ph burn or disease?

[fishgirl2]

we picked up an angelfish on the weekend that had a white marking near side fin that supposely was a scratch... the fish seemed to be doing great swimming about through the holes in the live rock... but, the white blotching continued to worsten within a day. By this morning the fish looked completely disoriented and struggling at the bottom of the tank. Our clownfish are doing great with no signs of problems. The dealer informed us that it was ph burn... we thought the levels were at 8.2 according to our Master Saltwater Kit. Can anyone explain to me how to correctly read the ph test kit? Should the colour match perfectly because are colour looked like it matched except it was more transparent. (analogy... instead of red wine it was rose) It did not appear to be brownish or yellowish. Do you think it sounds like ph burn? If it is ph burn, how did our tank get that way and how can we fix it?

 

[beth]

The LFS is full of it and they sold you a sick fish to begin with.
The best thing to do when buying a fish from a LFS is to really give the fish a once over to make sure there are no marks, blotches, discoloration, parasites, etc., etc. Never buy a fish that has just arrived in the store. Wait a week at least.
There is nothing wrong with your PH. The problem is that you are getting the shaft from your LFS.