Quote Originally Posted by alron2 View Post
I witnessed about 1,000 little hair thin worms floating lifeless in the water.

Have you seen any worms in the feces or hanging out the rear of the discus (I have in my tank)? Do you know what the worms are? Do they do any harm?

Thanks

Ron
If they were internal the PP treatment would do nothing since it is an oxidizer and isn't absorbed internally. Infact I think the amount I saw, if they were internal, would have killed the fish long ago. I can only conclude they were happily infesting my filters despite the filters being cleaned on a regular basis.

Did they ever cause in harm? Although being much larger than planeria I assume they are just detritus feeders and totally harmless.

But I'm still happy they are gone.

The PP will kill external parasites and gill flukes but will also oxidize any organic matter. In doses above 2ppm it can kill the bacteria in your filter (some sources I saw said 4ppm, others as low as 2ppm)**. At 4ppm it can cause gill damage and when you get to 6ppm you will probably kill some fish and greatly harm the rest. Jump to 20ppm and you will have a tank where everything has that has completely and irreversibly died.

**the bacteria, even at 1ppm, will probably suffer but from the observation in my tank I do not see any difference in water quality--so probably not mush harm is really done. On a newer filter I wouldn't chance it. Most 'treatment ' entail dosing and redosing to maintain a pinkish/purple tint for 4hours. I dose One time and thats it, usually within an hour to 90minutes or so the PP is neutralized. I don't re-dose to maintain the color for 4 hours.