clowns tolerate a ph of 4.5 ?

[mistergreen]

You need a hospital tank most likely. Get a fairly large one for the clowns.. like a 20G+. You can leave it bare with no substrate. Use water from the old tank to start it up and maybe just a bubbler. Treat the affected fish in HT.
If the other fish in the main tank are affected too.. You'll have to treat the whole tank and wipe out the good bacteria.

Ps. You can get gram negative antibacterials that doesn't affect the good bacteria.. (maracyn I)

[clownygirl]

I have placed an order for the following meds and water conditioners:


1 Tetra Aqua Safe 500 ml
1 Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Pimafix -16 OZ.
1 Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Melafix 16 OZ.
1 Jungle Internal Para Guard 2 oz
1 Mardel Maracyn II Powder Freshwater - 24 Pack
1 Seachem Prime- 500 ml
1 Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Stress Coat- 16 OZ.
1 Aquarium Products Applus+ Anti-Bacteria 4 OZ.
1 Big Al's Multi-Purpose Water Conditioner- 16 OZ.

How is Maracyn II different from Maracyn I ?


I have lost 6 clowns over the last 6 weeks, hope these meds come soon so I can get started.

[Diana]

Maracyn is Erythromycin. This slows the growth of gram positive bacteria.
Maracyn 2 has different ingredients (no package in front of me) that slow the growth of gram negative bacteria. Most bacterial fish disease is caused by gram negative bacteria. A certain amount of other bacteria (besides the main one causing whatever the problem is) can move in on the weakened fish, causing secondary problems. Generally the treatment is to combine M and M2 so that both sorts of bacteria are reduced.

What ever happened with the KH/pH issue?

[mikev]

Maracyn2 is minocycline, it is a member of the tetracycline group, generally better than tetracycline to use.

IME, Maracyn 1 is generally useless: gram-pos infections are pretty rare, and if you want to cover them, use kana instead. A considerably stronger combination is Kana+Furandazole.... there used to be a drug that mixes these two, seemingly no longer made, but one can still get them separately. hth.

Pimafix/Melafix: not for real problems.

Internal Para Guard: Ingredients listed:

acriflavine
metronidazole
sodium chloride

Based on ingredients should be somewhat effective against external protozoa and bacterial infections, probably including velvet and flex....not against internal parasites.

[clownygirl]

Sorry I forgot to mention the ph status. I added crushed shells and the ph rose from 4.5 to 7.5.

It’s been at 7.5 for the last 4 weeks.
I can’t get any more meds. These will only reach me by the month end. I hope thy work.

[crazy loaches]

I have placed an order for the following meds and water conditioners:


1 Tetra Aqua Safe 500 ml
1 Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Pimafix -16 OZ.
1 Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Melafix 16 OZ.
1 Jungle Internal Para Guard 2 oz
1 Mardel Maracyn II Powder Freshwater - 24 Pack
1 Seachem Prime- 500 ml
1 Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Stress Coat- 16 OZ.
1 Aquarium Products Applus+ Anti-Bacteria 4 OZ.
1 Big Al's Multi-Purpose Water Conditioner- 16 OZ.

How is Maracyn II different from Maracyn I ?


I have lost 6 clowns over the last 6 weeks, hope these meds come soon so I can get started.

Is there a reason you bought 4 different kinds of water conditioner?
if you bought Prime it will do everything all the otherw will and more. I'd not use any conditioner that had aloe in it like stress coat (I dont know about the others) as it has been said to clog fishes gills and adds unnecesary organic waste to your system.

About you pH, I just read back and it looked like your pH really went up a lot. Did any fish die since this? I'm just curious if you've tested your water hardness. It used to be a myth that with co2 injected plant tanks you need a certain amount of KH (I think 4* was reccomended), and one of the comon things to due was to add crushed coral. But besides that it was found out that many with low KH was just fine, that to significantly increase your KH and pH from corals was found to often be bad... as to significantly increase these a lot of the coral would have to dissolve and that would really skyrocket your water hardness and TDS.

[chefkeith]

Maybe you know this already, but when you change the KH and GH of the aquarium water, like you are doing, you need to do the same thing with the source water before a water change. In other words, you should be aging or treating your source water to match it as close as possible to the aquarium water. Otherwise you could put the fish into osmotic shock when you change the water. Regardless of the pH, moving a fish from high kh/gh to low kh/gh can kill fish. If it doesn't kill them, it can hinder their immune system so they won't be able to fight off bacterial infections and parasites.

[chefkeith]

It used to be a myth that with co2 injected plant tanks you need a certain amount of KH (I think 4* was reccomended), and one of the comon things to due was to add crushed coral. But besides that it was found out that many with low KH was just fine, that to significantly increase your KH and pH from corals was found to often be bad... as to significantly increase these a lot of the coral would have to dissolve and that would really skyrocket your water hardness and TDS.

I found this out the hard way Many kinds of rocks other than crushed coral will dissolve faster with the addition of CO2 injection. I believe driftwood can have the same effect also. Lowering the pH will increase the rate at which minerals will dissolve. This is the main reason why I do a continous drip waterchange now.

[clownygirl]

I should have consulted on the forum before placing the order

The water conditioners were purchased because they are not available where I live.


I did lose 3 clowns post the ph rising to 7.5, but I also saw an improvement in the others. At one point of time 8 clowns were showing signs of internal bacterial infection and now I have 3 clowns who have still not recovered. The others have grown back their fins and regained color.

[grizzlyone]

Crazy:

You must have been reading my mind...the Prime will take care of all the other water conditioners that you bought...you should have just bought the giant industrial sized prime...it would have saved you some bucks as you use that in maintenace mode and when you add new water or when there is a death or other visible problems..


Kevin