The Puffer Forum

ok so I just finished up with Ich and IP treatments for my puffers. And basically now my while tank and decor is covered in the residue from the meds. Would it be safe if I were to do a complete tank cleaning (remvoeing EVERYTHING brushing it down etc. then stirring the sand/coral crush mix I have for substrate up then vacuuming while the puffers are still in the tank? or should I move them to a temp container?

its a 50g

What meds were you using that covered the tank in residue?

I would do a little at a time over the next few water changes, so you don't disturb too much bacteria at once.

It was Mardel Maracide for the ich.

so cleaning the tank like that will kill most of the bacteria I have in the tank huh?

wow i never try doing treatment in the main tank before. I always use by hospital/quarantine tank to do treatments before i put them in the main tank when i first buy them. Usually i take out the carbon for ip treatment.etc after thats done i put back the carbon put my puffer into the main tank and do schedual wc/vaccum in the hospital tank which is once a week even with out fish inside. I would just do wc in your tank. Your carbon filter should able to get rid of residual meds.

yeah I dont really have a Q tank. The residue has settled on all of the decor though, I did stake the carbon out and its back in now. I'm going to be doing a WC and rasing the salinity today so I'll scrub the sides down realy good and vaccuum I'll just try and brush off the decor.

You can wipe down all the decor, glass & filter & stir up the substrate, doing a 50% WC. Thnen add new floss & carbon to the filter to take care of the rest. keep a close eye on the parameters for a week or so.