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is there anything that can happen by pre-treating a tank with meds.'

for example instead of useing a QT, can i add fish directly into a tank and treat it with melafix etc.... to prevent any illness that can occur. of course it wont be an everyday thing.

and a salt question- can rummy nose tetras have salt? i been noticing a very minor case of ich that is in the very eairly stages of spreading so like in my first question i attacked it with full force. i gave the tank juggle buddies paracite clear and want to add salt, but dont know if it is a bad thing for rummy nose tetras.

tank-10
ph-7.5
nitrate-0
nitrite-0
temp-75*F
stocking-overstocked with rummies and guppies.

In pretreating if you are refering to the tank and not the fish yes, the substrate and the DW can be boiled and that is about all. Yes plants can be treated with chemicals. I did say "CAN" thay does not mean it is advisable or safe for all plants unless you are 110% sure you know exactly what you are doing.

Meds will not last long enough in a tank. Salt will though but again it is not suitable for all plants and fish.

Introduction of problems can happen through no fault of your very careful water preperation. It can come through the water regardless what you do also a delayed problem with a fish.

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info

Look here for my
Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

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I wouldn't recommend pretreating a tank with anti-bacterial remedies.
Most bacteria multiply relatively quickly, for example their population may double every 20 minutes.
When you introduce an anti-bacterial drug, some of the newly multiplied bacteria might develop resistance to the chemical in the drug. May it be a form of mutation or what ever, since your bacteria multiply so quickly, soon you will have a large number of bacteria being resistant to the chemical. And next time when you really do have an outbreak, the drugs you put in won't be affective anymore.

Rummy nose does not tolerate salt in my opinion.

is there anything that can happen by pre-treating a tank with meds.

Yes, you can kill your fish. Medications should only be used to treat specific diseases according to the directions.

The problem with pre-treating a tank is that you will have a temptation to use each medication. After all, if a little is good then a lot is better. In this case, none is perfect.

The purpose of a QT tank is to isolate the fish and to observe the fish for signs of disease and parasites. Melafix, Primafix and other concoctions will not isolate the fish or allow you to observe the fish.

I am very confused on the salt question. You were using salt and "Parasite Clear" too clean up an ich outbreak? First, rummy nose tetras should not have salt. Second, "Parasite Clear" will not do anything for ich.

Ich is an organism with a three stage life cycle. Get a good ich medication if you still have ich. Jungle makes "Ick Guard". Follow this procedure:
- raise water temp to 84F,
- Do a 50% water change,
- Be sure to vaccuum your gravel during the water change,
- Dose at half recommended strength.

Do the same thing on day two and day three. Do nothing for days four and five. Follow the above procedures for day six and seven. Do nothing for days eight and ten. Follow the above procedures for days eleven and twelve. Return to twice a week water changes of 25%.

Raising the water temperature speeds up the life cycle of the organism. With temps above 80F it cannot reproduce. Since the organism is susceptible to the med only during a single phase of its three phase life cycle, you must maintain the regimen until you have caught all the possible critters.

For a more detailed explanation see ich



__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

Hi,
Treating the tank itself for a disease, especially a
bacterial one, can destroy the bacterial colonies
that support the Nitrogen Cycle and is not, in general,
a good idea. This is why all QT tanks should be bare
bottomed, and contain just a small sponge filter, a
heater, and an operating air stone.

All Ich medications contain copper. Copper is lethal
to the parasite when it is in its free swimming stage.
Bob's link to the Ich article is a good one.

Copper, however, is also lethal to some of our fish so
be sure to read the bottle for the precautions and err on
the side of caution.

Decades ago, one of the ways to treat a tank for Ich was
to raise the temperature (this sped up the life cycle
of the parasite). Another was sort of akin to our taking
a vitamin pill each day and that was to add salt to the
water. Adding salt to the water increases the fish's
metabolism, and causes the fish to produce more mucus,
the "slime" that coats the fish's body. The idea was that
if you could increase the mucus production, that the
parasite could not anchor itself to the fishes body
(it would be washed off by the mucus) and if it could
not anchor and feed off a fish host, that it would soon
die off. So fish keepers would keep the tank temperature
elevated and add salt to their tanks.

What many fish keepers forgot was that salt does not
evaporate, and as the water evaporates from the tank, the
salt becomes more concentrated. Then they would add more
water and add more salt, and soon there would be so much
salt in the tank that the fish would start to die off.

Lately, another "thing" that has started is the idea that
if the active ingredient in Ich medications was copper, why
not just toss some pennies into the tank and let that kill
off, or keep from getting, the ich parasite? Well here the
problem is the amount of copper. There is nothing that
says, 1 penny is equal to x amount of copper. And, the
form of copper released into the tank is different than
the form of copper in suspension in the medication.
Copper in a tank can be deadly to both fish and to plants.
The use of pennies to save a few $$ in medication is not
IMO a good idea.

Frank


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