Help!!! Super high nitrite and ammonia levels

[raynist]

Tank has been setup since the day before Xmas. Currently has 1-2.5 inch oscar, 2-4 inch weather loaches, 1-4 inch pleco and 1 crayfish.

Just got the ocar 2 weeks ago. Day after he was in the tank he got ich and eye fungus. There was a bit of ammonia in the tank. I added Ammo Lock to get rid of the ammonia. Yesterday, the nitrite levels were going up into the "Stress" area of my Jungle test strips (1.0 - 3.0 ppm) and the Ammonia Test I have was at like 1.0ppm.

I did a 30% water change. Later that night I noticed how cloudy my water was. Could barely see to the back of the tank.

Checked the levels this morning and here they are:

Nitrate (20ppm) - Safe
Nitrite (10ppm) - Danger
Alkalinity - 0
PH - 6.2 - 6.8.

My alkalinity and PH levels used to be much higher according to the test strips.

Here is the real kicker. My ammonia according to the test kit is 8.0ppm!!! Shouldn't my fish all be dead? Is the Ammo Lock skewing all of these results??

I have a 75g tank. 2 Penguin 330 filters and one Whisper 30-60 filter from a tank that has been established for 4 months. I have also been adding bacteria called TLC to the tank every day.

I added doses of the Ammo Lock for a week as told by the LFS.

Any help would be appreciated, should I do another water change?

Thanks
Ray

 

[gaya]

Hi raynist, I would do daily water changes if I were you to prevent deaths. Some recommend against that thinking it will slow the cycling process down but I’ve never had a problem with it. You have a good sized tank so that could be a pain. Ammolock can give false readings as well from what I understand. So that is possible. I would also take what ever you can out of the established tank and put it in the 75g (rocks, substrate, ornaments, what ever). Last summer I had ammonia readings at 8ppm cuz I killed off all my bacteria with a med and I didn’t lose any fish but it was a hectic three days. Every night after work I did a 50% water change, had a cloudy tank (think from a bacterial bloom). I would also do a water change with the water form your established tank as well. Hth.

 

[gaya]

If you don't already have them, I would throw in some live plants.