Help! Melafix overdose

terasparrow

Member
Please help!! I overdosed my tank with Melafix 1%. I have a 50g or 55g not too sure mainly fish tank, have some mushrooms and a leather toadstool. The recommended dose was 5 ml for every 10 gals, equally 25 ml, I put in 10ml for every 10 gal, so I doubled the dose on accident! I am so worried about the fish, especially my copperbanded butterfly! I did a little over a 25% water change...about 15 gals, I threw in my old active carbon filter, and a small air pump for extra aeration, and have had my skimmer on the entire time, my fish arent showing signs of aggitation, my copperband is hiding though...should I swap out more water? Please help!
thank you so much
sincerely Tera
 

rara12

Member
Melafix is a general antibiotic so it shouldnt do to much more then cause your tank to smell like medicine and maybe foam at the surface. I would remove the air pump as its not needed and may just add to the foam melafix tends to create. Adding the carbon should help remove it and just pay close attention to your skimmer making sure its running roperly and emptying the collection cup when needed. I would do a total of a 30%-40% water change at most but if the fish are acting fine dont worry too much. Its pretty hard to over dose melafix to leathal levels. Hope this helps.
 

lesleybird

Active Member
Double the dose will not hurt them. It is not an antibiotic but an agent with antibacterial properties. If you look at the bottle it says to dose one dose like this daily for a week. You would have been adding the dose equal to what you put in by the second day anyway and daily after that for a week. It does not have time to totally degrade in your tank from dose to dose so there is a wide area of non-leathel concentrations of the Melifix. Don't worry....I would be more worried about you fish dieing from the ailment you are trying to treat than the Melifix. Lesley
 
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