**WARNING** Using Marineland HOB with medications

[Humblefish]

Just a little heads up everyone. In addition to the carbon, remove the entire filter cartridge when dosing meds in your QT:

The filter pads are made from polyfiber which will remove medications from the water (including Chloroquine phosphate). You may also notice some slight copper absorption. I confirmed this today after speaking with Marineland.

If you want something in the chamber to trap dirt and debris, I recommend buying filter foam and cutting it to size:

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P.S. The bio-wheel itself is safe/medication friendly.

 

[Hitman]

Thank you for the heads up!

 

[Saveafish]

Ohh poop. Thanks so much. I always gutted the carbon out and used the pads in it. Super thanks @Humblefish

 

[4FordFamily]

This was a very hard lesson for me. Take heed R2R this was a very expensive and sad lesson.

 

[Converted to Saltwater]

Oops. This could explain a lot. I just pulled out all the carbon I could.

 

[User]

That explains my copper power concentration drop in my first QT. 1.75 to 1.69 over 3 days, consistent.

I ended up throwing the pad out after I turned off my QT intending to clean it before getting distracted fir 3 days. I figured toss the floss and use biospira since I couldn’t put it back in my sump to reseed . Generic pillow stuffing since then and cu levels stay where I put them

 

[dantimdad]

Would have never guessed. I always just dumped out the carbon through a slit and rinsed them.

Man, you probably just saved hundreds, if not thousands, of fish lives.

 

[4FordFamily]

Would have never guessed. I always just dumped out the carbon through a slit and rinsed them.

Man, you probably just saved hundreds, if not thousands, of fish lives.

Yup. Our giant observation tank went from about 80 to about 15. We learned this lesson long and hard. Not cheap fish, either. I am glad though that others can learn from our lesson lol!

 

[dantimdad]

Yup. Our giant observation tank went from about 80 to about 15. We learned this lesson long and hard. Not cheap fish, either. I am glad though that others can learn from our lesson lol!

Dude! I am so sorry. I have lost a lot of fish I was treating and ran ML HOBs. I used to bulk buy fish and resell in the little town I lived in at the time. I switched quite a few years ago to aquaclears but not for this reason. If I had known...

 

[4FordFamily]

Dude! I am so sorry. I have lost a lot of fish I was treating and ran ML HOBs. I used to bulk buy fish and resell in the little town I lived in at the time. I switched quite a few years ago to aquaclears but not for this reason. If I had known...

It makes perfect sense in retrospect, these are designed to remove unwanted water “yuck”. Poly is a great choice. They designed it to be effective at removing these items and medications are just a symptom. I guess we just remove the cartridges entirely.

Thanks for the kind words, this too shall pass!

 

[AlexStinson]

I have always used aquaclear filters with just the foam blocks. I keep a few of the foam inserts in my sump for whenever I need to set up something for QT. You can buy a bulk pack of the foam for pretty cheap cut to size.

 

[Flippers4pups]

I guess I just got lucky without knowing it. I never ran the poly pads in mine. Good to know! Thanks for the info!

 

[S-t-r-e-t-c-h]

I have always used aquaclear filters with just the foam blocks. I keep a few of the foam inserts in my sump for whenever I need to set up something for QT. You can buy a bulk pack of the foam for pretty cheap cut to size.

I came here to post that, almost word for word. Freaky...

 

[puffy127]

Yup. Our giant observation tank went from about 80 to about 15. We learned this lesson long and hard. Not cheap fish, either. I am glad though that others can learn from our lesson lol!

Can you elaborate? What happened? What were you treating with and what did the poly remove?

 

[4FordFamily]

Can you elaborate? What happened? What were you treating with and what did the poly remove?

Chloroquine Phosphate. Followed best protocol and didn’t realize poly removes CP. Merged 4 QT in to a giant observation tank with the assumption we were disease free. The two CP tanks weren’t therapeutic CP as we now know, velvet took over FAST and in a few days fish were badly affected and even though we treated, secondary gram negative bacterial infections grenaded most of the fish. This is unfortunately pretty common post-velvet.

Poly will remove all medications. Marineland said it may remove 100% of many medications (antibiotics and CP for instance) and some copper.

 

[Foothill Corals]

I have all ways used Aquaclear HOB filters, it is a better filter and comes with a good size sponge block.

 

[Converted to Saltwater]

To me this begs the question since it is so good at removal could it could it be counterproductive by removing anything good in a healthy tank. Would it be best to stay with the foam always?

 

[Brew12]

To me this begs the question since it is so good at removal could it could it be counterproductive by removing anything good in a healthy tank. Would it be best to stay with the foam always?

Not likely unless you are suffering from low nutrients. I can't imagine it is an issue outside of medicated tanks.

 

[Converted to Saltwater]

Not likely unless you are suffering from low nutrients. I can't imagine it is an issue outside of medicated tanks.

Ok thanks, this was really on my mind as the clownfish I've been trying to treat didnt seem,to respond to anything well or at all. And this was the brand filter I was using. A couple days ago along with other advice I thought mabey I contaminated the filter somehow when I was scraping our the carbon and removed the whole thing. Instant improvement.

 

[Brew12]

I am sitting here thinking that this knowledge may be useful. These may be a great and relatively inexpensive option to use on a reef tank where food soaked medications are used. It might work very well to reduce how much medication escapes the food and enters the water. Put them in the filter socks or around the drain pipe.