ICK!

Question
Hi kathryn, I've spent the last two days researching and reading about ick and freshwater fish. I have a 36 gal tank with 7 neons, 2 guoramis, 2 clown loaches, a swordtail, and a Chinese algae eater, that has been fine for about 2 months. I recently did a water change and shortly after my swordtail looked like he might have ick. I found my pH was low near 6.0 and although my ammonia was near zero, my nitrites and nitrates were way high. I added stress coat and aquarium salt, baking soda for the pH, and retested. The water returned to good levels very quickly. I raised the temp to 84 though it seems my heater is struggling to keep it there. I bought some Rid-Ick and have been dosing for three days. My loaches look as though they have spots now, the swordtail appears better than he was and I found two of the neons dead this morning though none of them appear to have spots. ACK!!  Can a water change alone be enough stress to result in ick? What is the best way to change water? Should I use store bought spring water or distilled water? We have city water which is chlorinated and fluorinated so I sure can't use that from the tap. I let the water I used sit for a couple of days to detoxify it and added stress coat but it seems I sure did something wrong.

Answer
Hi.
Do 40 percent water changes every couple of days to  get both the nitrite and ammonia down to 0.0. Even a little over that is harmful. Use any bottled water to do water changes, and put water declorinator in it. I doubt the death of the neons was to do with the ick, but the high nitrite levels. Water changes cannot stress a fish into having ick, it is a parasite which borrows into the skin of the fish and basically sucks it's blood.
Continue dosing with Rid-Ick and do regular water changes. Ick, or white spot, is usually easy to treat, but if left to late, can be fatal.
I hope that is not the case with your fish.
Best wishes,
Kathryn