operation - lower the ammonia

[josh1987]

hi

im really new to this fish keeping lark lol and have had a 120lt tank set up for four weeks.
im having water tests ever week at my local store and am hoping soon to add to my stock which at the mo consists of 8 green tiger barbs and two female fighters.

my problem is that what ever i do and no matter how much care and attention i pay to the up keep of the tank i cant seem to get the ammona or nitrate down. i have tried all sorts of tretments and am also hardly feeding the fish at all (dinner for the whole tank is four crumbled tetra crisp flakes) i really need some insider tricks into lowering the ammonia so i can get it down so i can introduce some more fish, and improve the living standard of the current ones.

so my questions are how can i lower ammonia nitrate and any other nasty substances within the tank and the second how long will it take before the bacteria within the tank will be able to remove these eliments?.

[Angel Fish]

How often do you do water changes and how much water do you change each time?

You're cycling with fish so you really need to change the water frequently to avoid poisoning them.

Are you sure it's NitrAtes you're seeing? Have you tested for NitrIte?

What treatments have you tried?

[josh1987]

I change on average about 20% every other day. the treatments i have used so far are - (Seachem) stability.
- (Aquarium Pharmaceutals) Ammo lock.
both in conjunction with each other.

i am now using tetra crisp food also to control more accuratley the amount of food going into the tank.

the readings for the tank as of tested this morning Sat 15th are-

Ammonia= 4.0
Nitrite= 2.0
Nitrate= 0

[Carylnz]

Stop using the AMmolock. It is stuffing up the cycle - and your test readings.

[moocowmoneybox]

Stop using the AMmolock. It is stuffing up the cycle - and your test readings.

I agree

Ammolock will give you false readings of ammonia levels and prevents the filter bacteria from using it to cycle, therefore you end up back at square one with the filter cycle.

sorry its not better news for you or your fish.

[josh1987]

ok cheers for the input will stop with the amo lock and keep up with the water changes