medication ok in tank with biowheel??

[yellowtang2]

just had to put my yellow tang in quarantine tank to medicate for possible bacterial infection (respirating, lateral erosion) and this is a fish i have only had for 3 weeks. my question - is it ok to put the medication (3-5 days of spectrogram) in this tank as it has a biowheel with filter. my lfs said it was ok.

ANY comments appreciated as I want to do this RIGHT.

 

[Len]

It is okay since this is your quarentine tank, but the wide-spectrum antibiotic is probably going to kill most bacteria (including those on the bio-wheel) so the wheel's bio-filtration utility won't amount to much.

 

[yellowtang2]

so the bio-wheel/filter won't prevent or hinder the medication from staying in the tank so it treats the tang?

Also, can I keep the tank set up (with that biowheel) when and if the tang becomes healthy and he goes back into the main tank? or is the bio-wheel now not usable again (I was planning on keeping this tank set up and running as a quarantine tank for the future).

My lfs said to do a 50% water change after 5 days of medication then re-evaluate the tang. will a 50% water change cause the tank to cycle again if I need to keep the tang in there longer?

Thanks for your quick reply!

 

[ChrisRD]

No, the biowheel shouldn't effect medications. Chemical filtration (ie. activated carbon, etc.) will definitely remove them though...

Although I haven't tried that particular med, with many of them, if you run carbon and/or do some water changes to clear the chemical from the water column the bacteria will re-establish fairly quickly.

I wouldn't worry about the 50% water changes disrupting the biological cycle of the q-tank. The medication will have already done that. In fact, the water changes are probably your best bet for keeping water quality up in the q-tank...

HTH

 

[yellowtang2]

thanks ... i guess the plan is to do the 50% change, wait a few days, and re -evaluate the yellow tang (head line lateral erosion, respirating). If he isn't better, treat another 5 days. The disease guy from the lfs said he wasn't sure if there was also bacterial thing going on along with the lateral line erosion so that is why we treated with that med (he saw the fish). We changed the diet too.

there is some type of filter behind the biowheele (that came with it). when should I change that?

THanks

 

[yellowtang2]

oh, will the cycling of the tank be a problem with the fish in there (if that happens with the med and/or water change)?