# Proper Dosing of Paraguard?



## blacksheep998 (Jan 16, 2011)

In dealing with some sort of disease that I still haven't figured out, I used a lot of paraguard.

At first I was giving a half-dose daily and diluting it before adding. Later I got more desperate and started just pouring in full doses daily and continued for several weeks. For water changes I was doing my usual 10% change once or twice a week.

I saw no harm from the paraguard to my shrimp, though most of my MTS did die off.


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## Hobbes1911 (Mar 2, 2009)

Here is a pretty good and extensive link: http://www.shrimpnow.com/content.php/277-shrimp-bacterial-infection-paraguard


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## Chlorophile (Aug 2, 2011)

Hobbes1911 said:


> Here is a pretty good and extensive link: http://www.shrimpnow.com/content.php/277-shrimp-bacterial-infection-paraguard


I read his article - and at the end he states that the treatment failed.

Besides I wan't to know other peoples experiences not just the first thing I found on google. 



Could anyone answer my question in the format I posted, please?


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## Chlorophile (Aug 2, 2011)

blacksheep998 said:


> In dealing with some sort of disease that I still haven't figured out, I used a lot of paraguard.
> 
> At first I was giving a half-dose daily and diluting it before adding. Later I got more desperate and started just pouring in full doses daily and continued for several weeks. For water changes I was doing my usual 10% change once or twice a week.
> 
> I saw no harm from the paraguard to my shrimp, though most of my MTS did die off.


Hmm okay, thanks for that info. 

Some people did water changed daily the entire time, I'm not seeing the benefit in that, seems like you would wan't to maintain a high concentration for a high duration.. 

I figure just adding the dose to the tank is already highly dilute, and would reach the same concentration if you had pre-diluted or not, in a matter of minutes.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Chlorophile said:


> Will try to make my question outlined as simply as possible so I may get a very clear response.
> 
> 1. How many days did you use Paraguard?
> 2. What was your water change interval?
> ...


I used Seachem paraguard to treat bacterial infection in my RCS and tiger shrimp tank.

1. I treated the tank for 14 days.
2. and 3. I did a 70% WC every 3 days due to following the article on shrimpnow that was previously posted.
4. The first WC change I did was 3 days after the initial dosing. And then every three days after that.
5. On the first day I dosed the 50% recommended dosage. 2nd day I dosed 75% the recommended dosage. Third day I dosed the full dosage. I dosed the amount I would be dosing into the tank right after the WC, all at once.

I did notice deaths on shrimp that were too far infected but the rest did have their cloudiness clear up ~8 days into the treatment.


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## AlisaR (Dec 7, 2011)

Dose full strength, 1 cap per 10 gallons. Pour it in along the length of the tank.
For parasites, dose three days, then take pictures on macro to see if they are dead. Usually they are. No water changes during treatment.
For bacterial/viral infections dose two weeks, no water changes during treatment, then do a 30 percent water change.

If you aren't getting any results, discontinue after two weeks. Cull to your best looking sub adults, vacuum the gravel, do a large water change and hope for the best.


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## Chlorophile (Aug 2, 2011)

diwu13 said:


> I used Seachem paraguard to treat bacterial infection in my RCS and tiger shrimp tank.
> 
> 1. I treated the tank for 14 days.
> 2. and 3. I did a 70% WC every 3 days due to following the article on shrimpnow that was previously posted.
> ...





AlisaR said:


> Dose full strength, 1 cap per 10 gallons. Pour it in along the length of the tank.
> For parasites, dose three days, then take pictures on macro to see if they are dead. Usually they are. No water changes during treatment.
> For bacterial/viral infections dose two weeks, no water changes during treatment, then do a 30 percent water change.
> 
> If you aren't getting any results, discontinue after two weeks. Cull to your best looking sub adults, vacuum the gravel, do a large water change and hope for the best.




Hmm.. I can't decide if I should do waterchanges or not now..


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## jkan0228 (Feb 6, 2011)

What's the point of water changes?


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Chlorophile said:


> Hmm.. I can't decide if I should do waterchanges or not now..





jkan0228 said:


> What's the point of water changes?


