Ich? Or Something Else?

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Starfirefly26

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My Balloon Molly just formed two white spots on her tail. I see none on her body, nor is she rubbing against any of the tank decorations.

Earlier she seemed like she was spazzing out...she shook as she swam, but not constantly. I thought this was stress from the male Guppy(he likes following her) but she continued even after I isolated him.

10 US Gallons
Nitrate: 40
Nitrite: 10 (I'm trying to lower this...isn't being successful)
GH: 75
KH: 80
pH: 7.2

I lack an ammonia test.

Should I get medication for Ich (As well as a water change and better way to lower Nitrite)?
 
shaking of the head is a sure sign of ammonia poisoning. looking at your readings the tank isnt cycled yet. you'll know when it is as the nitrites will be 0. its actually the nitrates that your water changes need to remove not the nitrites.

mollys as they grow migrate to brackish water and so theirfore really need some salt in the water. this will aslo help kill any ick offf if you up the temp the ich will hatch and the salt will then kill it. one tablespoon for every 5 gallons of water.

do a 10% water change every second day for anther week and i reckon your tank will then be cycled. unless its been running for a while which in that case would suggest you are doing something wrong with the tank causing it to kill of the filters bacteria.
 
Yeah, the tank's been up for about 3 weeks, and this is the first time I've noticed something really wrong.

Will just 10% water changes fix the ammonia/chemical problems or should I use something else as well?

As for the salt, should I use aquarium salt or table salt? Do I put the tablespoon(s) in only once or on a time basis?

Sorry for all the questions, I'm still very new at this >.<

EDIT: Oh! Will the water changes kill off the existing Ich?
 
Should I slip in any Ich treatment before or after I change the water?

And as for the water I replace the old water with, is Distilled water okay or should I treat some tap water?
 
Treated tap water should be fine unless you have ammonia in your tap, which is not likely. I would use that. 10% water change every other day does not sound like enough to me, expecially if they're already showing signs of being sick. I would do a 10% to 20% water change every day and add the ich medication after. (If you add it before you'll just be removing some of what you just put in!) Just water changes will not get rid of ich, but with your tank not cycled like this, just adding the ich med won't help, either.
Water changes are very important because your fish are being poisoned by thier own waste. I am assuming your tank is new and that you just set it up and added fish without cycling first? If so, read this article to help you understand why thats not a good idea and what is going on in your tank.
http://www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=10099
 
I let the tank sit a week with filters on and with the tap water treated.
Then the lps told me that it was safe then to put fish in, but to start with fish to work through the water and give it the right chemicals and whatnot.

Needless to say, I seem to have been given wrong information.

I feel really bad for my fish, too >.<
Thank you very much for that link as well.

I'm going to do a 25-50% water change today as well as clean the gravel. And, of course, some Ich medication.

EDIT:
Hmm...I bought an ammonia test to keep an eye on the level, but it says the ammonia level is at 0 now o_O
 
Treated tap water should be fine unless you have ammonia in your tap, which is not likely.


EEEK!! if you have ammonia in your water supply i suggest you dont touch it and make a call to the water board immediatly!.... some water may contain nitrates though

star, it seems your tank is nearly cycled so dont worry about testing the water too much. its something i do maybe once a year here and i keep 16 breeding tanks. also take what you are told by fish shop workers with a pinch of salt (excuse the pun) generally they are kids with zero training and tend to get it very wrong very often due to low pay trained staff dont stick around for very long.
 
Treated tap water should be fine unless you have ammonia in your tap, which is not likely.


EEEK!! if you have ammonia in your water supply i suggest you dont touch it and make a call to the water board immediatly!.... some water may contain nitrates though

star, it seems your tank is nearly cycled so dont worry about testing the water too much. its something i do maybe once a year here and i keep 16 breeding tanks. also take what you are told by fish shop workers with a pinch of salt (excuse the pun) generally they are kids with zero training and tend to get it very wrong very often due to low pay trained staff dont stick around for very long.

I've had it happen to me. There was 1ppm of ammonia straight out of the tap. It was like that for weeks and I had to buy water for my tank and for drinking. I did call them and although the water treatment plant sounded concerned the water coming out of the plant was fine. There was something about the local distributer of the water being responsible for it but they were not the easiest to deal with. They would only test the water when I was home and wouldnt tell me when they were coming! After a while, the problem just dissappeared. I have no idea what caused it. The scary thing is I never would have known if I didn't have a tank, and even with that it took me forever to figure out why I had 1ppm of ammonia in my tank even though I was doing water changes every day to try to get rid of it! What a disaster. Like I said, as long as you don't have ammonia in your tap, you're fine to use it.

As far as testing your tank, its a good idea to test for nitrAtes every once in a while (every couple of months?) to make sure your water changes are keeping up with the fish waste production. And test ammonia and nitrItes whenever your fish are showing signs of stress. For now, even though the ammonia part of your cycle is finished, the nitrIte part is probably not. If you have a nitrIte test kit, test for that, and continue doing water changes until that, too, is down to 0.

Tammy
 

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