# Ammonia after bloat medication?



## LeeAberdeen (Sep 4, 2014)

Scratching my head on this one to find the ammonia source? The Seachem Alert is showing 'alert' and I've double-checked it with an in-date test kit. Had the tank apart to check for dead fish - nothing. Had my FX6 apart to check for dead fry in there - nothing. This all started after I dosed with Octozin last week to cure bloat, which has killed four of my fish over the past six months, but I don't see the link?
I'm detoxifying the ammonia, so there should be no problem but, obviously, I need to sort this out long-term. I don't overfeed and nothing's changed other than the Octozin dose? I used the recommended dose, not the 5x some people use with Malawis, so I can't understand why it would cause this? This tank has been up and running for 18 months with no problems other than the bloat, which I thought had gone away after I changed their diet and went three months without a death.
Anyone have a clue?


----------



## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

I can't find instructions online but it should say in the enclosed literature if this product has any impact on the beneficial bacteria.


----------



## LeeAberdeen (Sep 4, 2014)

The 'instructions' are so brief as to be ridiculous. It's not even 'enclosed', just a sentence or so on the side of the bottle. All it said was that it's harmless to fish and it is, because even tiny fry were fine with it. But, reading of other people using it online, they've had the same issue with ammonia spikes, so it must be the medication damaging the BB.

Going to cut down on feeds, add some Stability for a week or so, do plenty of water changes, maybe add some zeolite and carbon to the filter for a while.

Would have been helpful if they'd bothered to mention something so important on the instructions... I'll do it for them: Beware, Octozin damages your BB.


----------



## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

Sounds good! I couldn't even find a list of ingredients that would be helpful to figure this out.


----------



## LeeAberdeen (Sep 4, 2014)

Yeah, seems like the best plan. Thing is, I don't want to take any media out of my filter, so can I just place the zeolite and carbon in the tank or does it have to go inside the filter?


----------



## Fish Jerk (Mar 9, 2016)

Dimetridazole is in that stuff, which seems to be an antibiotic. Not much info available except it's carcinogenic.


----------



## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

The carbon is usually placed in a canister or power filter so that the water flows over and through it to adsorb medication. If you have a spare power filter, that would probably be the easiest method. You may also get good results with the carbon in a bag and placed in front of the outflow of your filter or a power head if you have one.


----------



## GTZ (Apr 21, 2010)

Dimetridazole is part of the Nitroimidazole group of antibiotics as is the more well known metronidazole. Unfortunately I can't find information as to whether it's harmful to ammonia oxidizing bacteria or not. Waterlife seems to be a mainly EU brand.
This ammonia reading occurred one week after your last water change?


----------



## LeeAberdeen (Sep 4, 2014)

No, the ammonia was creeping up within days of dosing with Octozin. You have to leave it in for eight days before changing water so, by then, it was at 'alert' on the Seachem tester. With it being so harmless to the fish, I thought it would be similarly mild on BB, but clearly not.


----------

