# Help Please =[ fin rot contamination ???



## 2 many tanks (Nov 30, 2009)

Hey fellow fish keepers,

I am reletivily new to fish keeping still and have had to deal with my first devistation. I noticed that a whole tank had become infected with fin rot and the following day they were all dead

it was a fully cycled 60ltr with 10 baby phantom tetra in it
ammonia was so low only just picking it up and nitrate and nitrite where supper low also. is it possable that the fin rot cleaned out the entire tank in less than 18 hrs ???

will the disease remain in the tank ? will I have to strip down everything and throw away all the plants boil gravel and sterilise my tank or do you think a treatment with melafix and pumafix and tonic salt clear up this problem ??

any help would be so greatly appreciated

It was so sad to see all the fish with their rotting fins all floating around in the morning =[

Please help i am not sure what to do from here

Thanks so much everyone =]

Regards Dave =]


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Yes, fin rot can wipe out a whole tank in 18 hours, but it might take a month.

There are different causes for fin rot, you see, and while some are very slow, some are very fast. The fast kind isn't caused by bacteria but by protozoans called Trichodina. Luckily, we rarely see these in our tanks. On the downside, though, when we do it's never pretty. Even worse, its extremely hard to get rid of without a total tank sterilization. Salt and melafix will most assuredly NOT get rid of Tricho.

I know this sucks, but I'm trying to save you some hassle. Any fin rot that does that much damage in that short a time is almost never the simple infectious kind that you can get rid of with medicine. I've tried and tried myself, but only wasted a ton of time and money in the process, both of which I could have saved if I just went ahead and re-did the tank in the first place. You see, the amount of chemicals needed to wipe out this armor-plated little beastie is enough to trash your tank's filters anyway.


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## 2 many tanks (Nov 30, 2009)

Thanks so much for your advice =]

I was pretty sure i was going to have to do that. will the plants need to be thrown out aswell ? ie will they also be contaminated ?

thanks for your help


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## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

I notice that you said the tank was fully cycled but that you report you had low ammonia , nitirite and nitrate readings.
This is not a fully cycled tank! that can also cause fin and tail deterioration.


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

The plants should be considered very contaminated. However, you don't have to get rid of them. Just put them into some sort of tank or clear plastic tub or something for several months without any fish. The nasties will eventually die off, and you'll have a nice bunch of plants for later use.
You could also try to clean them instantly with potassium pemanganate, but that's not so easy as it sounds. You're better off doing it the slow way.


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## 2 many tanks (Nov 30, 2009)

mousey said:


> I notice that you said the tank was fully cycled but that you report you had low ammonia , nitirite and nitrate readings.
> This is not a fully cycled tank! that can also cause fin and tail deterioration.


Im still pretty new to fish keeping and only really since getting more into it and reading up online iv heard of adding pure ammonia to a tank to get the cycle running before adding fish but i have never been able to find it at pet stores here and all the pet stores here just tell you to have your tank running for a few weeks and then add 1 fish at a time so that is what i had to do. the level of ammonia was still only little but could of played a part in all of this, thanks so much for your help, i still have much to learn but have enjoyed every minuite of it so far =]

Thanks heaps


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## 2 many tanks (Nov 30, 2009)

TheOldSalt said:


> The plants should be considered very contaminated. However, you don't have to get rid of them. Just put them into some sort of tank or clear plastic tub or something for several months without any fish. The nasties will eventually die off, and you'll have a nice bunch of plants for later use.
> You could also try to clean them instantly with potassium pemanganate, but that's not so easy as it sounds. You're better off doing it the slow way.


Thanks so much =] all your advice is greatly appreciated =] i will get these plants out and into a standby tank first thing tomorrow =]

Thanks =]


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## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

pure ammonia can be found in hardware departments. if you ever decide to get some make sure it has NO additives like soap or perfumes. Since you already have a tank up and running- when you get your next tank you can kick start it by using some old filter media from your current tank as well as some STABILITY.
Good Luck!


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## 2 many tanks (Nov 30, 2009)

No!
You want ammonium chloride.


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