fish dying (long Post)

[pirate]

Well Ive moved some power heads around hoping to have more surface agiation. I usually treat the water with prime. I've noticed that when I have the tfl reactors running everone seems more freaked out, does not mater what I seem to run in them Carbon or rowaphas. Is there some thing that I can do if I start seeing other fish doing the same thing?

[MitchM]

If the fish are already stressed from ammonia being present, low gas exchange and PH swings, seemingly little things can set them off.

[pirate]

Well my female clown looks like she has what ever the tank has now. I've netted her and looked at her very closely, and it appears that her fins have been nipped at the ends. She is breathing hard so I have her at the top of the tank in a floating baby habitat. Does this help in any way in diagonising what is going on in my tank. When I get up this afteroon I am going to take a sample into the lfs and see what is going on in my tyank and I'll post up the numbers. All the other fishes in the tank are still doing good but..... I thought that about her as well.
Dam I hate this.

[MitchM]

Can you test what your PH and ammonia is at now?

do you vacuum your sand bed? I just finish helping a new guy get over this out here. He never vacuumed his sand bed to get rid of the decaying matter. with frequent vacuuming and water changes his tank is now doing fine. It is a Co2 issue you are battling IMO. I would Vacuum your sand bed a few times really good you will be surprised at what you will pull out and go right down to the glass not just the top layer. Basically when you let your sand bed deteriorate it gets compacted and it suffocates, this in turn kills the bacteria in it and makes your tank test results even worse.

Bill

[MitchM]

Bill, are you not concerned about the ammonia level in a 7 or 8 month old tank?
I think if it was a CO2 issue that would have been addressed by the redirection of the powerhead last night.
Ammonia will cause irritated gills and gasping for air.

I agree with you that the sandbed could be a problem if it is not being cleaned regularly.

I think that he should temporarily stop feeding his fish and do enough large daily water changes (20%) until the ammonia level is back down to zero.
Vacuuming the sandbed at that time would be prudent.

[untamed]

Ammonia is a quick and effective killer. Makes sense to me that the ammonia will kill a fish at night when O2 levels are lowest. You should never be able to detect ammonia in a mature aquarium. Double check with a new test kit.

If you have verified ammonia level in the system, I don't see any point in chasing any other problem. If present, it indicates that the bacteria of the aquarium has been overwhelmed by something rotting, or by a cleaning you've done recently.

[pirate]

Ok I just got back from the closest lfs to me
Ammiona is less then 0.2
Nirtrate was showing on the chart but I forgot the number but it was right near the bottom
Ph I just tested and its up near 9. I test twice to make sure.
How do I lower this number? It appears to be my problem.

[MitchM]

Do a large water change.

Before you add in the new water, check it's PH.
Which kits are you using?

[pirate]

I'm using hagen and nutrafin test kits (ammonia is a nutrafin kit). I know I need better ones but so far they have been good. So I thought you guys were going to tell me to do a large water change so I got set up last night to do one befor I went ot work. Well I tested it and it has a high PH value as well It matches my tank almost perefectly. So did I get a bad batch of IO? Is IO a high PH value? Will it come down on its own? If not how do I lower it then? I just started using this salt the other bucket ended and I opened it up and all my troubles have started it seemes. Not too sure when it happened to me using the new IO salt. I got it on boxing day.
Thanks for all the help so far I really appreciate it.