Kingzilla
Aquarium Advice Regular
my ammo is a constant 0.25ppm
If I were you I would test some bottled water for ammonia to see if you are really seeing 0.25 or 0. The colors are really close, and sometimes what looks like the 0.25 on the card is really your zero reading. Use a tune from one of the other tests and test some bottled water and tank water at the same time and compare. If they look the same, you don't have ammonia and what you have been seeing is your zero reading.
I've used liquid and test strips, both gave the same reading of 0.25ppm ammonia
As for the fin rot, Linda is correct in saying the best treatment is clean water. Fin rot isn't so much a disease as a symptom of poor water quality. However, if it turns out you don't have ammonia in the tank, perhaps look into a broad spectrum antibiotic. If the fin rot started when you were still cycling, or perhaps even before you bought the fish, it may have led to an infection in the fins that has continued to deteriorate the fins even after the fish were in clean water. Either way, keep up the water changes to ensure pristine water.
The water has always been clean, never more then 0.25ppm ammo, no nitrites and 5ppm nitrates. pH ranges from 7.8 to 8 and temp is set to 25C
Also, be sure you are shaking the crap out of the nitrate bottle number 2, if you aren't you probably are getting an inaccurate nitrate reading.
I've read through all the instructions and even made notes on the bottles with marker to make sure no mistakes are made, I shake that bottle good every time.
As for the strips being fairly accurate, you are right in saying they can be pretty accurate, the main problem with them is they go bad if they get even slightly damp, or too hot, or someone looks at them the wrong way, lol.
and lets not forget the other main problem, people don't read the instructions, I've watched them do it completely wrong at the LFS
Stick with the liquid kits and prime! While it is true that prime can give a false reading of ammonia, it does neutralize it for 24-48 hours, which is long enough for the bacteria in your filter and tank to eat it up. If you do have ammonia in your tap water, this is a very good thing! Regular water conditioner won't do this, and the fish are exposed to the toxic ammonia until the bacteria eats it instead of the neutralized form.
but with daily WC, I'd never be able to truly test what stage my bacteria is in however I had a problem while using Prime so the temporary switch isn't the problem. I'm using LFS brand conditioner to better understand whats really happening in my tank right now. My tank has been running for 3weeks and 2days and it's seeded with filter media, although not fully cycled, something should be happening by now. I'm confused because in an uncycled tank ammo will rise and in a cycled tank, nitrates will rise but neither of these numbers differ from my tap water unless the tank did cycle and the small bio-load doesn't feed the bacteria enough and thus the little bit of nitrates produced is lost through gas exchange from the bubbles. My filter and air pump are always on, I heard the bacteria like oxygen so I wanted to make sure there was plenty
Also, one more question - are you sure the fins are deteriorating and not just clamped? Fish will clamp their fins when they are stressed out, which is also related to water quality most of the time, but can also be an indicator of other disease or stressors.
Please refer to my poor drawing in the OP, this drawing depicts what is happening to my fish, the deterioration happened after the third picture in my drawing and may be a seperate issue, I don't know
I suggest you read this article on columnaris: Columnaris - Flexibacter columnaris