Advice On A Mystery Illness In My 30 Gal

[KrystaK]

I have a 30 Gal cycled tank, readings are constant and within acceptable range. pH is a little high at 8 to 8.2 but I can't really change that easily..
Over the last while I have noticed that my fish have displayed symptoms of various illnesses, from what I believe to be ick to some sort of body fungus. Maybe it's just one illness, but I don't know..... It's been going on for a few months now. It seems to display different symptoms in each species of fish in my tank that gets it....(Unless it's multiple illnesses, in which case I don't understand why each species appears to have different symptoms)
 
I don't understand why because I keep up on water changes and my water parameters are acceptable. 
My tank has:
1 Female Pearl Gourami: Displaying mild hair like fungus or worms (Current, not sure how to treat it)
1 BNP: healthy
5 Panda Corys: At times scratch against ornaments but otherwise healthy, lost one to a mystery illness, his tummy appeared to hemorrhage (Only 1 death of 6 corys)
2 Platy's: One appears to be wasting away while the other appears healthy. (Had three go this way in the last 6 months)
1 Pearl Danio: I've had trouble establishing them in the tank, I've lost about five to a mysterious illness: (they are fine, then start having trouble swimming for a day and they die.) When i take them out they appear to have an internal problem, their tummies seem to have hemorrhaged.  I decided I didn't want to watch the others die so I caught all that I could and re-homed them. I couldn't catch this last one

 
I think it's all one illness because at least 6 fish have died and had what appeared to be a hemorrhage of the stomach. I've had three platys waste away with one appearing to do the same as we speak. They don't appear to have a stomach hemorrhage but I would still consider this an internal problem, possibly a parasite?
 
I'm almost at my wit's end. Seriously, I want my tank to be healthy and happy again, I'm almost to the point of re-homing (Or putting down if need be

 ) all the fish that I can and then just dumping a load of salt in the tank and turning the heater up to full and leaving it for a month. (And just hoping that the shrimp and snails can tolerate salt and warm water)
 
I feel like it may be some sort of parasite but I can't find anything that matches the symptoms I'm seeing...
 
If anyone has any suggestions as to what I could do I would really appreciate it!!
 
 

 

[This Old Spouse]

See if this link will help at all.

 

[KrystaK]

Helped a little, none of the illnesses listed quite match but now I can at least start treating my using the treatments common to all the illnesses it gave me. Though i don't think my fish would do well if I raised the temperature to what was required, 95F And I don't recall seeing any medication on it's list of suggestions in any of my local pet stores  

 

[This Old Spouse]

Don't ever raise the temp that high! My goodness. You'd cook the fish.
 
What kind of cleaning schedule do you have? How do you maintain your filters? What kind of dechlorinator do you use? What are "acceptable" water parameters? Do you have a liquid test kit, and if so what are your stats? How long has this tank been set up?

 

[KrystaK]

Sorry about the late reply.
Just lost one of my platys this morning

Fins were clamped last night and she seemed shy and a little lethargic but I didn't expect her to die so quickly. 
 
I wasn't planning on raising the temperature, but I did buy a new heater and the water is now 27..
 
My cleaning schedule is a 30-40% water change every Friday. By maintain the filter, I put in a new filter pad about 2 months ago and was planning to take the old one out this Friday as there should be enough bacteria in the new one. I usually change the pad about 3 times a year. Otherwise I don't touch the filter unless I notice  the intake is clogged. 
My dechlorinator is Top fin Water Conditioner: concentrated to 1ml per 10 G (I admit I use too much dechlorinator, usually between 2-3 ml per 15 lt bucket of water, but I didn't think overusing it would cause a problem)
 
I have an API Master Freshwater Test kit and some test strips that I bought to measure gH when I was trying to lower the pH.... The kit is over a year old, I should probably spring for a new one sometime soon;
 
By acceptable water parameters I mean: Ammonia 0-.25 (Somewhere in there, it's hard to tell, but ammonia isn't a problem I think would be causing my fish to die as none have red gills to indicate poisoning) Nitrate and Nitrite are both at the very bottom end of the color scale on my test kit so I'm assuming they're both 0 (Though I read somewhere Nitrate is supposed to be <50 ppm) So maybe that's my problem.... 
pH is 8-8.2 from the tap. Stats have been that way for months now, I know they're not ideal, but I've tried changing the pH without stressing the fish and I've given that up as I don't want to invest in RO.
 
Tank has been set up since Dec. then we moved house and I changed the substrate. I had the same problems prior to, in the old house. When we moved house I changed the substrate, but kept 30% of the tank water and the original decorations. The problem hasn't gotten any worse or better, even after a big change to the tank it is still not right. 
In truth I think I first noticed I had a problem  last January when I tried introducing Guppies but they all continually died on me. And after that I had trouble with Danios and since then I've had Platy troubles, but my Gourami, BNP and three Corys have been in there since June and are showing no problems now. 
 
I treated for a 7 day stint with Melfix (1 tsp per 10 gal) and Pimafix (5 ml per 10 gal) and it hasn't appeared to help. I noticed one of my platy's and my Danio scratching on the plants the day after I stopped treatment. So I don't think it's Bacterial or Fungal in nature.... I looked online and found an API general cure which I may try that claims to cure parasitic issues such as Anchor worm, velvet, wasting ect ect.... But if that doesn't work I think I'm just going to  shut the tank down for a few months (I don't know what I'll do with my apparently unaffected fish because I don't want to rehome them in case they bring the problem to other tanks but I also don't want to euthanize them because they seem perfectly healthy) 

 

[This Old Spouse]

The only red light that flashes at me is the pH being so drastically high. Can you get a nice thick piece of bogwood? That would drop the pH naturally and gradually.
 
Also, I would recommend keeping your water temp a little lower, say 24. 

 

[KrystaK]

I have several pieces of bog wood in the tank, have for a few months now. Only one piece even added any Tannin to the water.... I have some Peat that I used in my 20 Gal to try and lower it's pH.... Maybe I'll add some to the filter when I take the old pad out and see if it helps to lower it. I dislike the peat as it turns the water a dark tea color - I wouldn't mind normally but as the light isn't as bright as I would like adding peat will just make it even more dark, but it's worth a try to see if it will help. 
 
 
The temp was around 24 with the old heater, but that was with said heater at full power, and I was worried that if I needed to up the temperature it wouldn't be able to cut it so I sprang for a new one. (Plus I got the tank second hand from a friend and the tank, heater and filter had all been in their basement for 5+ years) so the heater was nearing it's end anyways.... (I replaced the old filter when i got the tank, never even had that filter set up.) 
 
So I'll try the peat and keep an eye on the stats to see if it affects the pH. I suppose about a month would hopefully bring about any pH change if there was going to be one right?
If that trying to lower it doesn't help I may have to spend the 16$ and try that General Cure from API (Though I was hoping to invest in some LED's to make the tank brighter) If my fish keep dying there's no point in having nice lights.