New to tropical tank set ups

I am like you right now.

My tank was setup about 3 weeks ago. I got 4 "test" fish to kick start the Nitrogen cycle (cause thats what I was told to do). The 4 fish were feeders (.28 cents a piece).

The white stuff to me looks like very tiny air bubbles. I was told it is normal during the tanks cycle.

As far as the ICH.....yuck. If it were me, I would take him out, just in case.

Nasty lil parasites.

Starting out...

Spend some time trying to identify your fish. You need to know what they are called, what they require as far as space and temperature and water conditions.

You must know if your water has chlorine or chloramine and you must have the right water conditioners for that.

Then start a journal. Record what you learn, anything that seems important, for you will forget later on when something like it happens again and you can't recall exactly what worked and what didn't. A spiral notebook from school is fine, no one will see it but you.

You ought to get a Master Test Kit, for most fish health problems are due to bad water, testing the water is the first thing you must do to know how to help sick fish. Record all tests in your journal.

Now, 3 weeks with an empty tank full of water will let chlorine escape, but it won't accomplish much else. If you have chloramine in the water, 3 weeks is not likely to have made the water safe. Your tank will not have cycled, so all the wastes the fish produce are there in the water, not being processed by bacteria yet. You will need to change water frequently to help the fish through this difficult time, if you get a test kit you will know how much water to change and how often.

If you search here for "new tank" and read for several days you will learn a lot of what it will take to keep your fish healthy.