sick goldfish, bad water?

[thappy]

I have two fancy goldfish in a 30 gallon tank. They were happy for a couple weeks before one of them recently got sick with ich, and had a swim bladder infection. He laid on the bottom barely breathing then on the top of the water on his side. I treated the water with salt tablets, and fasted them for 3 or 4 days. I also switched their food from flakes to pellets to be sure he wasn't eating air bubbles. he got quite a bit better for a week or so. The visual white splotches went away. Now both fish seem to have unhealthy, greyish scales. Looks like mild ich, all over, but I know it's not ich. And one stays at the top and keeps sucking air. I checked the ph and it had a high alkalinity and a ph off the chart. I recently added a bunch of agates. So, I took them out, and have been treating the water with ph balance with hardly any results. Any idea what might be wrong with the fish. Will changing out the city tap water with distilled water help. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. This new 30 gallon tank is much harder to handle than his old empty bowl.

 

[Delapool]

Hi, welcome to the forum. Can you post all water chemistry readings you have(?), as it sounds like the tank isn't cycled?