http://youtu.be/ZKS0CQG-9P8 Video showing angels darting and clamping. I've received excellent help from your team, and am so grateful for your advise! Thank you (and your team) for taking the time to help us beginners! On to the issues: I have a 30 gallon marineland bio-wheel 150 tall tank with 5 juvenile angelfish (blushing golden marvel/koi veil mix, silver clown, 3-stripe, zebra lace, and the most beautiful black marble). Their only tank mate is an algae eater. They come from an out-of-town reputable store that has healthy fish, and I quarantined them a week anyways. They were perfect when I got them, so the problems are my fault. I added a sponge filter, driftwood and live plants over the past month with no problems. My issues are: ammonia due to a mini-cycle caused by medicating a sick angle, too high ph (and fluctuations due to me trying to fix it), and now my favorite big black angle (along with the others, but not to the extent of his symptoms) is darting, clamping and twisting his top dorsal fin and shimmying once in a while. He also had a hole in his top fin this morning, which healed by evening using melafix and pimafix. . Here are my questions: 1. I have tried everything to rid this tank of ammonia (which is even worse at my high ph), including: daily water changes with prime, adding live plants, daily stability dose, adding the nitra-zorb filter insert and feeding less. Nothing seems to get the cycle going again. Some say the prime is stalling the cycle, but I won't leave them unprotected. The ammonia is 1 (AFTER A WATER CHANGE) based on the liquid api test, and .002 ppm on the seachem ammonia alert that shows the true ammonia after prime. So, the poor things still feel it. I purchased tetra safe start with bio spira. I called the company, and was told I could not use prime, or do any water changes for 14 days if I wanted it to work. Should I use this product? If so, what am I supposed to do if the ammonia hits 2 and they are freaking? If I do not use this product, how can I re-cycle this tank? I forgot to mention, I cycled the tank 3 months ago with stability. Stability is not helping at all now (I've used it for 4 days now after daily wc). I am so frustrated. These are my babies and I can't stand watching them dart around twisting fins! 2. To make matters worse, my bf just pointed out that while I make sure the temp and RO/tap measure is the same on my replacement water, I wasn't checking the new replacement water's ph, before adding it to the tank. This is probably why my fish clamp fins, shimmy, etc right after water changes. Either way, using the RO/tap mix, my ph is always 7.8 during the day, and 8-8.2 in the middle of the night (I test when they start acting funny.) tonight is the worst I've ever seen my black. He won't go to sleep, just keeps darting (about half an inch as if surprised) with his dorsal twisted. I feel so helpless. I don't want to stress him more by changing more water, and I don't even know if I'm right (that the ph and ammonia are causing this). Back to the questions: how can I stabilize a lower ph in hard water? I lowered kh with RO water, but it still rises at night and goes back down in the morning. So, they're miserable, stressed and susceptible to disease every night. I can't go through watching another fish get sick and die, so I'm doing my best to prevent this. Sorry this is so long, I'm so upset! Here's a short question summary: 1. Does bio-spira work, and what do you do if ammonia spikes during the 14 days? 2. What other way can I rid the tank of ammonia (and then nitrites) aside from water changes? The fish hate water changes because the new water fluctuates the ph, and doesn't even seem to bind all of the ammonia. 3. What's the easiest, best way to lower AND STABILIZE ph so the angels are more comfortable, and ammonia isn't so harmful? 4. 2 fish have white poop, but a breeder told me it is probably due to ammonia. I am VERY afraid of medicating, but don't want sick fish left untreated. 5. Could the shimmying, darting, fin clamping, etc be due to something other than ammonia and ph issues? 6. Kind of off the subject, but I am only using regular lights for my 3 small live plants. I bought sylvania spot-gro 50w to set on top of the tank (my tank model does not allow different bulbs to be hooked in), but it got hot, and the fish seemed unhappy, so I turned it off after 10 min. I know I need to get flourish and co2, but will regular light be ok? And is this all really helping my babies? Thank you so much for helping me! I am a nervous wreck watching him dart around, and I'm terrified to use this safestart. Please get back to me ASAP, as I'm sitting on pins and needles not knowing what to do. I'm a member of many forums, but the different opinions and information confuses me, and I end up making mistakes. I'm about to upgrade to a 55 gal tall, but I'm having so many issues, I keep wondering if I'm not capable of caring for fish! Kelly