medicating fish and have filter question

[cougargirl50]

Ok I have just found out at least one of my platy's has an internal parasite so I went and bought some medicine today and it says to take the filter/carbon out. I don't want to dry out my filter so if I take my bucket and add some aquarium water in it and sit my 2 filters in my bucket will they still be ok as far as my bacteria is concerned??
Till my medicine that I put in is in and my fish are treated??

thanks for your help.

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[FroggyFox]

I dont think you need to take your whole filter out...just the carbon because carbon would take the medicine out of the water. Personally I dont even use carbon in any of my filters unless there's something specific like taking meds out of the water etc. There is the possibility that some meds will harm some of your bacteria...however, just leaving your filter off isn't really an option or your ammonia will start going up in the tank.

Leaving your filter cartridge in a bucket of water without movement probably wont do much and will only keep the bacteria alive for a little while...you should give them some ammonia to work on and swish the water around from time to time if you're going to take that route.

What medicine did you get? Someone will probably have used it before and recognize if your bacteria is in any danger while using it.

 

[cougargirl50]

What medicine did you get? Someone will probably have used it before and recognize if your bacteria is in any danger while using it.

I went out and bought some Jungle Parasite Clear. It says on the box that it wont interfere with the biological filtration. (So I'm hoping)

And what I did was took the carbon out of the filters and just put them back in the tank then.

I dont even use carbon in any of my filters unless there's something specific like taking meds out of the water etc

So I really don't need to put the carbon back in at all?

 

[FroggyFox]

Nope...not IMO. You could do a search on the board and see different people's reasoning behind using it or not using it. There isn't any HARM in using it (unless you're trying to medicate haha) but its usually just one more thing that isn't necessary and costs money. Although I have some carbon laying around because my filter cartridges come with a packet of it to use if I want to.

GL with the treatment!

 

[ashleigh]

Good luck- and I agree- carbon doesn't hurt a thing under ordinary conditions, but it's not essential. It might be good to add some fresh carbon when you are finished treating the tank.

 

[discus4everGrl]

you only need to take the carbon out because it removes the medication faster than anything will.