Need advice on ammonia levels

[shirleyi]

Hi
I am a newbie with two aqauriums as of 3 and 4 weeks ago . I bought a little one a half gallon tank from petco, and two guppies as they are hardy for starters. The first guppy died a day later but I think she was not swimming right to begin with . I went to petsmart to buy another guppy to keep the other company ,and the second guppy died the day after that . The third guppy from petsmart is doing fantastic well into 3 weeks ,but I am testing and my water is always at 2.0 ammonia .
Meanwhile I had set up to be a fishless cycling on my 20 gallon tank and bought all the necessary items to place into the tank . Heater ,ornaments bubble wand everything to get started and I added a bottle of tetra safe start to add bacteria.
I have done partial water changes on my big tank to try and bring the levels of ammonia down with no luck ,I even did a big water change and it is still 2.0 . I also added ammo-lock to the small tank so my guppy will not be affected but I know this only makes it non toxic and does not cure the ammonia problem .
So then I tested waters ,first my Tap water which registers 2.0 so that is why the water in both tanks are showing ammonia . I tested my refrigerator water which has a filter and that said 1.0 Ammonia . Then I tested bottled water which registers O Ammonia .

So yesterday I went out and bough multiple gallons of bottled water and thought I would change a good percentage like 80 percent in both tanks . After a few hours of cycling the little tank read no ammonia . The big tank read 0.25 ammonia . Today I took the reading of the small tank with the one guppy , and it reads 0.50 ammonia, and the big tank still reads 0.25 ammonia which is the fishless cycling tank .

Was this a good move to change the water as I cannot bring the ammonia levels down with the regular tap water being in there . I have added a small amount here and there of fish flakes to the big tank as well to establish good bacteria .

Also the small tank with the guppy has only got nitrites at 0.25 it never went up further, while the big tank is still not showing Nitrites after 3 and a half weeks . Is this normal ? I am reading so much that different views are confusing me . I am wondering If It Is safe to put any guppies yet in the big 20 gallon tank with a reading of 0.25 ammonia and no nitrates showing up yet and ph on both tanks are now 7.6 .Before the PH on both tanks read over 8.0
Need help on figuring out what to do ???

 

[Gibberwatt]

OK. This can be fixed. Since bottled water is too expensive to buy every time you change your water (once a week), unless you are some sort of millionaire, what you should do is leave your tap water out for a day, and see what happens to the amount of ammonia (I seem to recall something about that fixing it, but that might be for chlorine). If not, I am sure there is something in the pet-store that fixes that.

To cycle these tanks, what i do is put some fish in them, and make daily water changes until they are cycled, to keep the fish happy. So get some healthy fish, and change away.

Also, shouldn't you call the peeps who supply you with water? If it isn't good for fish, it can't be that great for people.

 

[shirleyi]

Okay but how much percent would you change it 25 percent or so ? ,funny thing my tap water when I use the sticks reads no chlorine ,I only use the sticks for the ph and chlorine ,and I use the liquid testing for ammonia nitrites and nitrates which in the big tank after 4 weeks has not shown any yet is that good or bad ?I am reading you want them to show up but at the end of cycling go down to zero when done cycling. I also wonder why my little guppy is still doing great with ammonia levels of 2.0 ? I am treating the tank though to make it non toxic but If my ammonia never goes down on its own I may have to put these chemicals always just to keep it non toxic or is there another way to bring them down to zeroI also wondered about the ammonia in my tap water but supposedly it is not harmful to humans only fish ,but still just to not like the idea of any ammonia in tap water

 

[Gibberwatt]

25% is good, although with only a few fish, you can probably skimp a little.

The four weeks of no cycling isn't a really big problem - the bacteria just hasn't established yet. If you get impatient, you can inoculate it with some bacteria you get in the store.

Concerning your guppy, fish can adapt to deal with more of a bad thing, sort of like a human who takes small doses of poison to become immune to it. he'll be fine unless you get a spike.

And ammonia is poisonous to all things. Unless it is locked up in something else, and I still think that would be bad.