Hi everyone. I'm making this thread as a last resort because my fish are suffering from chronic cloudy eye and fin rot. I think the problem started a couple weeks ago when I cleaned out both my filters at once. The next day, the tank was cloudy (I figured from a bacterial bloom). However, over the past couple of weeks I have been battling mutiple diseases such as cloudy eye and fin rot. My catfish also have rotting whiskers. Every time I notice one of these, I do a water change and add salt. The cloudy eye and fin rot is usually gone by the next day. I do water changes at least once a week and have a UV sterilizer. The tank is not overcrowded and I am sure I do not overfeed. Everything seems like it should be healthy, but the diseases always come back within a couple days. I'm pretty sure it has something to do with a bacterial infection. Also, the water hasn't really cleared up in weeks. Should I unplug the UV sterilizer to allow bacteria to grow in the filters faster? Please help, how can I permanantly get rid of these diseases?
Persistant Diseases
- Thread starter Optimist
- Start date
What are your water test results?
If you damaged your BB colony when you cleaned the filters them maybe it's due to ammonia/nitrIte spikes.
UV sterilizer will also be slowing down the BB recovery if this is the case.
If you damaged your BB colony when you cleaned the filters them maybe it's due to ammonia/nitrIte spikes.
UV sterilizer will also be slowing down the BB recovery if this is the case.
I agree, by cleaning both filters at once you have probably damaged your biofiltration, try Biospira or adding filter sludge from a healthy tank to your filters to revive the colonies and do water changes every couple days as you are gouing through ammonnitrite spikes.
Thanks for the advice. Do you think the diseases will go away when the bacteria colonies have been established in the filter?