my silver tip has something grown on it and my water is cloudy

Question
well, i don't know the water values, I'll do that as soon as i can. I'm a new tank owner. i got a betta first and fell in love with fish. after that i got a starter gold fish tank, but to be honest goldfish seem boring. the starter tank is a 20 gal. tank. so, i got a heater and turned it to a tropical fish tank. i let the filter run for like a week to be sure it was running. the water was cloudy, but i looked it up and i guess its normal. so i got sum new buddy's.( 2 angelfish, 1 Chinese algae eater, 1 bala shark, and a silvertip shark catfish).
but the catfish seems to be growing little white things on it. i have a water conditioner, I'm feeding them tropical flake's with bookworm's every other day. i don't want that little guy to die. the rest of the fish seem fine.


Answer
Hi Ace,
You've done good so far, but the aquarium probably had too many fish at once added. And they really aren't the hardiest of fish to withstand the cycling process that all aquariums go through. You're probably aware of this but if you need help just let me know. Or you can read about it here-
http://www.firsttankguide.net/cycle.php

With the cloudy water it is normal and due to the tank not being cycled yet most likely. A bacterial bloom to be exact from an overabundance of nutrients in an unestablished and unstable tank.

With the Catfish, I'm afraid he probably has ick. Which is an all-too common parasitic disease that new fish commonly get from stress, temperature fluctuations, or poor water conditions. Some fish are doomed to get this if the petstore already has infected fish.

Look here for a photo of a fish with ick-
http://www.fishchannel.com/images/freshwater-ich-650.jpg

Fortunately it is easy to treat but you must start treatment right away. There are many ick medications at your petstore and they all are effective. If you can, it would be great if you got what's called "ICK attack" which is a less-harmful medication for fish but still treats ick and a few other illnesses. Catfish tend to be delicate with certain medications due to their sensitive skin. So make sure of any medication you that  its safe for catfish. I've heard of people using the "Heat and salt" treatment. Which is actually cheaper than using medications and just as effective, what's better is its nicer on the fish. Remember with ick you must treat the -whole- aquarium. Your catfish is actually a species that does fine in water with salt (some catfish can't tolerate it)

~It basically involves, slowly raising your water temperature to about  about 86F by adjusting your heater a little tiny notch every hour or two-- the key is to raise the temperature by 2 degrees every hour. And adding aquarium salt according to the directions on the box. Make sure to pre-dissolve the salt in a container of tank water and slowly add the dissolved salt water by small portions gradually throughout the day.

If you'd rather use medication you can. I've also successfully treated ich by using medications but there are a few things you should always remember...
*1.) Do a 50% water change before starting a medication or treatment. Dissolved organics in the water only neutralize some of the medication. Its also best to do 30-50% water changes everyday to keep the water as clean as possible and reduce stress on the fish. Just re-dose with the medication or with salt, only add the proper amount of salt according to how ever many gallons you took out.

*2.) raise the temperature to about 83 with medication -- (higher of course when using the salt and heat treatment)

*2.) Add an airstone to increase the aeration in the tank since warmer water decreases the amount of oxygen available...

*3.) Make sure you treat for at minimum 14 days despite what the directions say. This may sound bad. But its very important to treat for an extended period to make sure every last ick parasite is gone. Even if the spots 'disappear' it doesn't always mean they are gone completely.

Best wishes and I really hope this helps!
Karen~