I am still having high ammonia problems. My tap water reads 1ppm ammonia at all times do to chloramine in the city water. I have been constantly having ammonia problems in my 55g tank. It has been up and running for nearly 5 weeks and my ammonia will never drop below 1ppm. I am doing a fish cycle and nothing I can come up with will lower ammonia. At first I thought it was prime giving me a false reading but I also have 10g tank which is 4 weeks old the ammonia is fine in that tank. Neither tank is overstocked. I do daily water changes trying to lower the ammonia to no avail. I have 6 live plants in the 55g trying to help. I am running two bio-wheel filters circulating 500 gph and plenty of H2O. Any ideas?

Tank size:55g
Ammonia:1.0 (sometimes 2.0)
NitrIte:0
NitrAte:0
PH/GH/KH:7.8, 80, 120
Cycled,yes or no:no
Number of fish:7
Acclimation process:four weeks
Physical signs of illness(IE spots,shimmer,ECT):shimmer in one, has been moved
How often between fish additions:no new in three weeks
Water change schedule:daily
Tank temp:80

Add a lot of fast growing plants or some duckweed, it will help

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Somethings wrong with your Nitrate levels. If you have Ammonia you should be getting Nitrates. If you truely have no Nitrates then you are cutting your cycling short by so many water changes. Make no water changes for two weeks and see if your Ammonia drops. A biologically active tank should be able to handle Ammonia at 1.0. Start making water chages with distilled water, it should have no Ammonia. Boiling your tap water would also remove its Ammonia.

If my ammonia gets high, say above 1.0, should I add ammolock or similar to control ammonia? Also, it's a cichlid tank, any fast growing plants that will work with them? I have a few annubis in there now.

I'd say if you have zero nitrates, you are still cycling. Just a guess.

Yes it does sound like your still cycling. and with ammonia that high, you need to put water in buckets, treat and let sit for a few days. They are having the same problem in Okla city with ammonia out of the tap at 4.

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Well I treated a bucket to see if I could get ammonia down and it didn't work. Ammonia is still at 1.0 after sitting treated for a few days. Are there any other water alternatives? Distilled water? Bottled mountain spring water? I am getting frustrated with the city water and need to do something asap. Thanks for all the responses.

Reverse Osmosis water? You can buy it at fish stores... but it can get pricey..... not even sure if that's an option. It was suggested that I use RO water when I found out my tap Nitrates were 80ppm... not sure if it would work in your case.

Is there no where (home, work, a friends house) that has water that tests any different than yours so you can use that water?

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That's a good idea. I'll check my in-laws water tomorrow. I heard of the RO water idea before too but you're right. I think it's pretty expensive. Thanks

Lugging buckets of water from one place to your house isn't ideal, but sometimes it's the only way to get safe water. My Dad did that for years when he had tanks. Filled a bunch of 5g buckets with water at work and brought them home. Let them air off gasses for a few days and things were great.

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Whether or not it is pricey is just a matter of how you go about it. I use 80g of RO water every week. Fpr reasons other than the problem you are having. I purchased my own RO system that works by attaching to my sink faucet. So a little expensive upfront, but to this day it hasn't cost me anything since.

So I tested my water from the built in fridge filter, no ammonia! This would take forever to do water changes in my 55g, but since it is my tap water source the rest of the water makeup should be the same. Any thoughts if this would be a good idea?

ok, I was wrong. apparently my fridge water is no better than my unfiltered tap water. I found water from my sisters house about 10 miles away and there tap water had the same hardness and ph level as my tap but no ammonia! I am going to get some empty containers and fill up some water from their house. I need about 100 gallons to use as water changes over the next couple days. I am thinking of doing about 25% changes a day to get this under control. Last night my ammonia was off the chart of 8.0, did a 50% change, still off the chart of 8.0. This is really getting frustrating. I hope this works.