perpetual ich -- advise appreciated.

[fivespeed302]

"sick fish" threads run on and on full of personal cure information. All advice is good but, as is the norm, it fails to address the real problem. It's like running your car with no oil, then taking it to the shop and asking them to fix the motor because it's smoking, then leaving and driving with no oil again.

*Something* is stressing your fish and making them susceptible to the infection. What could it be? You fix that, you fix your problem. USUALLY it is a water quality issue.

Post

• 
  Tank Size
  Filtration
  Substrate
  Occupants
  Temp (if possible, use more than 1 therm)
  Ammonia
  Nitrite
  Nitrate
  pH

Given that information, it will be easier to pinpoint your problem. Don't throw a bunch of off the shelf cures in the tank without checking the oil.

I totally agree with this guy. He basically said what I was trying to say, only better. You need to figure out what is stressing your fish. You say all your parameters are within normal, but how normal is that? What exactly are they? Why are you worrying so much about your ph? Here in Florida, where many of these fish are raised and distributed nationwide, the ph is 8.0 to 8.2. Your buffering could be part of or all of the problem.