Are my fish sick???

Looks like ich to me... water changes (maybe 30% twice a day with old water), raise temp to about 82 and add salt, it has worked 5/6 times for me. The only reason it didn't the 1/6 was because the ich was just to prevalent and knocked out my whole tank... not a happy story but just letting you know my personal experience.

About the tank not cycling, if you didn't have ich I would say unless you are doing water changes with water from a previously cycled tank (aka established one) don't do them that often, the new water from the tap (or whatever source) does not have those beneficial bacteria, so let the water in the tank sit. If you are using water from an established tank that is a whole 'nother story. But you have ich so keep up water changes (perhaps smaller, more frequent, would stress fish less. Is the pH from your tap similar to the pH in your tank? I know mine is at least a whole 2.0 difference.) and that salt.

Hope this was somewhat helpful, I'm sick and not thinking straight at the moment heh

It's impossible to have 0 readings for ammonia, nitrate. And nitrites. If your substrate from your 55 hasn't dried yet, I would transfer some to the replacement tank to get the good bacteria in the new substrate. It looks like ich to me, it never hurts to be too cautious

Actually 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites is what you want, and possible. Nitrates should be showing up though if your tank is healthy. I agree get some of that old substrate in there if it hasn't dried. It can go into a mesh bag (nylons work too) tied into the tank if you want to be able to take it out after cycling.

I use 1 tbsp for every 5 gallons of water. Remember when you do water changes to only redose the amount of salt with the amount of water you took out, for example if you changed 20 gallons replace 4 tbsp of salt, not the whole tank worth.

aviva90 said:

About the tank not cycling, if you didn't have ich I would say unless you are doing water changes with water from a previously cycled tank (aka established one) don't do them that often, the new water from the tap (or whatever source) does not have those beneficial bacteria, so let the water in the tank sit. If you are using water from an established tank that is a whole 'nother story.

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using old water from another tank will do nothing for establishing the beneficial bacteria in this tank. the bacteria do not live in the water, they live on the surfaces in the filter and inside the tank (filter media, substrate, plants, decor, etc).

the frequent water changes are what is keeping the ammonia down, not bringing it up. the fish are producing ammonia and your water changes are taking that ammonia away. double check your tap water for ammonia though, just to be sure it doesn't give you a positive reading.

get Prime (dechlorinator) if you don't have it already. Prime will detoxify the ammonia for a 24 hour period after being dosed, and will help to keep your fish safe.

if your ammonia is 0.5 ppm, you want to do a large water change. at least 75% to get that ammonia out of the tank.

any time you see an ammonia or nitrite reading of 0.25 ppm or more, do a huge water change.

i have had good results using 'ich guard' when i had a couple instances of ich over the past 4 years. i know many people on here prefer the salt and heat method. ich medicines cannot be used on certain fish due to the chemicals in them.

the ich will look worse before it gets better. the heat speeds up the ich life cycle, so more cysts will be visible on your fish for a time, then the salt will kill them during their 'free floating' stage. this free stage is very short lived, and not all ich will be at that stage at the same time, so that is why ich treatment can take some time.

What is the TDS of the RO water? Are you adding anything back? Fish do need certain dissolved solids in the water.

Unless your tap is unsafe to drink it should be fine to use for FW fish...rarely do you need RO. Even a mix of RO and tap would be better.