DIY Melafix

[William]

I see a lot of people on the forum using Melafix and since it is one of the biggest rip offs in the trade (however good it might be) I though I would make a post about how to make your own melafix. It can save a lot of money if you want to treat a large aquarium.

Melafix is 99% distilled water and 1 % Tea tree oil (meluca oil).

You can make your own distilled water or buy it cheaply. Tea tree oil is available online and in any health store, alternative medicine stores, walmart (thanks owlbehere) etc etc. You should have no problem finding it.

You then mix 1 ml oil to every 100 ml water and you get your own Melafix with the same strength as the store bought medicine (as close as makes no difference) Try to get the measurements as exact as possible but if you are a couple of ml of with the water it is no big deal. It is the oil you need to take care when you mix.

Addition by Korith: Bettafix is just a weaker solution of Melafix. Melafix I think 5x more concentrated than Bettafix. So if melafix is 1% solution, than bettafix would be a .2% solution.

Addition by fraggle: To make your own Pimafix it's 1% Bay oil or Pimenta racemosa, same as concentrations as the Melafix, so 1ml in 100ml of water.

[Red]

Very interesting! Next time I have to use melafix, I will use this!

[rich311k]

Thanks for the info.

[Algenco]

yup. I make mine:hmm3grin2orange:

[Owlbehere]

You can get Tea tree oil at Wal-mart. My mom uses it for everything skin related. GREAT for ringworm!

[William]

Great for everything including your fish.

[Northernguy]

Thanks for the tip!:22:
That stuff is rediculous in price up here!
Is it that bad if its slightly stronger?
I have never used the stuff!

[Gayle]

Wow great idea!!! No more store bought Melafix for me!!!

[Red]

You can get Tea tree oil at Wal-mart. My mom uses it for everything skin related. GREAT for ringworm!

hmm good for ringworm? You don't wrestle do you?

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

hmm good for ringworm? You don't wrestle do you?

BOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! bad joke :hmm3grin2orange:


Thanks William, I new it was just those 2 ingredients, but I never thought about making my own. I'll need to remember that with setting up the 125 as FW again.

[William]

Is it that bad if its slightly stronger?


*
Slightly stronger is okay but if it get too strong it can burn the fish. From what I hear that happens at about 4 times the recommended dosage/strength but I can not confirm this.

You can also mix a stronger mixture and then a lower dosage in the tank. Pond melafix as an example is stronger mix to start with but are then used at a lower dosage/gallon.

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

Pond melafix as an example is stronger mix to start with but are then used at a lower dosage/gallon.

Yup, that is actually what I used in my FW tanks when I needed it.

[Northernguy]

:22: Thank you both! Always nice to know why not!!! lol :22:

[Jaster]

Wow... I had no idea thats all melafix was. Thanks for the tip!!
thumbs2:

[korith]

Bettafix is just a weaker solution of Melafix. Melafix I think 5x more concentrated than Bettafix. So if melafix is 1% solution, than bettafix would be a .2% solution.

[fraggle]

The normal Tea Tree oil works - Melaleuca alternifolia

But the actual oil in Melafix is Cajeput oil -Melaleuca cajeputi

I've made melafix with both of them, haven't really noticed any difference in the results.

To make your own Pimafix it's 1% Bay oil or Pimenta racemosa, same as concentrations as the Melafix, so 1ml in 100ml of water.

Very easy to make and very handy to have a bottle of the oils on hand too quickly make up a new batch when needed too!

[Lady Hobbs]

Awesome tip. You can bet if the melafix is a scam then so is the pimafix.

I wonder really the need for distilled water. Seems the tea oil could just be dropped right in the tank.

Man, that stuff stinks. Hate using it in my tanks but I do now and then.

[Crispy]

someone just told me this the other day... good to see it's true... I happen to have tea tree oil in my cupboard.

[Miltonic]

I ran out of Pimafix and Melafix a few weeks back so I guess of buying more, I will go get myself the tree oils and make them myself. :19:

[Jaster]

I wonder really the need for distilled water. Seems the tea oil could just be dropped right in the tank.

Thats a good point... it's going to dilute in the tank either way and all distilled water really is just really really clean water. The only thing I can think of is that it might need to be diluted first so it doesn't hurt the fish.

