Mysterious white growth

tarheel96

Polypterus
MFK Member
Feb 2, 2015
457
311
87
North Carolina
Sorry to hear about the fish. I believe this is Aeromonas. Sulaplex will likely be effective against it but better if used with Kanplex or Furan 2. Sometimes it takes this several treatments to clear up and rotating between two treatments is necessary.

So if you have other established tanks with biomedia I'd go ahead and place some of that biomedia or your old biomedia in your filtration and run it in order to remove the ammonia. In my experience neither Kanaplex nor Furan 2 will destroy a healthy biofilter to the point of halting nitrification ... not even close.

How have you been keeping your old media? Does it have an ammonia source?

The stress coat isn't needed. For the most part, it's redundant if you're adding prime and prime is the best conditioner imo.

BTW - What's your tank pH?
 
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Yellacat

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jun 16, 2017
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I didn't transfer the bio media because I have 60+ gallons of it and really nowhere to store it. And if I put it another tank it would infect other tanks right?

I'm hoping the sulfa and kana will do it this time... if not I'll try the furan again. thats if they make it that long
 

tarheel96

Polypterus
MFK Member
Feb 2, 2015
457
311
87
North Carolina
Very high pH is good news/bad news in this situation.

The good news is Sulfaplex should work better at higher pH values. The bad news is ammonia toxicity increases exponentially as pH rises.

Ammonia is 10x more toxic at pH 7.6 than 6.6 and 100x more toxic at pH 8.6 than 6.6. So 0.5 ppm ammonia at pH 8.6 is like having 5ppm at pH 7.6. I believe a standard dose of prime (1 capful per 50 gallons) neutralizes close to 1ppm ammonia for 24-36 hrs absent chlorine/chloramine (no matter pH).
 
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Yellacat

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jun 16, 2017
25
2
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Ammonia readings have been high since the furan was added. Fish are not showing any signs of ammonia poisoning, no coming to the top, no abnormal colored gills, no cloudy eyes... so I'm thinking it's a false reading due to the high dosage of prime.

I have been doing partial wc twice a day and adding beneficial bacteria to the tank to try to save the cycle
 

Yellacat

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jun 16, 2017
25
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To my knowledge columnaris is gram negative, so theoretically the sulfaplex should work because it treats gram negative bacteria as well as fungus and (anaerobic) I believe?
 

tarheel96

Polypterus
MFK Member
Feb 2, 2015
457
311
87
North Carolina
Right. Columnaris and Aeromonas are both gram negative and kanaplex, furan 2 and sulfaplex/triple sulfa are used to treat them both.
 

tarheel96

Polypterus
MFK Member
Feb 2, 2015
457
311
87
North Carolina
I'm really not sure. It's hard to tell without sending it to a lab. But I would treat it as columnaris for the time being.

I'd lower the temperature to 73-74ºF and maybe reduce aeration. The antibiotics will be the same for either bacteria.

Are fuzzy patches still on the fins like in the first pictures? If so, has that gotten worse along with the body sores?

How much salt do you have in the tank?

It takes a lot of medication to treat 300 gallons. If you haven't already, can you lower the water level to save on medication costs?

Your pH (~8.6) was taken at least 24 hours after water exited the tap, right? I think you probably know this but ... pH often rises or falls, sometimes drastically, up to 1.5 pH units after exiting the tap due to differences between dissolved CO2 gas in the tap water and that of the water at atmospheric pressure. As the tap water aerates, CO2 vents with the atmosphere and pH rises or falls until it stabilizes. So you're sure your water is hard (high GH)? Hard water rules out Minocycline as a possible treatment.
 
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