Neverending Problem

[ceecrb1]

I have posted here before, about this same problem, but i´m starting afresh...

I am based in Valencia, Spain. My house has a decalsfier in the water mains, will be buying an RO unit soon.. for now I buy RO water from LFS.

I´ve had finrot in my tank, ever since it was set up, in September. so 7 months. The fish seen "happy" but there is just an eternal finrot that wont go away. I just suddenly gets worse once every few months, then never heals at all.. then suddenly worse again..
untill now I´d lost 0 fish, except one cory that i´d been sold ill, it died 24 hours after purchse.

Here is a list of the things I´ve tried since this problem occured..
Origninally I was adding pure RO due to bad information by LFS. now doing 50/50 ro/tap for hardness...
Removed the live plants as they NEVER flourished and the dead plant matter was causing problems, now plastic plants..
I´ve binned the food sold at LFS as its on the borderline of out of date (clearly he doenst sell much) and bought new.
Doubled the volume of biological filter disks in the external filter..
Replaced the large filter media
Replaced the "tap safe" i´m using for the 50% tap water. Was also close to sell-by date.
Stepped up the number of water changes per month, and working hard at keeping pipes and large filter media clean.
bought a larder volume tank to reduce "caged in" stress.... in the ch ange over, only lost the gravel... everything else just transfered over and the water topped up.. (from 64 - 96ltrs)

Treated for, finrot with 6 different medications, the last b
eing myxazin.
Treated with general ich/parasite medication.
Treated with proper velvet medication.


Now onto yesterday and today:
Ok last night I noticed some fish flashing... and found an amonia spike.... so did a water change.. re-tested and amonia was back down again..
Also treated again for velvet...... After this, the fish were amazing.. looking as good as new... more sociable and relaxed....
There had been no treatments added for around 5-6 weeks now...

Today, back from work... cloudy water and a dead barb.... definately seen one other leaning heavily to its side, looking like its on the way out... not a single happy fish to be seen.

This morning I also cleard out the filter a little as over night the flow had dropped way low.... back again from work and it had dropped low again..
By chance today I bought a filter hose cleaning brush.... my god the gunk that came out.... and the flow is back up again.... didnt touch the filter in any other way or form...


I also bought some of the 5in1 test sticks.... I know they are not as accurate as my "wet kit" but for speed and a quick over-view is what I want them for...
Todays tests were all within "normal" parameters..
0-10 no3
0no2
4-7 degrees GH
6-10 deg KH
7.6 ph.
0 amonia


Here are 2 photos of todays dead fish.... can anyone see any clues I cannot

http/picasaweb.google.es/ceecrb1/Deadfish#


All comments and suggestions are clearly welcome!!!!

Something is very wrong with this tank at a base level.

 

[robryb]

It might be something toxic in your tank that's killing your plants and weakening your fish and their immune systems, making them succeptable to finrot and the like.
It could be some sort of chemical or heavy metal, perhaps present in the water. It could be flouride, high levels of chlorine, something introduced by the decalsifier, perhaps a decoration that is leaching toxic chemicals into the water, or your gravel? Low oxygen levels can cause your fish to become prone to diseases.
You could try using only RO water and remineralizing the RO water yourself. You can buy some special salts to remineralize it/harden it, which is what I do. Perhaps add some extra oxygenation to your tank?

 

[ceecrb1]

It might be something toxic in your tank that's killing your plants and weakening your fish and their immune systems, making them succeptable to finrot and the like.
It could be some sort of chemical or heavy metal, perhaps present in the water. It could be flouride, high levels of chlorine, something introduced by the decalsifier, perhaps a decoration that is leaching toxic chemicals into the water, or your gravel? Low oxygen levels can cause your fish to become prone to diseases.
You could try using only RO water and remineralizing the RO water yourself. You can buy some special salts to remineralize it/harden it, which is what I do. Perhaps add some extra oxygenation to your tank?

Is that just low use of sea mix?? can you explain it a little more.

 

[robryb]

No,definetely not sea salts. It's a special mix of minerals specifically for using RO water in freshwater tropical aquariums. It's basically a blend of various minerals (potassium, magnesium, calcium, etc) that your tropical fish and plants need. It's refered to as 'remineralizing' or 'reclaiming' or a 'water conditioner'. They should be phosphate and nitrate free.

Examples are:
Kent R/O right water conditioner
Seachem Equilibrium RO Water conditioner for freshwater planted aquariums
API Electro-right

Ideally, you should add a liquid plant fertilizer with pure RO water as well (again, phosphate and nitrate free), and some CO2

 

[loraxchick]

any sign of stringy white mucous poo from any of the fish/ internal parasites can cause flashing. and the stress from them may bring on secondary fin rot. anyone bloated or skinny? just a thought. also, do you have nippy fish/ could they be nipping each other and it appears as finrot? another thought.
good luck with them.
cheers