Please provide the following details when requesting help for Goldfish Problems: Test Results for the Following:
Ammonia Level? .25
Nitrite Level? .25
Nitrate level? less than 20
Ph Level, (If possible,KH and GH and chloramines)? 8.0
Ph Level out of the Tap? varies
Tank size (How many Gals) and How long has it been running? 55gal, 3 plus years
What is the name and size of the filter/s? fluval 304 fluval 404How often do you change the water and how much? have been doing 30% water changes every other day
How many fish in the tank and their size? 2 large shubies and 2 fantails
What kind of water additives or conditioners?
Any medications added to the tank? no
Add any new fish to the tank? not lately
What do you feed your fish? nutramax goldfish pellets
Any unusual findings on the fish such as "grains of salt",
bloody streaks, frayed fins or fungus?
Any unusual behavior like staying
at the bottom, not eating, ect..? some staying at bottom

Hello again,
we've been battling our nitrogen problem, patiently waiting for the biological filter to kick in, we've been adding Stresszyme as directed, frequent testing and water changes.
Fish are acting better. Water is clearing.
We've noticed that on several of the plants, there are lots of small white dots that look like eggs. we thought they were snail eggs, but after searching on line, they look different. they just arrived out of nowhere. sometimes they float around and the fish eat them. but most of them are on a purple plastic plant.
also my largest shubunkin has a big split (vertical) at the base of his tail and it looks like it's trying to heal, but looks like it is getting larger, actually. It looks like
a cut, i think he acquired it when he tried to die and I rescusitated him. It looks painful, has me wondering if fish feel pain.
I hate to add anything to the tank because we are already struggling. Does anyone think that aquarium salt is good for the goldies in general?
any suggestions?
Thanks

Hi Spam,and welcome.Well it sounds to me that at least one of your fish may be female,and those are goldie eggs. If that's something that you are not prepared to deal with,just leave it alone and the fish will eat them.
As for yout tank,a cycled tank should have 0 Nitrites and 0 Ammonia,which your tank is reading levels of both. Continued poor water quality can and will affect your fish.I would up those water changes and get those readings reading 0.Pristene water is the best/easiest way to promote healing of split fins.
When was the last time that you added a new fish? Have you seen any other symptoms,such as gasping/scratching/flashing against objects/Pale swelled gills,etc? Just trying to rule out Parasites although you did mention that the split tail may have been caused when you were saving him.Salt added to the tank is fine ,just dose correctly and add slowly over 12 hour intervals.Make sure you dissolve it in a little tank water before you add it in.It will help with their stress and their Gills while dealing with the Nitrites. I'm not sure on the Gph (gallons per hour) on your filter,do you know by chance?

hi
sorry for the delayed response. we have 2 filters and together they filter almost 600 gallons per hour for our 55 gallon tank.
have been struggling with moderately high nitrite levels. they are around .25-.5 and we keep doing partial water changes. it's getting frustrating because we feel like our tank should have cycled by now. we keep adding stresszyme. the ammonia level is very low, even though we know it should be zero.
most of the fish eggs are gone, they must have been eaten. the only new thing in the tank are some small snails that we added for algae control and interest.
a few weeks ago the fish were acting terribly sick, not gasping, but huddled at bottom and not interested in anything. now they are acting normally and they look good. the water is crystal clear and the tank actually looks the best its ever looked. we're just annoyed that the levels aren't where they should be after 4 weeks of water changes.
some other things we did were removed the undergravel water filter. added aeration with bubblers, added another filter (360 gph), removed these large lava rocks and frequent tank cleaning and siphoning of poop from gravel.
the big guy's tail fin isn't getting worse, but it's got a whitish edge to it and there are 2 bubbles near the wound that look like clear blisters. he seems fine and is actually thriving considering he was lifeless for 4-5 minutes.
our tap water is very hard, but when we test it, pH is good, and ammonia and nitrites are zero, so we know our test drops are good. shouldn't the levels be stable by now?
another thing we do is alternate the cleaning of the 2 filters.
salt doesn't seem to make a difference, but if it protects the fish from nitrite levels....
thanks for any info or suggestions