Very bad fin rot not responding to treatment

[Bridget]

You need to get the KH up. It keeps your pH from bouncing around, stressing the fish.

I use baking soda to raise the KH, one cup for every 1,000 gallons. I suspect it is even lower in your pond that your tap water.

Start slowly since it may also raise the pH. But if your pH is around 8, you can add as much baking soda as you need to increase the KH to at least 100ppm it at least 6 drops. Higher is not a problem and I try to keep the LH in my pond around 200 and the pH stays at 8.2 or 8.3. unless your water is unusual, the baking soda, even in large quantities, will not raise it above 8.3.

You will need to add baking soda with every water change to maintain that level.

You really don't need to add any bacteria. It is everywhere. You just need to provide the right conditions for it to grow--the right temperature, pH that is not acidic, food (ammonia from the fish), a good KH, a place for it to grow, and air. If you have those elements, the only other thing the bacteria needs is time to get established
and grow enough in numbers to take care of the water being produced.

So sorry you and your fish are going through this. Totally not your fault.

Thank you, that is super helpful

 

[WaterGardener]

Good luck. And kudos to you for being willing to do all you are doing to fix this mess!

 

[Bridget]

Good luck. And kudos to you for being willing to do all you are doing to fix this mess!

Thank you! It is literally hours of work every morning setting up the antibiotic baths and giving them an hour in there while I clean their hospital tanks and then give the main pond a vacuum to keep it super clean for the other fish. Then I test ammonia at night and water change in the hospital tanks if there is a smidgen of it. The fish are now used to me pouring buckets in and are coming up and hanging about with me. Funny little guys.

I have just discovered our water has very low GH and KH so now I'm researching that and looking at Seachem Equilibrium.

I thought fish were meant to be easy!!!!!

 

[WaterGardener]

You only need baking soda. You don't need equilibrium. You already have the bacteria you need in the pond. Just give it time to multiply enough to do the job.