Sick tank syndrome and running out of ideas

I am new to this forum.

I have four seahorses, one reidi (which I have had for nearly two years) and three kudas (which I have had for nearly one year). A few months ago I had an ammonia spike in all my fish tanks. Everyone where I lived had the same thing happen so I think it was a general problem with the water. Many hobbists lost their horses, so I am fortunate (thanks to the advice of many experts) but I have had no end of problems.

My male Kuda would unhitch and swim around bending forward < and twitching. His pouch was wide open and his colour would change from black to almost pure white. He does something similar when he is courting the females but this is different. The movements are more \"violent\" and stressful. I tried myxicine (a broad spectrum antibiotic) but it seemed to make the twitching much worse. Eventually that stopped. Then he had a bloated pouch twice and trouble swimming. Both times I evacuted, what seemed like, a lot of air. Following that he developed a weak snick. I hand fed him for three weeks. I didn\’t have to resort to tube feeding but I had to catch him and put the tail of the mysis shrimp into his snout and he would snick them up. I gave him two freshwater dips (which he tolerated well) and a course of triple sulfa. He came good and is eating his usual amount.

Also, one of my females has had a cloudy eye for about two months. I have tried myxicine and a freshwater dip. She was better for a while but in the last two days she has had trouble locating her food so I have been handfeeding her as well.

The water seems fine. Ammonia is 0, Nitrates and Nitrites are fine. Ph is about 8.2. Tank temperature is 24C.

Yesterday I bought a UV filter to help clean up the display tank and time will tell if it is effective. My reidi and the other female kuda appear to be fine (fingers crossed).

This morning I noticed the male Kuda twitching again and he seemed really distressed. He is still eating well so I think I have time. I put both him and the female with the cloudy eye in the hospital tank and I am treating them with triple sulfa. He seems more settled.

It is night time here and I don\’t want to turn on the lights and disturb them. I can see the shapes of both of them hitched and upright, I will take that as a good sign for now.

I keep my medications in the fridge. I currently have:

Formalin (I am really scared to use this)
Triple sulfa
myxicine (I don\’t think my male Kuda tolerates this well)
methylene blue
melafix (I don\’t know if seahorses tolerate this)

I am running out of ideas on what to do and I am considering pulling the tank apart, cleaning it thoroughly and setting it back up but I am more likely to loose my horses this way. If anyone out there has had a similar experience I would love to hear how you treated it.

Also, does anyone know whether it is safe and/or helpful to mix triple sulfa and methylene blue?

Regards

Tammie (and Dasher, Dancer, Prancer and Rudolph)