New to tank care, and my fish is sick : /

[Mricco16]

Okay, so i have a 20 gallon tank right now with one fish, two frogs and two snails. The water has been crystal clear besides the little bit of green algae growing. But yet my fish has ich, and my frogs sit in the same corner for days. not to mention i still cant figure out how to get the water well on the test strip .. The GH level is at 180, The KH level is at 0, the PH for fresh water is at 6.0, the N02 is at 0, while the N03 is at the highest 200. what do I do?

 

[dkpate]

First get a liquid test kit, those strips are crappy. How long has the tank been running? What fish do you have in there? What kind of snails? Have you used anything to treat the ich yet? If not, I think the safest route for you to go would be using heat to get rid of the ich. Slowly raise the temp to 86*, and leave it there for at least 10 days.

 

[Mricco16]

Ive had the tank running for about three to four months and evrything was fine. Since the past couple of weeks i started to notice my fish acting funny and then days later he got the white spots. The frogs seem to be fine. I have the salt and liquid stuff to clean the water levels when I replace it. I dont wanna put too much chemicals in though
Thank you for the help

 

[dkpate]

Ok, so the tank is most likely cycled, that's great!

With the frog and snails in there, I would skip out on the salt, and just raise the temp to 86* slowly.

Have you added any new fish lately? Ich has to be brought in, and doesn't live in your tank all the time. Are the spots fluffy?

 

[Mricco16]

no new fish, just that one, the rest are the frogs and snails. I started to raise the temp so hopefully that works. their not fluffy, just scales in some parts have turned white. last time i changed the water he goes to the bubbles gasping for air, thats why i put the salt and the amquel liquid in. So i know it has to do with the levels of the water, so im afraid to change it.

 

[dkpate]

Getting rid of the salt is okay, and you can only get rid of it with water changes (as you probably already knew).
Since you say it's the scales that are white, I don't think it's ich, and it might just be fading.
Try doing one or two more partial water changes every week, and see if that helps.
Also, don't use salt anymore. Have you ever seen salt poured on a slug? It shrivels them up, and does the same thing to scaleless things like frogs and snails.

 

[glassbird]

How often do you do water changes? How much do you take out each time? Do you use chlorine remover? And do you make sure that the temp of the new water is as close as possible to the old water still in the tank? What kind of filter do you have?

Hmmm...also it would be good to know exactly what kind of fish this is. And test results from a drop-type test kit would be really important. The strips really are inaccurate. If you can't get a test kit, take a sample to your local fish store and ask them to test it for you, but get the numbers and write them down. Don't just let them tell you "everything is fine". The numbers mean something, and we can help you interpret them. (If the store is using strips to test the water, walk away and go somewhere else!)