Ok. Well I'm not understanding our water. We have been doing a water change every day since this post and for about 4 days we haven't fed the fish. The ammonia went up to 1 that's why we haven't been feeding them. The readings for today is
pH: 8.2
ammonia: 0.5
nitrite: 0.25
nitrate: almost 5
Why won't the pH or the ammonia go down?
As it was said before, don't worry about the pH, the ammonia will not go down because your tank does not have enough of the benificial bacteria, this means that your fish are producing ammonia (even sparsely fed) faster than the bacteria can consume it and hence the need for the very frequent water changes.
Don't feel bad, I think a lot of people (myself included) go to the pet store and assume the people there know what they are talking about. In my case the guy at the store told me that doing PWCs would actually stall my cycle because the bacteria live in the water (which is absolutely not true). Like you, I found this site and the people here helped me get through it. I am sorry for your losses but don't worry things will go up from here because you are taking the steps to be a better fish owner, kudos!
This is what I have to say and I want to stress it is JMO based on my research and experience (I am high on the research and low on the experience, have only had tanks for 8 months):
About the cycling:
-Keep doing as many PWCs as necessary to keep ammonia and nitrites below 0.25ppm
-As the bacterial colonies grow you will need less and less PWCs (when your cycle is done IMO at least 25% PWC weekly is the way to go, your fish will thank you for it)
-If you ever get another tank consider doing fishless cycling, it will mean less work for you and no stress/deaths for your fish.
PWCs:
-Check your tap water for pH, ammonia, nitrites and nitrates.
-If your tap water has ammonia and /or chloramines you will get a false positive reading in your tank after water changes (a dechlorinator like prime, binds the ammonia to make it non-toxic for fish until the biofilter takes care of it, the bound ammonia will give a false positive in the liquid API test)
-If you can, get a python (I think they are about $40 on amazon but believe me it is well worth it)
-If you do get a python, then during a PWC you will need to remove water from your tank, then add enough dechlorinator (I also recommend prime) to treat THE WHOLE TANK and then add the water directly to the tank (make sure to match for temperature).
pH/Hardness and why pH up/down products are bad:
-It is much more important that the pH is STABLE than that it is at a specific value, most fish will adapt (I've kept cardinal tetras which in theory require soft/acidic water in very hard/alkaline water with no issues whatsoever)
-There are certain compounds called buffers that stabilize pH and keep it at a certain value, the amount of dissolved buffers (a common one is the carbonate buffer) is measured degrees of hardness, there is general hardness gH and carbonate hardness kH (I recommend you get a gH/kH liquid kit, API makes one and test your tank and tap water just so you know what kind of water you have - this is not 100% necessary, just a suggestion)
-Hard water has a lot of buffers, is usually alkaline (around 7.4 to 8.2) and will have a very stable pH
-Soft water has very little buffers, tends to be acidic and due to the lack of buffers, prone to pH swings.
-When you add the pH up or down products first all the buffers are neutralized and then the pH will change, but at this point you are left with soft water and any little thing (like too much ammonia, which is a base) can cause a change in pH. Also, everytime you do a PWC you would need to match for pH. Have in mind that pH is measured on a log scale so a difference of 1 unit means a factor of 10 difference, fish can tolerate AT MOST a 0.2 change in pH without going through shock.
-If your pH is stable don't worry about it and don't mess with it.
Feeding:
-Feeding sparsely will reduce the waste your fish produce, but I wouldn't go more than 4 days without feeding your fish. The amount of time they can go without food depends on the fish, carnivores can usually go much longer than herbivores, and yes most fish can go longer than 4 days without food, but IMO it is better to do a couple extra PWCs.
-While I was cycling I fed my fish once every 3 days (one day yes, 2 days no) and then when the cycle was done slowly increased to every other day and finally, daily.
About Ick:
-Ick looks like the fish was sprinkled with salt (or white sand) and the grains stuck to it. Ick is a parasite with a specific life cycle and gradually raising the temperature to 84-86F for a week or 10 days will take care of it.
-Be very careful with ick meds, a lot of them will kill the beneficial bacteria, plants, invertebrates and can harm/kill scaleless fish (like your pleco and your raphael catfish, I think it was a combination of the high ammonia and the ick med that killed your pleco). If you want to keep snails or shrimp don't ever use the ones with copper, copper kills inverts and will stay in the tank a long time even with PWCs.
-If you do decide to use meds Kordon Ick Attack is a good one, I have used that one with plecos, catfish, plants and iverts with no problems.
Here's a couple of threads you might find useful:
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f15/common-newbie-pitfalls-67468.html
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forum...-but-i-already-have-fish-what-now-116287.html
Sorry for the novel and the information overload but I really hope this helps.
