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  1. #1

    Nitrite spike, fungus, red bodies

    Hi Guys,

    The title says it all.

    I've recently added a Draco drop in to each of my Nexus 320s, and it states in the instructions it's quite common to get a nitrite spike, which I did, for about 3 weeks at the lowest level the test would detect, 0.5mg/l. This went about a week ago, and has been fine since.

    But, about the time the nitrite went, all my fish started being miserable, sitting in one corner together, no clamped fins though, but a few flashers.

    So I caught one of the flashers and did a scrape, but couldn't find anything. A few days later a doits chag swam upto the window and I noticed cotton wool on her head and a few patches on her body, so I took a scrape from her, and again, nothing.

    I started to treat with the NT labs fmg, last day today. The fish almost instantly perked up, but then after 3 days seem to have regressed.

    I also noticed a few of my fish have very sore red patches on them, coming from under the skin, rather than an ulcer type sore. One of my fish has very pronounced veins all over its body too.

    I read into this and have come up with 3 things that could cause the redness/veins:

    1. Stress

    2. Nitrite spike

    3. Chlorine

    I've tested the nitrite and as said before, is not zero.

    Can't test for stress, but would assume the nitrite would stress them.

    I have no idea how to test for chlorine. My neighbour has a hot tub test kit, which I've used, and it doesn't seem to show any chlorine, but not even in my tap water, although as with so many tests, the colour change between different amounts is so slight that I can never tell.

    So I bought an NT labs dip stick test (hot tub test is also dip stick), and this is just the same, the colour gradients are so slight I can't tell, but it doesn't seem to change at all with either pond or tap water.

    Now I'm running the drums, I have a permanent trickle in, which goes through a sediment cartridge and two stages of carbon, which I had recently renewed, and renewed again a week ago.

    The flashers have stopped, but the redness hasn't, and the fungus seems just as bad.


    Anyone any ideas?

    Cheers,

    Jay



  2. #2
    Senior Member Rank = Jussai g mac's Avatar
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    Hope you get it sorted. I've had slightly elevated nitrite at 0.25 over the last few weeks, have kept feeding at a slightly reduced level and it has now dropped back to zero. I didn't go for large water changes, auto top up from drum clean and then around 10% maybe slightly less, once a week. I've also noticed a very veiny looking fish with an area of sore looking skin at the base of the dorsal. So will be scraping later today and I guess sedating and treating.
    This hobby is rarely easy

    For the chlorine testing you really need to get some DPD4 tabs, available on amazon, I got a box of a hundred for about £18.
    7500 litres
    Filtreau combi with uv.
    Some koi

  3. #3
    Hey G,

    Cheers for the reply and best wishes, right back at you, I hope things get sorted.

    I've just added a dechlorinator as I can't get anything to test quickly.

    Thanks for the heads up about those tabs, I'm assuming they detect much lower levels than the ones I've been trying to use.

    I'll get some ordered today.

    Thanks again,

    Jay

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Jason Megson View Post
    Hey G,

    Cheers for the reply and best wishes, right back at you, I hope things get sorted.

    I've just added a dechlorinator as I can't get anything to test quickly.

    Thanks for the heads up about those tabs, I'm assuming they detect much lower levels than the ones I've been trying to use.

    I'll get some ordered today.

    Thanks again,

    Jay
    They will detect to 0.01 - 0.02 mg/L if you do the test exactly as I described on my website here:
    Questions Answered

  5. #5
    Excellent, cheers Manky, I've ordered some and will follow your instructions.

    While I'm on, does anyone know how long it will take for FMG to kill the fungus on my fish? Today is day 5 of the NT Labs treatment, and the fungus looks exactly as it was 5 days ago.

    Am I right in saying the treatment builds in concentration over the 5 days, and then will carry on working for around 7 to 10 days after the last dose?

    Cheers,

    Jay

  6. #6

 

 

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