I've never used epsom salt, but it stands to reason that soaked food, versus adding it to the water, may not effect (raise) the GH.
I think so. In fact, the only reason Seachem claims the ability to detoxify nitrates is because a number of hobbyists contacted them with results of zero nitrates. To my knowledge, Seachem themselves have not been able to explain exactly how nitrates are detoxified using they're products.
One thing is clear, the nitrogen cycle is not what killed your fish.
Based on the pictures of your fish, I would go back to whatever you were doing before as far as water changes go. Your GH research will shed some light on this. Also understand that your substrate, decorations, even bio media can adjust your PH, and maybe your GH. When I started using Seachem Matrix - which I love by the way - my PH dropped from a stable 8.0 to a consistent 7.6 (with no ill effects).
In any tank, there are four types of important "good" bacteria. The first are the decomposes. They take the animal waste and transform it into ammonia. The second type are the Nitrosomonas, which convert ammonia to nitrite. The third are Nitrobacters, which convert nitrites to nitrates. And the fourth are the denitrifying bacteria that take nitrates that aren't taken up by plants and convert that to nitrogen gas, which is aired out during gas exchange with the surface of the water. All Safe and Prime do is chemically speed up the process of changing ammonia to nitrogen gas. Seachem understand this. The nitrogen cycle is not difficult to understand and with the amount of money the chemists working for the company are making, they had better understand how their produce helps to remove nitrates.
I do agree that the nitrogen cycle likely had nothing to do with the death of the OP's super red.
I do disagree with your comment earlier about water changes only being for removal of hormones, maintaining GH/pH and replenishing minerals. While you are correct on the hormones and GH/pH, mineral replenishment will depend entirely on the source of the water. For instance, my water has very little trance minerals in it. In my old house in SC, my water was chalk full of them. And water changes are not just for those things. Water changes are done to remove excess ammonia, nitrates and nitrites. Now again, that can vary with the water source, but for the most part, you will be removing more ammonia, nitrites and nitrates than you will be adding back from the tap 99% of the time. Water changes can also be used to remove chemicals used to treat illness and remove visible debris.
It is also unlikely that his GH or pH had anything to do with the death of his fish. Even with large water changes only done once a week, the change in pH or GH is likely insignificant. Not likely to cause pH shock let alone kill a species of fish that is known to be hardy and tolerant of a variety of water conditions (speaking of severums in general, not just super reds). It is likely a poor genetics issue with the line bred super reds. It could also be a natural death. People suffer from heart attacks daily by the thousands and I while I would say fish are healthier and less obese as a species compared to humans in the US, fish do still suffer from health issues just like humans do. It's common to see people forget that animals are biological organisms that suffer from some of the same or similar health risks we humans do. It could be just that simple. Or it could be very complex. Truth of the matter is that we will likely never know unless the OP wants to bag the fish and send it to a physiology biologist specializing in fish along with a water sample to a chemist specializing in some form of water source testing/chemistry. That will cost a lot of money and still has the chance of coming back with inconclusive results.
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