anyone ever use "all natural Pimafix" to stop parasites?????

[agoutihead]

ive had an outbreak of velvet and i went today to get a cure and i bought
all natural Pimafix....
it doesnt say anything regarding corals or inverts.... im going to assume that its ok all i had to do was remove the carbon from my filter.
my shrooms kind of shrivled up a bit since and my hammer is looking..... well lets just say ive seen it look better.... but they seem to still be living.... does this stuff affect corals???
anyone ever use this stuff before????

 

[tizzo]

Never used what you mentioned but I did recently buy a medication. I called the manufacturer to see if it was reef safe (it's a food medication), the lady said it was not tested on marinelife, so I asked if it contained copper, she assures me that it doesn't. I hang up the phone, read the ingredients anyway and of course it does. You may wanna read the ingredients to see if it contains copper, and/or call the company who makes it.

 

[scubadoo]

The only proven methods that will kill parasites are copper and hyposalnity. Also, boosting the immune system of your fish and keeping water quality good and constant and stress minimal will help.
TO my knowledge, nothing else works regarding killing parasites. UV stril;izers can help but they will never rid the system of parasites. All the other products are nothing more than snake oils. If you use one of these products and your fish get better they kicked the disease on their own or enviornmental condtions in your system improved.
Hypo is a better way to go but it will kill inverts so you must clear the main system of all inverts or remove the fish and trat in another tank.
I have no idea what is in the snake oil...do they list the ingredients?
The fact that your corals do not look well could mean somtething is in there that is impacting their health. Even if natural, it could be impacting the inverts.

 

[sato]

I agree with the majority of what the above poster said except that not ALL the treatments out there are useless. I am not a big fan myself of using chemicals for disease treatement and prefer natural means but anyways thats beside the point.
Melafix which is very similar to Pimafix except it used for Bacterial infections has mixed results but it shouldnt hurt corals, being as they are very similar I would imagine that Pimafix is most likely safe.
Melafix is loved by some and regarded as useless by others so you most likely wont get a straight answer on the product, Pimafix, or any medications at that, I still think it owuldnt hurt to try because velvet can be very deadly without some form of treatment.

 

[agoutihead]

well its been 24 hours now since i put the first dose of medicine in (you have to do it daily) and when i work up this morning... everything looked worse than it did yesterday... but when i came home on my lunch everything looked better. i dont understand. this has happened before.
im going to continue with the pima fix for a few more days... i really wanted to use STOP PARASITE... ive heard wonders on that, but they were out of it.
i will also try and feed some brine i have mixed with fresh garlic and ginger to help boost things a little.
should i have used melafix for velvet instead of pimafix?
i hope i can turn this around soon because if not im going to lose my entire stock of fish.

 

[1journeyman]

I'd be VERY cautious before using ANY medication in your tank.
We simply don't know everything about corals and the possible negative affects meds can have on them (not to mention the bacteria, pods, worms, etc. in your tank)

 

[agoutihead]

yeah the pimafix is all natural, so im hoping its going to be less harsh than the man made checmicals.
god only knows how bad man made things really are.

 

[agoutihead]

well yesterday was the second dose of the pimafix.... and well my shroms shrivled up almost instantly but they have opened for the most part.... just not as pretty as normal.
my hammer coral seems to be taking the biggest hit from this stuff as its looking kind of bad... im hoping it will be able to bounce back but i have another 5 days of dosing per the bottle.
the frogspawn really isnt looking that great either.
i dont want to lose anything.... but id rather save the fish than the corals if i have to chose... alot more money invested.
my luck ill just end up losing everything.
then i will be getting out a baseball bat and hitting a home run.

 

[snipe]

Melafix and Primafix were big help in my "freshwater" tank. I had an outbreak of finrot and man that stopped fast I lost 3 fish before I knew what it was but that was the end. As for saltwater I will use it also but "only" in a QT tank never in my display. You should always remove the fish to a QT before treating.

 

[agoutihead]

normally i would remove the fish and put them in my qt... but my qt is a 10 gallon and i have a blue damsel and a domino damsel that i keep in there to keep the tank cycled.... and when i qt a fish i put a divider in the 10 gallon so that the two damsels wont pester my good fish that i am trying to heal.
plus i couldnt fit all of my fish from my display into my qt.
i did go home on my lunch and actually the shrooms looked normal and so did the hammer coral.... the frogspawn looked pretty decent.... some of the arms just looked really really bloated. i hope things will stay as normal.
today the ick seemed less apparent than yesterday so i will keep dosing with the pimafix in hopes that it will fully cure the ick.
if this pimafix is ridding the ick off of the fish.... can i assume it is also killing the ick that is free swimming in my tank?

 

[snipe]

You dont need fish in the tank to keep it cycled bacteria can live for months without food and all you have to do to feed them is drop a flake or two of flake food in there thats it.

 

[agoutihead]

so even with no fish all i have to do is drop food in once a day or every few days or what?
i dont know how often i would use my qt tank now that my main tank is pretty much fully stocked... maybe not for a couple of months at a time.... this still isnt a problem with the bacteria?

 

[snipe]

Nope just drop food in I would say a couple times a week just enough to keep the bacteria alive without causeing a new cycle. Just a flake or two would work.

 

[agoutihead]

hmm. well i wish i knew it was that easy in the begining... im going to just redo my entire hopsital tank once i find a good home for a couple of damsels.... the thing has crushed coral on the bottom anyways.... and well... we all know the story with taht.
my question is....
i will take new water from my main tank when i go to redo the qt..... im going to place NEW sand in the bottom before i put the water in..... will this affect anything?
also.... are water changes on the qt tank nesscary if i dont have fish in there on a regular basis?
right now i havent actually ever done a water change on the qt.... all i do is top off with fresh water and everything seems to be fine now for the past 5 months.
what do you think?

 

[agoutihead]

well this is day five of the chemical treatment with pimafix.... i didnt get a close look at the flame angel today (seems to be the most infected) i dont know why i didnt get a close look at him.
generally first thing in the morning when i turn off my moon lights and turn on my regular white lights is when i see the ick at its worst.
i would have to say that it does seem to be residing though.... the yellow tail damsel also seems to look better. my lmb also had ick as well as i seen him scratch alot on the rocks even though with his body color i really couldnt see the ick on him.
i will continue to dose for the full seven days.... so far ive only dosed four days, today when i get home from work will make the fifth day.
all in all i seem to be pretty happy with the results.
its weird every time that i administer the new dose when i get home from work my shrooms shrivel up almost instanly and the hammer and frogspawn tend to look a bit shaken.... but through out the next 24 hours they all go back to normal.

 

[fishfreek]

In my experience, its pretty normal for your corals to react that way with this treatment. I have used this product in the past with fairly good success and my corals all bounced back when the treatment was done. Are you running carbon or has it been removed from the system?