"fish cant read PH", you got me, ill stop testing everything my fish cant read. swings in PH, whether you've experienced it or not can cause flashing, did you ever think that due to the regularity of your ph movement and the type of fish you have that they handle it well/gotten use to it?? someone who has or holds their PH at consistant level and experiences a relatively large jump or dive in PH level could notice flashing (and not have ich btw).
You could save yourself a little money on test kits. PH is largely a useless test aside form determining Co2 levels in the water. IF phosphate buffers are in play, Ph becomes even less useful as a test since phosphate buffers can negate the PH KH correlation.
Try making a large change in PH without making any change in solids, and you'll see that Ph has no effect on fish. Dissolved solids do have an effect and that is what people see the result of when fish are stressed From "PH" shock. If routine water changes are done, Then Tap and tank will match fairly well in solids and carbonate levels, and water changes will not stress the fish despite the fact that the out of tap Ph may be drastically different than the in tank PH. Most water companies force Ph to specified levels, and when you put it in the tank it will equalize to atmospheric levels. The PH change is insignificant if Solids remain constant. This is a small part of a huge PH myth in this hobby, and one we should probably discuss on a new thread so we aren't hijacking.
also imo saying this is ich is really premature, we have yet to even see ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels, the tank could be cycling from fresh or have been pushed into a mini cycle. with no white spots on the fish to physically identify ich and not knowing the water parameters i dont know how someone determines for a fact anything about any parasite or disease. still sounds like water quality to me,
I fully agreew with this, but one thing we have determined for sure in the last week is that tmy420 is not going to test water, not going to find out if he is dealing with chlorine or chloramines, he is not going to approach this issue in a sytematic calm manner and try to do what is best for the fish. This has been several days of helter skelter non-stop questions about multiple subjects without any feedback that allows us to help. At this point I just plan to answer whatever qiuestion pops up and go on. whether or not tmy420 uses that information is another matter. If the info is here other folks may use it to their benefit and gain something from it. If not Ohh Well, maybe tmy420 will get up in the morning test his tank water, check out his water companies website and then take that information and use it to some benefit or elimination of possibilities. I did not reccomend treating for ich first thing, I reccomended finding out if chloramines are in use since the water conditioner being used will not deal with chloramines properly. I also suggested at some point to sytematically rule out possibilities starting with water quality issues. To the best of my knowledge none of that has been done. But when someone asks for clarification about ICH particulars, since they won't take the time to read the article I generally try to give some kind of answer. The best part of all is that this question and surrounding sub questions are scattered all over the boards on multiple threads.
As far as the Questions from Roan Art, I see no reason not to clarify when I can. Roan Art is in an entirely differnt situation with many similar symptoms and some of the same questions have come up. You may wish to read the other posts of hers before you draw conclusions. I haven't gone back to check, but will just about bet that Roan Art tested water and knows the numbers for anyone who might ask.
Dave
