Can I get away without water change?

ndz98 · Mar 24, 2016

I have my fish in qt right now and have been treating it with furan 2 and kanaplex. It says do a water change everything before you give it. Unfortunately I'm going to be out of town this weekend so I have someone else watching my tank. What are the downsides of not doing a water change and giving the medication? I changed the water today and gave meds and if it's okay to do without another water change I was hoping he could give meds Saturday?

On a different note, do clowns eat pods?

mike007 · Mar 24, 2016

You should be okay. I would not trust anyone doing it for you while you are gone.

ndz98 · Mar 24, 2016

I already have everything measured out. All he has to do is dump the packet in the tank. I think it might be worth the risk. My fish has a really bad bacterial infection eating away at his skin.

mike007 said:
You should be okay. I would not trust anyone doing it for you while you are gone.

Ryengoth · Mar 24, 2016

If you have old medicated water in the QT you really need to dump it and run activated charcoal on it to clean it well before you dose anytting else. I just cleaned my QT that way before putting pods in it. No issues.

ndz98 · Mar 24, 2016

Ryengoth said:
If you have old medicated water in the QT you really need to dump it and run activated charcoal on it to clean it well before you dose anytting else. I just cleaned my QT that way before putting pods in it. No issues.

It's got a filter with carbon.

Ryengoth · Mar 24, 2016

Be sure to take the carbon out before you dose any medication. It'll suck the meds out.

ndz98 · Mar 24, 2016

Ryengoth said:
Be sure to take the carbon out before you dose any medication. It'll suck the meds out.

Didn't even think of that. Thanks for the tip! The carbon is in the filter so how long should I wait before putting it back in?

Ryengoth · Mar 24, 2016

ndz98 said:
Didn't even think of that. Thanks for the tip! The carbon is in the filter so how long should I wait before putting it back in?

Leave it out until you are done with the treatment cycles and you do a 50% change (or more depending on if you are dosing copper or not). I would never leave water in the system after dosing copper. I leave my HOT pump empty during treatment and then run a mini-reactor packed tight for 24 hours after I do a watcher change and then put a new HOT filter cartridge back in to make sure it stays clean.

EDIT: I leave the HOT running to help circulate and aerate the water regardless of what's going on.