Algae, weeds and other problems.

Okay, let's see what we got...

A few more questions:
When you say water ager, do you mean dechlorinator?

What is nitravec and why are you using it?
Why are why adding an antibacterial/fungal?
Why are you adding aquarium salt?

Please post recent NH3, NO2, NO3, pH and KH readings.

Stop using commercial pH regulator. Test your tap water KH and leave a shallow bowl of water out overnight and test pH in the morning. Use water changes to maintain pH.

Now for the disease. Don't worry about the dead fish being colourless, they all lost their brilliance when they die. The white spots, are they fuzzy or do they look more like grains of salt? Do you notice any growths anywhere else or on any other fish?

Don't stress, we'll get through it.
 
Thanks for replying. Some answers for you:

The water ager says that it "Neutralises chlorine and chloramine".
Nitravec is just the brand I think. It basically boosts the good bacteria for the filter and so on.

I'm using the anti bacterial/anti fungal to try to cure the fish of their white growths. As for the salt, I'm not sure why but I was told to put that in there.

Those readings for pH, NO2 and ammonia just above are current. They have been stable like that for the last few days so I haven't been using any pH regulator because the water seems to be completely stable. I used it about 4 or 5 days ago because there was a sudden drop in the Ph. I must have had a bad batch of water I guess?

The white spots... well they are the worst part. There are some on all the fins of the remaining neon and on the feeler of one the gouramis. It is hard to tell but they seem to sort of be like grains of sand. They really badly irritate the fish too. They madly swim around in circles, scrape thier sides against the edge of the leaves and randomly bash into the gravel on their side. I think this is my only problem at the moment (the white spots) because the water seems so good at the moment.

Let me know if you need any more info.
 
The water ager says that it "Neutralises chlorine and chloramine".
Click to expand...

This is needed, so that's a good thing

Nitravec is just the brand I think. It basically boosts the good bacteria for the filter and so on.
Click to expand...

This brand is new to me, but I will say this. Bacteria in a bottle has proven to be universally useless except for bio-spira (which is currently off of the market) Some of these products actually hinder the growth of your bio-filter, others just add pollution. none of them so far have proven to be very effective. this may explain the detectable nitrite levels. Natrate levels are really important to know.

I'm using the anti bacterial/anti fungal to try to cure the fish of their white growths. As for the salt, I'm not sure why but I was told to put that in there.
Click to expand...

Aquarium salt is commonly mis-used . there is a big myth in this hobby that all fish need salt in their water. It can be effectively used to cure ich which is what you may be looking at on your fish. if it is ich the antibacterial won't help it below are linked articles for ich and salt that may help you. they are worth the time to read
http://www.aaquaria.com/aquasource/salt.shtml
http://www.aaquaria.com/aquasource/salt.shtml

7.0 Ph would scare me if I wasn't injecting CO2. From the description I picture your tank with a HIGH TDS level, a low KH, and high phosphates and nitrates. this really is a recipe for algea, and not a good condition for your fish. Clear clean looking water or a perfect PH really isn't a good factor to judge water quality by. Unfortunately many LFS's tout these as they way to know. first test everything Happy has asked for and let us know. then You will want to slowly re-adjust all of those things and bring the tank back to where it needs to be.
Powders in a can (ph balancers) and quick fix additives are almost always more trouble than they are worth. The brite side to all of this is that you are looking for good knowledge and help, you will get through this, and you and your fish will be better off when it's all over.
Worry about diagnosing the fish first, the tank water second and the algea 3rd. take one thing at a time but work on the first two as quickly as possible. treat the fish, get a handle on the water, and then worry about details like algea. algea is ugly and also a sign of problems. but it won't hurt your fish so it can wait.
Dave
 
Thanks for that.
That Ich stuff sounds scary. I had some medication here just by chance that the ingredients are a mixture of formalin and malachite green so I put in 15ml of that, have started increasing the heater by 1 degree C every couple of hours or so and took the carbon insert out of the filter. I'm guessing I shouldn't go over 86 degrees F for the tank? I read in that article that corys don't like warm water.

I'll tell you what the remaining Kuhli loach is NOT happy. He's swimming around at the surface and trying to leap out of the water. Normally he just sits on the bottom of the tank quietly hiding.

I feel so helpless.
 
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Forgive my ignorance, but what is KH and how do I measure it?

*EDIT*

Okay I read that article on salt and it happened to mention KH. So it measures a buffer effect the water has against changes then? Or does it measure the hardness of the water? Or is that the same thing? Can you just buy a kit to test that?

So it looks like I need an NO3 test kit and a KH test kit??
Correct me if I'm wrong guys.
 
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Essential KH is a measure of the carbonate hardness of your water which is the buffer against ph swinfg and or low ph. And th kit will be sold as Kh test kit.
 
Sorry, I didn't have time to answer fully. KH measures 'alkalinity' which is all the buffering agents in your water minus the H+ concentration (or 10^-pH). In most aquariums, the only significant contributors to alkalinity at carbonate, bicarbonate and phosphate. In properly maintained tanks, you can drop the phosphates out of the equation, I did the calculation a couple weeks ago and even with PO4 levels at the upper limit of the test kit (around 5ppm, I think), would only add about 3ppm to KH, I'm not positive that this is right, but I do remember that it was only with PO4 at the extreme end of the scale that it actually would make a noticeable difference (to a hobby kit).

So in summary, KH kits don't measure KH, they measure alkalinity, but in a well maintained tank, alkalinity is a good approximation of KH.
 
PS- Ghost Knife Fish are carnivorous, and grow to up to 20 inches in length. Might be kinda tight with two of them in a 3 foot tank. Good Luck.

TB
 
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