I don't know what to do-tank crashed..help!

[robdollaz]

Originally Posted by sibbysibz

I have a 29 gallon freshwater tank, I have had it since November 07. I had done fishless cycling and then added fish to the tank. Everything was going fine until about 2 weeks ago when I had a horrible PH crash. My KH was down to 0 and my PH hovering under 6.0. I wasn't sure what was going on..but my ammonia had climbed up to.50 from 0 and steadily climbed while my nitrites were 0 and my nitrates 20.

I was told to not overfeed. I only feed my fishes now once a day as opposed to twice a day. I have always done 30-35% weekly water changes and syphoned out gravel every week.
Then I was told that it must be I have a dirty filter, so I took my hang on back of filter and removed the dirty cartridge that was there for two weeks, replaced it and cleaned the filter box out as it was full of gunk. My ammonia kept rising!
I then figured out it could only be the undergravel filter and decided to get rid of it.Well it had nasty amount of junk under it...so I syphoned it out as much as I could and threw away the UG filter.

Now tank is starting to recycle due to my overzealous cleaning...I have 0 nitrates, .50 nitrites and off the chart ammonia. I have added ammono-lock, a lil aquarium salt and have been doing 20% water changes every day but my ammonia won't go down! I'm afraid I'm gonna lose all my fish! Help!

tank specs:
PH:6.0 (thanks to only proper PH)
Ammonia: 4
Nitrites:.50
Nitrates: 0
Temp:75
Fish: 1 otto catfish, 3 danios, 2 gold barbs, 2 mollies and 2 platys,1 gourami
3 neon tetras

Too much ammonia usually means somethings up with your bacteria. Your Bacteria keeps the ammonia levels down. You probably shouldnt clean your gravel so much.

[MadridKid]

well all i can say is that sucks and keep doing those water changes....!

[sibbysibz]

Hey everyone, thanks to all your help I got my PH balanced and steady at 7.0 and the mini cycle is done with only one victim claimed. *My lil otto is still alive and kicking!* The water is crystal clear and all the fish are happy again and swimming about.

My plants did take a beating though..but after pruning and replanting...they seem to be better! yay!!
The seachem regulator was perfect and I added a large bubble wall that helped with extra aeration and they all seem to love playing in it. I couldn't have done it with your advice so thank you guys alot!!