Sick niger trigger

[pcardone]

This is the first real experience I have had so far with a "sick" fish. Every other fish that I had that was sick <besides ich, pretty easy to treat> all died overnight without showing any noticable signs of being sick. They would all eat, moved happily around the tank, then the next morning find them stuffed under rocks dead.
Anyways, here are my tank params,
Salinity - 1.023 using 2 sep hydrometers
Amonia - 0.25 or 0.00, my eyes aren't the greatest.
Nitrite - 0.00
PH - 8.6 <I buffered last night so most likely is not fully dispersed evenly>
Carbonate Hardness - 8.5dH
Phosphates - 1.0
Temp - 80deg
Tank has been established for over a year with pretty good success. 90 gallon.
Lately have been experiencing a bad hair algae bloom.
No new fish, additions or change of diet.
Now for my niger. Over the last week I have noticed my niger hasn't been himself and then stopped eating about 4 days ago. From what I can tell, seems to be breathing a bit heavy. A good 20% water change was done yesterday while syphoning as much hair algae as possible and removing a few badly covered rocks and scrubbing them off.
I have a new ETSS protein skimmer but it is not installed yet due to the work involved with drilling my sump system. I have a AMiracle Wet/Dry and Lifeguard Mech/Chem filter system with regular filters and phosguard to try and control the phosphates.
I would take a pic but family has camera and niger is hiding in the back of the tank anyway.
Any ideas? I heard someone say to try putting some carbon in the tank?
Thank you!

 

[pcardone]

I tried to be as detailed as possible, but no go? Anyone?

 

[beth]

Two big problems: .25 ammonia, potentially lethel to animals, and too high pH, also potentially lethel to animals.
The combination of this can be extremely serious, since high pH makes ammonia even more toxic.

 

[pcardone]

I plan to retest water again tonight and have a second set of eyes tell me the readings, esp the ammonia. I am guessing the PH should have stablilized by now after the buffering from two night ago. If not, I will get another new batch of water finished up tonight and ready to be swapped in a few days after aeration.
Thanks

 

[beth]

Generally speaking, buffering is not necessary, since there is buffer in most marine salts. Why are you buffering? And, whatever you do, don't continue to buffer while you have ammonia.

 

[pcardone]

I buffered <increased PH to make sure I have the termonology correct> as my PH looked a bit on the light side, like 7.8-8.0 tops. Heard lots of bad things about a lower PH so I attempted to increase PH to get back into the safe 8.2 zone.

 

[beth]

8.0 is perfectly fine pH. Higher pH in the presence of ammonia, makes ammonia more toxic=disaster for marine animals.

 

[pcardone]

Okay, tested water again and used a second opinion since my eyes are not the greatest.
Ammonia - 0.00 <Confirmed with second person>
Nitrite - 0.00
PH - 8.6
Phosphate - 1.0
Temp - 80deg
Carbonate Hardness - 8.5dH
Niger is still alive, but still in the bank of the tank, can't tell much from him as he is pretty well hidden, but do see him moving around. I am getting a new batch of water ready for a change in a few days <have to wait for a really sloooowwww RO filter>
Should I be swapping out the Phosguard for some Carbon? Or anything else I should probably start doing? My other fish are doing great, Puffer, Lion and Snowflake.
Thanks