# Will tri sulfa kill my bio filter?



## DrivingMissFishy (Jun 25, 2011)

I had an ich problem a while back which I treated with tri sulfa and it cleared well. I did seem to get a small ammonia spike afterwards though. 
I now have ich again, and have been treating with ick guard 2 but it doesn't seem to be improving. Was thinking of doing a large (75%) water change and switching treatment to tri sulfa as I assume it's unsafe to mix the two treatments. I'm just concerned it will kill my bio filter, and I have no other tanks to use to treat or seed from and I don't want to lose the fish if I have to do a prolonged treatment (3+ doses)
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## cro117 (Jul 12, 2011)

tri sulfa is an antibacterial if i remember correctly, though i could be wrong, i've never actually heard of anyone using it for ich before. my advice would be to just go with the standard rid-ick or quick cure, formuline and malachite green. use the doses instructed, i believe 5ml per 10 gallons, and do a 25-50% water change before each dosing. you can treat every day or every other day, but treat a minimum of 14 days, i like to go 21 days to be safe, but i does every other day. if you do this, your fish and tank should suffer no ill affects at all.

usually i deal with small fish and invertebrates though so you may be able to get away with a stronger dose, but i don't really see that it would help anything. ich is not a disease that can be cured quickly no matter what you do. depending on the tank conditions and your particular strain of ich it will take x amount of days regardless of how you treat it.

oh and specifically addressing your question, yes i would say that there is a very real chance that it will harm your bacteria colony. in fact, i would say that there is a better chance of wiping out you filtration then the ich. but then again, i have never seen it in action against ich.


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