does algea kill?

I have of course the red slime and i let it get a little out of hand, coverd most of my substrate, so i did a gravel/sand vac and changed about 15 gallons on my 55. I am running copper wich was my biggest mistake, anyway i dont know if my fish are dying because of the algea, or the water change making to much of a rapid change , going from copper at 0.35 to less than 0.25 with the water change, my dog face, and niger triger all started to act amazingly healthy for about two days and then on the third day they were coverd in spots. so I put about the same amount of copper back in the tank. kinda scared it was too big of a change. my dog died (grr, always your favorite one too!!) and my other two(porcupine I didn't mention) seem to be doing alright but not great! i dunno any advice?

 

Nah the red slime wouldn't cause that. The spots are probably ICH. Sounds like they underwent a lot of stress and thats whats making them die and be unhealthy.

 

yeah I thought so, if anything it's prolly benifishial, right , so the stress from my water change plus the copper removed, you think? oh yeah and has anyone heard of molleys being algea eaters. well I know they are but do you think they could clean somthing like this up?

 

I would never vac my sand. All you have to do is stir it, the algae will eventually go away if you keep disturbing it, that is if you watch your nitrates and phosphates.