I think it's to get "clean" water to the shrimps. Most of the time bacterial infection stems from the bacteria getting concentrated in some parts of your tank. Whereas if it stayed at a dilute level the shrimp might not become infected. It also mentions water changes both on the shrimpnow thread and the Seachem site so I figure go along with it. I mean.. in the wild they get access to clean water 24/7 so I think by doing multiple changes during treatment it will dilute the bacteria and allow for the newly added medication to be more effective? I dunno


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## Chlorophile (Aug 2, 2011)

diwu13 said:


> I think it's to get "clean" water to the shrimps. Most of the time bacterial infection stems from the bacteria getting concentrated in some parts of your tank. Whereas if it stayed at a dilute level the shrimp might not become infected. It also mentions water changes both on the shrimpnow thread and the Seachem site so I figure go along with it. I mean.. in the wild they get access to clean water 24/7 so I think by doing multiple changes during treatment it will dilute the bacteria and allow for the newly added medication to be more effective? I dunno



Seems counter intuitive to me, water changes would also dilute the meds, right? 
I guess it depends on if the medicine is "used up" in a certain period of time or not. 

Medicine should kill the bacteria in the tank if it can kill whats in the shrimp.


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## Chlorophile (Aug 2, 2011)

I think I'll just do without waterchanges for duration of the treatment, maybe a weekly one, i donno.


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## plamski (Sep 25, 2009)

1. How many days did you use Paraguard? 8-10 days
2. What was your water change interval? As usual ones per week 15-18%
3. What was your water change percentage?
4. How long after dosing Paraguard did you wait before doing a water change?
I didn't change my WC scedule
5. What was your dosing method? (i.e. Add the entire dose, dilute and drip into tank, 50% dose 2x a day, etc.)
Day 1 25%, Day 2 50%,Day 3 75% then full strength for 6-8 days
I kill some cardinals with Paragusrd when I dose for first time. Couple of months later one I used Paraguard again with full strength from Day 1 and there wasn't any dead.
I use it with OEBT, CRS, CBS, Cardinals, TB,s and K14 crystals .If you have bacterial infection best cure is to lower PH to PH 4.5-5 for 2-4 weeks + Paraguard
After RO my water I let is stay in bucket for 2 weeks and PH gets 4.9-5.3
Doing water changes in infected tank every day 10-15% till I reach low PH .Then regular WC.


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## Chlorophile (Aug 2, 2011)

plamski said:


> 1. How many days did you use Paraguard? 8-10 days
> 2. What was your water change interval? As usual ones per week 15-18%
> 3. What was your water change percentage?
> 4. How long after dosing Paraguard did you wait before doing a water change?
> ...


Hmm interesting. 
I don't have the ability to do RO changes on this tank, also the tank has PFR and Celestial Pearl Danio's in it so I'd be weary of having the pH so low. 
Definitely seems logical though that such a low pH would cure them.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Chlorophile said:


> Seems counter intuitive to me, water changes would also dilute the meds, right?
> I guess it depends on if the medicine is "used up" in a certain period of time or not.
> 
> Medicine should kill the bacteria in the tank if it can kill whats in the shrimp.


Yea that's a good point. Maybe the medication becomes a bit toxic if the concentration continues building up?


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## Chlorophile (Aug 2, 2011)

diwu13 said:


> Yea that's a good point. Maybe the medication becomes a bit toxic if the concentration continues building up?


Yea I really don't know. We would have to ask the company.

Excel for instance supposedly Doesn't stay around very long, if the medicine is the same way water changes would be bad.
However if it stays Put then yea concentrations would get high which could be harmful


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## Alyssa (Sep 16, 2011)

I've actually had good responses with tigers when isolating them into a smaller container with an air stone and like enough paraguard to turn the water a medium blue.

I considered it like a prolonged dip. 

I had one tangerine that was frozen on a plant ... only one leg was still moving ... after like 3 hours ... the sucker was zooooooooooming around, totally revived. After that i tried it with varying degrees of success ... prob was I kept dropping them back into their tank which I think was housing the issue to begin with, so they did eventually die ... but I was surprised at how well m,any of the shrimp seem to do with that approach.

Oh and I throw in a few spring of moss so that have something to hang onto since the aire stone sort of blows them around in their container, lol.

Not a very exact or scientific approach, I'm afraid though ... but it might help someone so there ya go.


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## plamski (Sep 25, 2009)

I have been told /Seachem/ that Paraguard will kill bad bacteria and number of disease but won't touch beneficial bacteria. How is this possible -I don't know.
Other think about Paraguard is that after 24h he become inactive . Probably his molecular structure getting apart or something. That why we need to add new dosage in 24h marks.Probably extra WC aren't nesessery .


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## wicca27 (May 3, 2009)

i contacted seachem about use in small tanks and this is what they told me:

Hello 

Thank you for the email. For a 1 gallon tank it would be 0.5 mL of Paraguard. For a 2.5 gallon tank it would be 1.25 mL of Paraguard. Paraguard is no longer active after a 24 hour period, so it will not build up in the tank. 

I hope this helps. Let us know if you need any further assistance.

Product Support
100215


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