Bio reactors and medication?

[DB junkie]

Put them together and it almost seems like the old vinegar and baking soda volcanos.

I know reactors seem to be the bio filter of choice for many of us raykeepers. I'd like to hear from those of you running them that have used meds while running one. How do you make it work or what do you change to keep them from locking up? I went to do a Mela/Pimafix treatment and an hour later I had a bunch of K1 not moving, as it was riding a "foam pillow", and the stuff on top began drying out.

Could be a serious problem if a moving bed is all you run for bio.

I've noticed that Prazi also seems to affect the water - almost like it changes the specific gravity- similar to what the Mela/pima does.

I haven't gotten much sleep this week tending to this crap and I'd just like to know how you guys deal with it?

Thanks!

 

[DIDYSIS]

Don't know but sound like another good read. I'll check on this for each reply.

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[eklikewhoa]

Not much experience with rays but have experience with meds and such. With the bio reactor in extreme cases I loop it to isolate the media from the tank and just aerate the crap out of the tank.

If all you are running is the bio reactor mayber look into splitting up your media. I would never rely solely on a single set up. I run one and isolate the other. During treatments I do frequent water changes so there's no worry about blooms.

My system now has a bio media reactor, wet/dry and 2x FX5 and all have bio. If there is ever a need for treating the wet/dry is set up to circulate within itself and the reactor runs off the wetdry water so the two will be isolated while the FX5s will keep flow and bio going in the tank.

 

[T1KARMANN]

I have always been told that moving bed and sand filters which are much the same just different media are never good to just run a tank as the bacteria dies very fast if the air stop even for a short period of time

The instructions that came with my big sand filter which can handle a 10,000 gal pond said it should never be run as a stand alone unit but in conjunction with a standard pond filtration system

You yes they do die fast if turned off and take a long time to get established again


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[Reedmaster16]

When I was talking with aquatic eco they recommended plumbing in a bypass in the event the tank would need to be dosed with chemicals or medication. They said a number of chemicals can impair biofilter function or destroy nitrifying bacteria in the reactor but did not mention any specific meds or chemicals by name.

 

[T1KARMANN]

When I was talking with aquatic eco they recommended plumbing in a bypass in the event the tank would need to be dosed with chemicals or medication. They said a number of chemicals can impair biofilter function or destroy nitrifying bacteria in the reactor but did not mention any specific meds or chemicals by name.

by a bye pass do you mean the reactor will continue to run on its own but not running from tank water

my sand filter has a bye pass but it only lets you shut down the sand part but the pump still pumps back to the main tank

if i close the bye pass then the bacteria will still die as the sand filter will be shut down

 

[vamptrev]

I never had any issues when i used prazi but i never had to use any other meds

I dont see why the bacteria would die in a bio reactor as long as u kept it oxygenated. When i just moved my system, i had my reactor unplugged for about 10 hours. After i hooked it back up, the next day there was 0 ammonia and already 20 ppm nitrate from 4 large female rays

DB i wish u could just move somewhere with better water. Hope everything goes well


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[DB junkie]

I never had any issues when i used prazi but i never had to use any other meds

I dont see why the bacteria would die in a bio reactor as long as u kept it oxygenated. When i just moved my system, i had my reactor unplugged for about 10 hours. After i hooked it back up, the next day there was 0 ammonia and already 20 ppm nitrate from 4 large female rays

DB i wish u could just move somewhere with better water. Hope everything goes well


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Sadly, judging by the TDS meter it's not my water. My TDS here is under 350ppm. Makes me wonder if it's possible I'm being plauged with the same illness year after year. I know I can maintain my rays better then I do now, but I also know that my regimen now is anything but slacking, I've heard of people doing a lot less without issues. Do you guys think this theory is plausible? To have an illness for years that just takes rays when they become too stressed but can live dormant when the rays immune system is on the up and up?

The bio will die if it dries out. IF you run as much air as I do then Pimafix/melafix will make foam. The media sits on the foam out of the water and dries out. Or at least would have without intervention. Prazi doesn't mess up the water near as bad as Mela/Pima.

I just added a 100 gallon rubbermaid tub in addition to the 150 gallon tub that is my reactor. I changed to this over (2) 55 gallon drums because of the surface are and ease of maintainance. More surface area = Less bunching and less floating. So with the additional 100 gallon reactor I plummed this in under the water outputs of the mechanical filters so all the water hitting the sump now turns the media in that reactor. I installed a hydrive 4800 on the other reactor to blow the media around. It was nothing more then a hurdle, but it was a very irritating one at that. Was just curious what others did in this situation.

Everything isn't going worth a crap.... lol They're all back to eating again but just like last time and the time before and the time before, the problem isn't fixed it's just back in the closet waiting till the next time I overstock, slack on maintainance, or breeding activity gets into full swing again, then I'll be putting another ray or 2 in the freezer and hope that it goes back to its closet again.

Apparently Nitrofurazone is outlawed now. No more Binox.

I spoke with a university today and will likely be paying them to do some work to get to the bottom of it. I may find out what it is for peace of mind but if I can't get meds to fix it then it's kinda pointless, but at least maybe I won't feel so guilty about not caring for my rays if I know it's not all on me. They did think out loud about salinity shock in regards to nematoads as I know another guy here in Ia had his test positive via the university for them so I inquired about them. Maybe this sheds light on our age old 4lbs of salt/100 gallons trick.

I have poo here that makes me think internal parasites. But also have others that seem to think bacteria (hence the Mela/pima) Just to make things intresting my favorite Marble gal was breathing out of one speracle- which a prazi treatment seemed to fix, but she also acted way better after I moved her out of the mela/pima treated tank before I dosed with prazi.

IF anyone reading this has a few spare minutes go to Facebook and type in aqua clear. It's a parasite med. It shows illistrations of what infected rays poo looks like and that looks EXACTLY like the poo I recovered from my girl that's going on a month of hardly any eating. Please share your thoughts on this med....... To me it looks promising.

 

[Reedmaster16]

by a bye pass do you mean the reactor will continue to run on its own but not running from tank water

my sand filter has a bye pass but it only lets you shut down the sand part but the pump still pumps back to the main tank

if i close the bye pass then the bacteria will still die as the sand filter will be shut down

Correct. The reactor can continue to boil from the air pump keeping the media aerated which should presumably preserve the bacteria.

Instead of plumbing everything together with a bypass, my reactor is separate from the bio in my sump and the mechanical filtration. So if the tank needs to be medicated i just shutdown the pump pushing water from the tank to the reactor and rely on the bio (ceramic rings) from the sump.

Real sorry to hear about you having problems again DB. I hope your able to find some answers soon.

 

[T1KARMANN]

The only reason I can see melafix or prima fix causing a problem is if it lowers the air to much which I can't see it doing

But I can see what you are talking about with foam but not every bit of media will come out of the water and you will have plenty still covered to keep enough bacteria

As for the rays having a problem that keeps coming back or at times of stress when I got the gill worm problem when I moved my rays to the new tank I was told they always have it but stress brings it out

After being told this I now treat with tramazol once per year just to be safe and the rays do feed better after treatment


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