Maracyn Dosing for a 5 gal.

[Rosso1011]

I need help A.S.A.P. for dosing Maracyn for a 5 gallon aquarium. One of my girls is in dire need of medicine and I need to figure out the easiest way to get the dosing correct since they are measured for 10 gallon aquariums. I also don't want to overdose since I have heard that Bettas are more sensitive to medication.

[pittipuppylove]

Maracyn is erythromycin, which is typically dosed at 200mg/10 gallons. That said, you want 100mg for 5 gallons. What I do for my tanks is to dissolve the entire packet into a known quantity of water and then dose from that. For example, I'll dissolve the 200mg packet into 10mL of water and then draw up 5mL of the solution using a syringe and add that to the tank (you can dissolve it in any amount of water if your math is correct - a packet in 20mL of water can be easier to dissolve and you would dose 10mL of solution). Afterwards, I discard the rest of the solution because the medication starts to lose its effectiveness over time while in solution.

Or if you happen to have a scale that is accurate to small measurements, you could just weigh out the 100mg.
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[callistra]

Be aware that these meds will toast your cycle and you will have to do daily monitoring and more frequent water changes.

[Rosso1011]

Oh, fun! I didn't even think about that.