fin rot? on my angelfish

[Khaleah]

2 days ago I get a phone call that our Albino bristle nose Pleco died. I come home to look at the tank prior to doing a water change and find that both of my angelfish have what looked like a fungus eating their fins. I see them every morning and they didn't look like that when I left for work. I did a 50% water change and added Pimafix and Melafix to the tank. yesterday the other Pleco was found dead. did another water change and added more meds.

I have a 38 gal tank
2 angelfish
used to have 2 2" plecos

Moved 4 Platty's out of the tank a little over a week ago. (angels were beating them up)

Temp 80/81
PH 5.4 (i know really low)
Ammonia 0 (Api not a test strip)
nitrates and nitrites show 0 on the api test strips

Their poor fins are just shredded. I haven't had fish in a long time and 3 months ago I started this new tank.

I guess my question is, is this fin rot? and what else can i do?

Here are pictures of my poor babies

 

[Rbishop]

You need to do all tests with a liquid kit.

What's your normal WC routine?

Fin rot is usually a sign of poor water quality.

Take all readings also on your tap water.

 

[Khaleah]

I do 20% water changes weekly. I will have to go and get the other liquid ones soon.

my water got a little yucky last week but after the water change it went back to normal

 

[Rbishop]

Were any of the fish recent additions?

 

[Khaleah]

The angelfish spawned but the wigglers didn't makes it. that's when i removed the plattys. I did a water change when all of the eggs were no longer on the leaf and the pair no longer "cared"

 

[Khaleah]

Well I checked the water again. I had a liquid kit delivered same day. 0 for everything except my ammonia was threw the roof. 8ppm so not fin rot but massive chemical burns. I tossed my other ammonia kit since it gave me false readings.

 

[Rbishop]

Those burns can cause fin rot to boot. Repeated WCs untill that ammonia reaches zero by indication.

Get readings on your tap also. Especially pH on a sample that set out overnight. We need to find where that low pH is coming from.

 

[Khaleah]

My tap water PH is super low 5.4 and the ammonia is 0.

I did another 50% water change last night. which brought it down to 4ppm. I am going to do a 25% today when i get home.

Or should I do a 50% again?

 

[Rbishop]

You might want to contact the organization that supplies your tap water. 5.4 sounds awfully low for supplied system.

 

[FreshyFresh]

Sorry if I missed it, but are you using the API master test kit?

What type of filter do you use on this tank and did you recently remove/replace ALL the media in it?

If you're showing ammonia and no nitrates, either you never had a proper nitrogen cycle in this tank or it got disrupted somehow.

I'd have a good dechlor/water treatment on hand like Seachem Prime or Safe (granular form). It will detox ammonia temporarily.