Medication in a planted tank?

[Tiffi]

Hey guys,

what just came to my mind was if I would be able to treat with formalin or metro in a planted tank. Would that be ok or could it damage my plants?

Thanx,

Vanessa

[lhforbes12]

Vanessa,
I've never had problems with either med and plants

[Graham]

About the only med that I've ever seen hurt plants is salt...anything above about 0.1% will start to affect certain ones with 0.3% really doing a job on them...

G

[Tiffi]

Thank you guys for the replies. I have to admit I did the salt thing before and it wasn't to good for my plants :( . But they are on their way to recovery now :D .

[lesley]

Depending on the amount of formalin that you use - it could damage your plants, and also could damage your biofilter - are you able to treat in separate tank??

I have used a formalin/copper medicine in a planted tank - the plants didn't look too good but were surviving; the biofilter was killed.

[Alight]

What's the formalin for? Metro is fine, and so is Levamisole. Most antibiotics are also OK. Some will increase algae, but they won't hurt the plants.

[Tiffi]

The formalin is for gill flukes or bacterial infections.I don't have a problem with either right now, I was just asking for the future. I just always think if there would appear a problem it would be better to treat ALL the fish.

Anyways, thank you guys for the information.

[pcsb23]

Be careful using formalin in planted tanks, particularly if you are running CO2. Formalin depletes oxygen, so make sure the CO2 is switched off and you treat during daylight, do a large w/c after. For flukes in a planted tank it is better to use prazi or flubenol, costs a lot more, but is safer all round. Always monitor ammonia and nitries after a formalin treatment.

PP can be very hard on some plants so I don't think that is much of an alternative.

[Tiffi]

Thank you very much, Paul :thumbsup: ! That is some very good and useful information you gave me there! Thanx a lot!