Thank you, Terry, for getting back to me. Here are the specs for my tank as of this morning:
Temp is 80F.
pH is 8.2
Ammonia level is 0
I used Aquarium Evolution Seabuffer pH & Alkalinity Booster to get the pH up.
I am using the plastic swing arm hydrometer by Coralife. That's all our petstore had. Where can I get one on-line that is more accurate? It is reading 1.009-1.010 (It only has marks down to 1.010, but I slowly got it to drop below the 1.010.
The ich is gone, but the fish are acting funny. I've only had the SG at 1.009-1.010 for about a week. So I'm sure I haven't killed the ich off for good.
I've never used copper of any sort (you recommended the hyposalinity in a previous reply to a post I had -- and from what I read that you have posted, you know what you are doing!)
I don't have any PVC for them to hide in, but I did put lots of tall plastic plants in the tank for them.
I changed the water 2 days ago (did a 8 gallon change).
I used Malachite green for the first few days of dropping my salinity because the ich was taking a toll on the fish. It helped to kill off the ones on their bodies. Once the ones on their bodies were gone, I didn't use it anymore. Haven't used the Malachite Green for about 5 days.
I took the carbon filter out while treating with MG.... should I put the filter back in now?
If I start raising the salinity again, will the ich come back --- or do you think that by me using the Malachite Green along with hyposalinity I killed them off?
{note: I had moved all of my invertebrates and live rock out of the tank prior to hyposalinity}
Also, I noticed this morning that the damsel's color fading comes and goes. Does that make sense to you?
The clown is just acting plain weird. He swims over where the bubbles hit the top of the water. He swims upside down some and also with his head up and his tail down. He doesn't have any ich on him.
Do you think that maybe the salinity is too low and it is just not registering correctly? The other fish are doing ok, but are rather non-active. Usually my Scat and Tang are swimming around all happy. Not the case over the last few days.
The hydrometer claims to be accurate even with the temperature.
I can't think of anything else to tell you..... They are just obviously not happy and I don't know what to do for them. What am I doing wrong?
