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I recently bought a few fish to add to my 55 gallon community. I bought a dwarf gourami, red tailed shark, and skunk botia. I wanted to put them in a QT tank that had been sitting empty, but I discovered that the filter wasn't working, so I went ahead and dumped them in the 55 without QTing them.

These fish looked fine at the LFS, but now there seems to be some kind of problem.

All the new fish seem to have tattered fins. While there is some occassional nippage from the Serpaes that I already had, I am beginning to suspect fin rot. I wasn't too concerned at first, especially because the dwarf gourami was the only one getting chased, but now I think otherwise as the edges look white.

Just to be safe, I would like to treat my tank. However, I don't want to destroy the bacterial colonies or the "good bacteria." What meds are safe to use? I have seen a fish food with an antibiotic...how would that work? Any info would be greatly appreciated. Yes, I do have Melafix on hand and have already started using it.

Melafix IME isnt enough to handle finrot. If you're only seeing nipping injuries using melafix will help as the fish heal by themselves. However you'll need to remove the fish from the tank they're getting picked on as it will likely continue.

There are two types of finrot, bacterial and fungal. If the fins look thin and worn around the edges that's often caused by bacterial fin rot. Fungal shows sign of fuzz around the edge of the fins.
One medication I've had success with is Jungle Labs Fungus Clear Tank Buddies. It handles both types of fin rot, and when I used it didnt deplete my bacterial colony. In fact I dont remember seeing much of any damage to it. Dosing with Cycle after medicating may be helpful.

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If it is fin rot, I'd lean towards bacterial, as there is no cottony fungus. I said before that the edges look whiteish, but I should have said opague.

I'm not seeing any nipping or chasing now, only when I initially put them in the tank. I will keep a close eye on this and hope for the best.

I've used the jungle tabs before, but they didn't fix the problem. I had a fungus/bacteria outbreak about 6 months ago and had to use maracyn (I think?) to clear it. My tank had to be re-cycled, so just when I think it's safe, this happens. I know I'm not overstocked and it won't take much to cycle it again, so I'll go ahead and try the jungle tabs and hope for the best.

The opaque sure does sound like what my experience with bacterial looked like. I'd been replacing the substrate and removing UGF plates from a used tank that I'd bought.

Jungle labs fungus clear tank buddies and Furan-2 both have nitrofurazone and furazolidone which are two meds too look for, if you really didnt have any luck with the jungle labs possibly try furan-2 from aquarium pharm instead.

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Babel, 2 days later and there really isn't much change, in fact they sorta look better. I will keep an eye on all my fish, to make sure they don't get sick, but it was probably just from the nipping.