Spiking ammonia levels?

Question

I dont' know what is going on but i need some serious help ASAP. We have had our 50 gallon fish aquarium for a month now. We have one oscar and one pleco in it. The tank (I assumed) cycled a few weeks ago. Saturday morning i checked the levels and they were all within normal parameters. Saturday afternoon my husband changed the filter(not the media) (marineland up to 75 gallon filter) , cleaned the gravel and we did a 15% water change. I put the prime (conditioner) into the water i readded. Saturday night the water turned really cloudy. So i checked the levels again, PH was extremely high, nitrate, and nitrite were good but ammonia was off the charts. It was literally darker than the 8pmm on the card. (Think so dark green it looks blue) We immideatlly changed out 25% water, it didn't do a darn thing. I checked the tap water and its ammonia was (is) around 2. It is now Tuesday and our ammonia is still reading extremely high. (its still around 8) what is going on? I have done 3 partial water changes today, put prime and even put ammonia nutrilizer in there. Did we mess something up on Saturday when we cleaned the tank? I don't want to lose my fish so i hope you can help me figure this out.

Answer 1

check your tapwater prior to any treatment for ammonia.  That may be the problem as it was for my water. In some cases, you may not be able to use tapwater-only filtered water.  Or, you can try half spring, half tap.  Do not forget the dechlorinator!  I have horrible water where I live.  Ru in Metro Detroit?  I am beginning to think that continuing to keep fish is a bad idea.  Our water used to be ok.  I have been doing this for 15 yrs.