tetracycline turned water brown, help

S

Skidood

AC Members
Mar 6, 2006
24
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0
Bradford, Ontario, Canada
Hi group
One of my mollies developed severe popeye, I gave the tank one proper dose of tetracycline, was supposed to do 3 more, but the next day I euthanized her. I have done daily water changes of 10% since, (3 days now) and my water is still rusty/brown stained..NOT cloudy at all, just tinted..I removed a large piece of wood that had been in there for a long time, as the stain color looked exactly the same as when I first put the wood in (then quickly removed it to a soaking bucket)
I did re-install 2 new filter cartridges after the molly was gone which have carbon included. Should I put some carbon to the baskets to assist in removal of the water staining? The funny thing is, after the daily water change, the water looks better, but the next day is noticeably darker again.

Thanks, Andy
 
Sorry for your loss.

I would say that the tinting is probably from your wood (most likely tannins) if it was fairly new. If it was in the tank for a while these compounds can settle in your tank (i.e. substrate). If it was older, the PWCs over time should have taken this out, and the logical choice would be the meds. Ever see a brown lake in the spring and not any other time? Take a look at the trees, it's usually surrounded by hemlocks or pines (assuming its not from the rain ands erosion).

Anyways, doing 10% PWCs will take a while to get those compounds reduced. The darkening could easily be caused by you agitating the substrate during a water change. Did you gravel vac. The carbon should help too. You could try a large WC and see what that does for you?
 
No, I havent vacuumed the gravel in 5 weeks, but the water quality in my tank is always kept pretty good...the popeye may have come from the fact that lately I havent been washing my hands before feeding.
I normally do 10-15 % WC every 3-4 days.
 
Didn't ur mother tell you to always wash! J/K! :D

I would probably think of increasing ur vacs tho.
 
Popeye is attrubuted to many things..one is water qulity it is thought ot be a bacterial infection behind the eye..it is also a result of an injury
ne thing I have discovered is that it can go away by it's self..many treat it with anti biotics..the results are mixed and can vary from copletely healing..loss of an eye and or death.

the tetracycline will turn the water off color similar to tannins from driftwood.
it is aleviated with water changes,.btw..you can do larger changes.
adding carbon helps remove the meds and help get the water to a normal color(clear)
keep an eyeon the water parameters as it is possible when introducing anti biotics that the beneficial bacteria may also be affected.
 
jm1212 said:
you should be doing gravel vacs at least, at the very minimum, once every two weeks. every 5 weeks is just to long; lots of fish junk is accumulating at the bottom of the tank, which is probably what ofset your water quality.

what is "good"
Click to expand...

very true..you will accumulate a lotof TDS in the mulm..(yuckie stuff in the gravel) btw.using a gravel vac won't affect the bacteria
 
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