ich and strange algae???

[fishycanuck]

Aw heck!
I noticed tonight during a PWC that two of my discus have ich, a serpae tetra was dead (no sign of ich), and some of the decorations have a strange algae-type deposit on them that looks like a white cobweb.
Water tested +1 for ammonia, nitrate and nitrite negative. This is a 65G tank with four discus (two look fine), six black tetra, one serpae remaining and about a dozen columbian tetra, all looking healthy. There are 2 kuhil loaches in there somewhere but they rarely appear.
I feed a beefheart mixture, have done for months, no new arrivals in the tank since the fall. 
I've been quite occupied this past week and haven't really been watching the fish, but they all looked fine last weekend. I was bragging to the breeder that everything looked great.
I did a second 70% PWC after the first, treated with my usual dechlorinator (Al's), added copper and salt for the ich and removed the affected decorations.
Ideas? What caused this? Am I doing enough to fix it?

[exv152]

I'm not an expert in fish illnesses but the presence of ammonia and white cobweb like stuff probably indicates something like food has gone rotten and developed into a fungus.  My guess is probably something you've fed. Raise the temp to like 86ºF and that should help with the ich, treat with salt, and keep up the water changes.

[fishycanuck]

thank you for your reply - but the discus tank is always at about 85-86 degrees.
This morning, the fish look great, all swimming actively. I see no ich-like crystals, but several of them have what look like air bubbles on their fins. I often see air  bubbles on the decorations after a water change, but never on the fish, more than 12 hours after the water change.
I've been keeping fish for eight years and have had many run-ins with ich, the crystals have never dropped off so quickly.
What is going on?

[exv152]

Have a look at the disease and parasite section of this webpage, half way down, does this sound like something you  might be experiencing?

http://badmanstropicalfish.com/disease.html

[fischkopp]

White something sounds like bacteria film/buildup. Maybe there are too many beef particles left and pollute the water?
Some plecos or snails may help with that.

Keep up the water changes and don't hesitate to raise the temperature even higher, 90-92 will be fine. Make sure to add an airstone.

[fishycanuck]

Oh wow, eXv, that may be exactly what happened.  I did an extra-deep PWC so I could easily get at the piece of wood that looked funny, should have done it more slowly! 
The good news is, all the bubbles/crystals are gone, they almost ripped off my finger when I was feeding beefheart tonight and all have good colour.  I'll do more (small) pwc this week and keep up with extra salt for another few days.
Lesson learned.

[exv152]

Glad it's under control.