NOPOX and fish bacterial infections?

Justin_Reef · Dec 1, 2021

How common has this been?

I reluctantly resorted to carbon dosing when I found that my nitrates had hit 60ppm. I don't have time to properly address the issue in the next few months and I figured it was low risk. Over two weeks at the recommended dosage via dosing pump, I was able to lower nitrates to about 20ppm. Everything looks great other than my 9" Hippo Tang who a week ago stopped eating, and began to hide all day. I couldn't figure out what was going on but since NOPOX was the only thing that was new to the tank, I decided to stop dosing it yesterday. Within 24 hours she began to eat again, but I notice red marks on her belly (looks like an internal bacterial infection) and a white bacterial infection on her side. Each hour that passed since stopping the NOPOX, she has improved and is swimming more and more. She just ate an entire Manila clam is less than a minute...she was hungry.

I am convinced it was the NOPOX....It only makes sense.

blaxsun · Dec 2, 2021

What's the size of your tank and how much were you dosing daily?

MaxTremors · Dec 2, 2021

I don’t think this is the cause. NoPox doesn’t contain any bacteria, it’s essentially ethanol and vinegar. Starting at the recommended dose with out titrating up to it can cause problems, but giving fish bacterial infections isn’t one of them. A bacterial infection (outside of some sort of trauma) is unlikely to gain traction in a healthy fish. My guess is that your tang already had issues/parasites and the fact that they presented while you started NoPox is just a coincidence. Have you added anything else to the tank in the last three months?

J1a · Dec 2, 2021

One possible reason is oxygen depletion when bacteria feed from NOPOx.

Justin_Reef · Dec 2, 2021

MaxTremors said:
I don’t think this is the cause. NoPox doesn’t contain any bacteria, it’s essentially ethanol and vinegar. Starting at the recommended dose with out titrating up to it can cause problems, but giving fish bacterial infections isn’t one of them. A bacterial infection (outside of some sort of trauma) is unlikely to gain traction in a healthy fish. My guess is that your tang already had issues/parasites and the fact that they presented while you started NoPox is just a coincidence. Have you added anything else to the tank in the last three months?

No trauma, and this is a 7 year old fish that has always been healthy.

No fish added to the tank in a year. Only additions were some anemone's and chaeto, both quarantined for almost 3 months.

Literally nothing new was done or added to this tank in many months other than the NOPOX.

Tonight I have found what looks to be a bacterial infection on the fin of a 9-year-old Butterfly, and head of a 3 year old Coral Beauty. The Butterfly has had this type of infection in the past but was many years ago and in a different aquarium.

I don't think this is all a coincidence.

Justin_Reef · Dec 2, 2021

blaxsun said:
What's the size of your tank and how much were you dosing daily?

Total water volume is 240 gallons. I was dosing 1ml per hour, so 24ml per day. I believe the recommended dose for this tank volume at nitrates above 10ppm would have been 28.8 ml per day.

For the first 3 days I dosed 14ml twice per day, but I found it caused some small bacterial blooms. Nothing my UV did not fix within a few hours, but I was not comfortable with this.

Justin_Reef · Dec 2, 2021

J1a said:
One possible reason is oxygen depletion when bacteria feed from NOPOx.

This concerned me from the beginning, but I never saw any sighs of oxygen depletion. It could have happened and caused enough stress to make the tang sick.

Justin_Reef · Dec 2, 2021

Well, I have not been able to find many other documented cases of this happening. There are a few threads about fish dying after starting NOPOX, but none about bacterial infections.

I guess I should have trusted my instincts...in the 25 years I have kept aquariums, I have learned there are no short cuts. And NOPOX is definitely a bandaid fix for larger issues.

Tamberav · Dec 2, 2021

Well nopox feeds bacteria soo I suppose in theory if there was something bacterial lurking in low numbers that could pose a threat to fish… who is to say nopox couldn’t increase them too? Enough to cause symptoms?