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I have done carbon dosing several times in the past with success and no issues, but over the past 5 years I have tried it twice in my current aquarium and had the same issue both times. After roughly a month, my Regal Tang gets red marks on her belly and one of my PJ Cardinal's gets a white growth on it's fins. When I stop carbon dosing, both issues go away within about 2 weeks. I know it could be a coincidence, but that seems unlikely considering they never have these issues when I am not carbon dosing.
I also tend to get a very thick build up of gooey white "stuff" on my pumps and inside my overflow, along with some of my plumbing. It's not a big deal until it starts to clog things up.
This is a 200G aquarium, oversized skimmer, UV, and both times I was dosing NoPox. The issues continue even at half strength, so I stopped. I haven't carbon dosed in a few years now, but I am itching to try again... just not with NoPox.
Anyone else have issues like this? I have yet to read anyone else mentioning anything.
I did mention previously on this thread that the same thing happened 3 different times with my yellow tang.Both times this happened was with NoPox. I always figured the carbon source was feeding some type of bacteria on the fins of my PJ Cardinal, but the red streaks on the belly of the Regal tang never made sense to me. I can't be sure they were caused by the carbon source, but they've only ever appeared when I am dosing carbon. She never seemed bothered by them, as far as I could tell, but they looked quite concerning.
Would like to start carbon dosing again but just can't bring myself to see the tang in this condition.
I've scoured and found other instances of this in tangs as well and I am actually glad you posted this so as I am not going crazy and am not the only one this is happening to.
Both other instances I found were with dosing NoPox as well.
Each time I dosed I started with vinegar and moved to my own NoPox concoction which I got from this thread and other threads as well.
At 2 weeks on the money each time these red blotches/lesions would occur, each time in the same spots.
Each time I ran vinegar for a week then added in the vodka starting week 2.
My theory is that whatever bacteria the vodka feeds this fish cannot tolerate.
Now, this also seems like it is particular to certain fish since the times I've seen this mentioned are extremely rare and far between.
We may just have a couple of those fish.
Just food for thought, my 2 cents.
Joel