[Fraoch]

Excellent. Now, never having had to use Melafix before (knock on wood!), what is the recommended dosage of Melafix solution? i.e. when we make our 99% DW/1% tea tree oil solution, how much of that solution do we add per gallon of aquarium water?

Oh and regarding adding tea tree oil directly, you'd have to have a larger tank and a very small and accurate eyedropper. In smaller tanks you would never be able to accurately measure the tiny amount of tea tree oil required.

[Owlbehere]

Its I believe, someone correct me if I'm wrong, 1 tsp for every 10 gallons. When treating disease treat for 7 days.

[Taurus]

Great thread William. Thanks for starting it. I figured I could make my own Mela and Pima...now I know I can. thumbs2:

[Fraoch]

Its I believe, someone correct me if I'm wrong, 1 tsp for every 10 gallons. When treating disease treat for 7 days.

So let's do some calculations here if one were to add pure tea tree oil. Milliliters because we're dealing with really small measurements...

1 tsp = 4.9 ml. 1% of this is tea tree oil, so 0.049 ml of tea tree oil per 10 gallons...

If you had a 100 gallon tank a full dose is still only 0.49 ml. I have an eyedropper here which measures 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 and 1 ml, so I suppose that's possible, use the 0.5 ml mark. Anyone with a 50 gallon tank could use the 0.25 ml line. Since the indication is that 4X the recommended dose is harmful, this should work, you'd be able to tell the difference between 0.25 ml and 1 ml even if the eyedropper is quite inaccurate. Under a 50 gallon though, you'd need a very small hospital-grade syringe. Much easier to use a diluted solution in that case.

[Owlbehere]

You could also make it in larger batches and store it for later use. Although that would be a lot LOL.

[William]

Making 1+100ml isn't that much and make it much easier to dose in small aquariums.

Also, if it is dilluted you avoid the risk that the fish swims into the mixture while it still is strong and haven't dilluted in the tank. A small risk if you put it in the filter output granted, but still a risk,

[William]

I have added the additional recipies by Korith and Fraggle to the first post.

[Wild Turkey]

Thanks for all the info Will and others! Knew about the simplicity but not the ratios, will really help if I ever want to make a huge batch for a group of people.

[Paw Broon]

That's great! wouldn't have ever thought that's how simple it is to make it. Bit of a con on their part but good idea for making the stuff, wish i thought of that!:hmm3grin2orange:

[Red]

Don't you wish you figured out this simple thing, before melafix did, so you could be rolling in money!

[William]

Well can always start to sell cheap DIY kits.

[Wild Turkey]

Well can always start to sell cheap DIY kits.

Or the same formula at 110% strength and 50% of the cost. The advertising practically writes itself

[Red]

LETS DO IT!!!
haa

[Ashley]

this is great! I always have tea tree oil on hand.

[Algenco]

I have a 16oz bottle, how many kits would you like:hmm3grin2orange:

[fraggle]

If you get the bottles of oils with the droppers on top, 20 drops = 1ml. That can be helpful if you are only doing small doses. Otherwise I'd drop in the chemist (drugtore I think you call them) and they should have a 2ml syringe you could buy. Or if you have anyone that works at a hospital or something similar they could probably grab you a 2ml or 5ml syringe (that's if you guys use those size syringes, LOL, I don't know if you do. You really need to get with the times I tell you:hmm3grin2orange: )


As for the distilled water, I've never used it. I always use dechlorinated water or just rain water or if it's a quick dose, I've got a little jar near the tank, put the required tea tree or bay oil in it then it really doesn't matter about the dilution, fill the jar with tank water, shake it (it disperses better in the water, and like Will said, less likely that fish will burn themselves on it if they swim through it or ty to eat it like mine do) and then just drop it in the tank

[William]

They sell 3 and 5 ml syringes down here. I Modify them and use them to feed small birds.

[fraggle]

LOL, that's OK then. I didn't know how to work it out if thye were in fl/oz or something

[AABatteries]

This is cool. I'll definitely be making my Melafix after I run out.

