problem with new tank

Question
Hi, I've been doing aquariums, both fresh and salt for about 15 years. I have never run into this particular problem before.

I just purchased a 12 nano for my son for his birthday. It was filled with water on 8/16 I used bottled water (the BIG bottles) for the filling, as I have successfully used this type of water for years with no issue. I placed a few fish in it (Clown Pleco, Sparkling Gourami, and 2 Cardinal Tetras).

The water developed a white hazy-like appearance. I used Crystal Clear, but strangely it had no effect. About a week later I noticed white dots both in the water and attached to the glass, and simultaneosly, every fish except the Gourami got Ich. I treated by raising the temp to 80 degrees and added garlic to the tank. It helped with the Ich, but had no effect on the white dots on the tank glass. I used a 16x loupe to view the ones attached to the glass, and they appeared to look like snail eggs (circluar clusters of 50-75 egg-like material), but there are no snails to this date in the aquarium, and I don't see how any could have been introduced in the first place. No, I do not have any live plants in there.

That is the major problem, but I also appear to have some problems with levels as well.

Ammonia: stable at 2.0 and rising, even with only one fish left
PH: wants to be at 6.5 but when treating with with proper Ph 7.0 or Neutral Regulator, the best I can obtain is 6.8.
Then after a few hours it reduces back to 6.5.
Kh: 300. as I treat PH, this seem to go up instead of the Ph.

All other levels are normal.

Decor: Just regular gravel substrate, a decorative man-made rock, and a decorative dinosaur egg with little dino (this is for my 6-yr old). No other decor.

Filtration: built in bio/chemical filtration (Nano-cube)

Lighting: PC 32w day, 2 blue LEDs for night

Heater: 100w Visitherm indestructable

Pretreated with Drs Foster and Smith Colonize to establish biological bacteria.

Thanks for any help you can offer. The only fish left standing is the Clown Pleco, and he has been alone for about a week.

Answer
Hi Daniel,
The strange white dots you are seeing may be due to the water clarifier that you used and the garlic treatment combined. It's probably just had a weird reaction.

You'll need to try to get your ammonia levels down. The best way to do this is by making partial water changes of at least 30-50%. It's always good to retest your water after a water change just to make sure the ammonia levels were diluted down enough to a reasonably tolerable level.
Your fish have probably been greatly stressed by the pH flucuations due to the use of the pH chemical you've been adding. Usually its best to just leave your pH just where it is at currently. Trying to adjust it can stress your fish and do more harm than good. The good thing is the majority of fish can adjust to your current pH level and thrive just fine where it is at.

What I would do for now, is make 30-50% water changes over the course of at least a week and see how everything goes. If your remaining fish (clown pleco) still has ick you may have to treat him with a catfish-safe medication. "ICH ATTACK" is known to be really safe for catfish and effective. But be sure to leave your pH alone for now. The only time I'd really recommend to adjust your pH is if the Alkalinity is really low. This is because the alkalinity is the buffer to keep your pH stable. If it is too low, your pH is subject to rapid drops and instability.
Also, keep in mind if the water is not changed enough, natural acids produced by dissolved organics will lower your pH. But frequent water changes help prevent this.

So what all this boils down to is; leave your pH alone for now. Start doing daily 30-50% water changes, and give your tank some time to settle.

Let me know how things are going and if your need anymore help!
Best wishes,
Karen~