HI all.
Since my last post, I have lost all my gourami and barbs to face fungus...
Taking on board Pleccys advice I have now done the following (and maybe more .

After the death of the last fish, i surveyed the aquarium for a couple of days. there were no new cases to report, so i carried out a 50% water change first and while doing that, scrubbed out the the glass and cleaned out the other stuff like heater, thermometer and filter (in boiling water) and put them all back and filled with fresh water and left it for a couple of days. The water went cloudy (i think this may be the bacteria as described in an earlier post that must be trying to re-establish itself after the filter sponge getting a hot water treatment)

A further 4 days later, the water seems to be clear. I have done a test using eSHA aqua quick test dip strips. here are the results:

pH 6.4
KH 6d
GH >7d (but less than 14d is assumed i think as the next colour up was 14d)
NO2 0
NO3 0

Does this make sense to people? I think that the pH is a bit low, and there is no NO2/NO3. (Is it ammonia that breaks down to release NO2 and NO3...if so is it too soon after the filter cleaning as I have not tested for ammonia)

Additionally, I have ordered primafix and melafix and stress coat from API and added the following amounts:
primafix: 10ml
melafix: 10 ml
API stress coat: 25 ml

I intend testing again in 7 days and carrying out a 25% water change...

Have I done right or is it OTT?
Cheers
Jay

If you don't have any fish at present then there is no need to add the medications, all aquariums contain small background populations of bacteria and they only become a problem when they infect a host (the fish) and multiply themselves. Stress from poor water quality is the main constituent for disease.

Strip test kits do tend to be somewhat unreliable, a liquid master test kit is what you need and I would highly recommend buying one for ammonia. During the nitrogen cycle ammonia is broken down into nitrite and then nitrate, phosphate and nitrogen gas. The last three are generally harmless except in very high concentrations.

Have you added any chemicals (i.e ammonia) to kickstart the cycling process? Until you do then there will be very little in the way of detectable ammonia and nitrite. Also during the cycle there isn't any need for water changes, the only time that I would recommend carrying out a water change is at the end of the cycle, to remove most of the accumulated nitrate.