[mrs fishpatrick]

Sell it under the title Melafake!:hmm3grin2orange:

[William]

I was thinking "Willafix" to cater to my vain side:hmm3grin2orange:

[Harls]

lol nice, now I won't have to buy any :P never had to use the stuff. I've used some stuff that's green and putrid in my tank before that was supposed to cure disease, it made the tank go green for a fortnight! it was horrid stuff, i then used it to make sure any driftwood i collected for the tanks had no disease...
Harls

[Paw Broon]

I was thinking "Willafix" to cater to my vain side:hmm3grin2orange:

Or "Willafix?" haha keep em guessing.

[Lady Hobbs]

So, the concentrations added from both oils to make both the Melafix and the Pimafix are the same and Pimafix is not 5x stronger as stated in a post above?

Can someone simplize this for me? (You know Hobbs and metrics!) :scry:

Like, how many drops of oil would go in a 55 gallon tank? (I will just dilute what goes in first in tank water.) Since droppers measure differently, how about in teaspoons?

Thanks peeps.

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

Hobbs, I don't think it would be advisable to add the oil directly to the tank. You really would want to make up a solution before adding it.

[William]

So, the concentrations added from both oils to make both the Melafix and the Pimafix are the same and Pimafix is not 5x stronger as stated in a post above?

Like, how many drops of oil would go in a 55 gallon tank?

I think what was said was that Melafix is 5x stronger then bettafix. No comparison has been made between melafix and pimafix. They are both 1% solutions using different oils.

It really is easy. If you add on drop oil you will need to add 100 drops of water. Once you mixed that you can use the dosing that is on melafix bottles when you add it to your tank.

[Lady Hobbs]

OK William. That'll work.

[Fraoch]

Has anyone made any yet?

There's an obvious problem - oil and water don't mix! You end up with a glob of tea tree oil floating on the water. You can shake it up - it gets all cloudy and foamy, but it still separates. So you'd better hope you don't dose with the oil layer or it will be a fatal overdose. If you dose with the water layer it'll be a useless underdose.

I believe a suspension agent of some sort is required, but what?

Incidentally I mixed 250 ml of distilled water with 2.5 ml of tea tree oil. That should do it, it's 1%...but it smells like turpentine. Very powerful. I'm hesitant to use it.

[Kaz]

So is there a way to make something that is both Primafix and Melafix?

Ultrafix - 60% stronger, 50% cheaper, Combining 2 medications in one!

[William]

I was considering that but donät know it there could be any bad side effects.

[Fraoch]

I have had to use this DIY Melafix for the second time, this time to quell several mild cases of fin rot. I mentioned this before, the main problem with this DIY Melafix is the lack of an emulsifying agent which disperses the oil in the water. Without it, you get Tea Tree oil floating on top of the water. If you draw the DIY Melafix from under the surface, you get an underdosage. If you draw it from the surface, you get a potentially dangerous overdosage - in fact if you make a large enough batch you may get so much pure Tea Tree oil it may be toxic for the fish!

Commercial Melafix contains a commercial emulsifying agent. Unfortunately it seems the only emulsifying agents available to home users are egg yolk, honey and mustard. I'm pretty sure no one wants to use these in DIY Melafix. So any other ideas?

Anyone have access to emulsifying wax, cetearyl alcohol, polysorbate 20 or ceteareth 20? :razz: (commercial emulsifying agents)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emulsion#Emulsifier

[King Tut]

We have used this in a tank just recently. Shook the bottle well and dosed accordingly. Didn't see any oil floating and after about 3 days the fins were looking a lot better. So far a success IMO.

[humma2008]

Hello, i misread this and converted litres in my tank with tea tree so i added 15mins of straight tea tree to a 320litre tank. Should i panic because this is too strong!!! Any help would be appreciated.

[Aeonflame]

That is way too much. You need to do a large water change 80%+ as soon as possible.

[Lady Hobbs]

And read the first sentence of the first post where William states this stuff is a rip-off in the first place. This does nothing clean water won't do.

[genocidex]

*face palm* and i iust bought a big bottle of this stuff too... When i read it i was thinking why i couldnt just buy the chemicle..... Why isnt this stickiedfied? Maybe compile a list of rip off items thay can be diyed? This, diy african buffer, ect