Urgent Help Needed !

[Cazangel]

Hi,

Just a recap on what has happened so far ...


Had the tank for a month now after 7 days I added 2 confo tetras then a week later 5 phantom tetras and a plec. This started my cycle going and my levels off ammonia were about 0.25 however over the past week the levels have gone to 8.0 for ammonia and no matter how many water changes and gravel cleaning I do the levels won;t go down.


I don;t want to use anymore chemicals as Ammo Lock was working but the levels weren't dropping so I stipped using that and all my fish are fine but I don;t know what to do. I have cut back on feeding and have checked the filter and pump are working. I have live plants in too which I thought would be helping. I have tested my water regualrly and nothing is changing and I even took a sample to a shop to eliminate if my test kit was faulty but they got the same results 8.0 for ammonia and 0.50 nitrite and nitrate of 10 so I don't know what is happening no one seems to be able to help and I have now added ammo chips to sit on my filter sponge but they seem to have just blocked the water up.

I am getting some peopl telling me to keep doing regular water changes and others are saying to stop I don;t know what is best!!!!!!

My fish are fine and I want to buy more fish but don;t know how to get the ammonia levels under control and to keep them that way where am I going wrong ?

I do dechlorinate my tap water and my tap water contains no ammonia I have also tested tap water with safe guard in and that reads 0 for ammonia so the ammonia is somewhere in the tank water but I don;t know what is causing it.

Urgent help needed I am on the verge of giving up for good !

 

[WILDER]

Don't do a gravel vac you only do that once the tank has cycled when your readings are ammonia and nitrite are 0.
How many gallons is the tank as to many water changes slow the cycle down.
Best to do smaller water changes of 20%.
Best to increase aeration in a cycling tank.
Salt helps if you have no scaless fish but you have a plec so no salt.

 

[Little-Fizz]

You should most definitely be doing water changes everyday. Theres no way you fish will last much longer with ammonia at 8.0 Please don't consider adding anymore fish to the tank until it is fully cycled. I wouldn't have added that many fish to begin with. How big is your tank?

 

[Cazangel]

You should most definitely be doing water changes everyday. Theres no way you fish will last much longer with ammonia at 8.0 Please don't consider adding anymore fish to the tank until it is fully cycled. I wouldn't have added that many fish to begin with. How big is your tank?

The ammonia level is down to 1.0 now and I am doing daily water changes so it is under control and I am still working to get it to 0. The fish are fine and I won;t be adding anymore till the cycle is complete.

 

[Spooky76]

I would do 3 changes a day until its 0 not one, its lethal even at that level.
Do 10% changes, wait an hour, recheck levels, if its still present, do another 10% and so on until its 0.