6 week old 36G tank has 0.5 ammonia

[bobc4d]

I am new to aquariums and have had my 36G tank up about 6 weeks, I have 4 platy's, 3 tetras and 3 cory cats.

I checked my ammonia on Monday and it was 0.5 so I did a 10 gallon water change and really cleaned the gravel, the water came out tan. (the reason I did 10 gallons)

I checked it again Friday night and it was still 0.5, so I changed another 5 gallons, water only no cleaning. Checked the ammonia again this afternoon and it was still 0.5

Did I mess up the cycle by cleaning the gravel so vigorously?
Should I change the filter too or clean it?
should I change out another 10 gallons and not clean the gravel?
Do the filters really need changing every 2-4 weeks as the filter says?

Sorry for the newb questions, but I don't wanna lose my fish kids.

 

[Laser]

Since it's 36 gallons you are safe to change at least 18 gallons of the water at a time. The most important thing to do is to temp match the new water and dechlorinate it. Do as many consecutive 50% water changes it takes to bring the Ammonia and Nitrites down below 0.25 ppm.

You may have slowed your cycle by cleaning the gravel that well but I wouldn't worry about it much. I wouldn't do any heavy gravel cleaning, just enough to get the big pieces of waste that you observe.

I wouldn't clean the filter just yet. You can rinse off the filter media in a bucket of tank water that you use from a water change. Do not rinse off the filter media in tap water. The chlorine will harm the beneficial bacteria on it.

I like to clean the filters out every month but I save the media as long as it will last. What kind of filter do you have? Most of those companies just want to sell you more filter cartridges.

 

[Billbug68]

Check your tap water, out of the tap mine is .5, I use a detoxifier to bring it down so it's safer for the fish. I just recently went through the same thing a couple weeks ago. Figured it out though

 

[bobc4d]

thanks billbug and laser. I checked my tap water and it had zero ammonia.

Bill, what did you find on yours?
laser, I have Penguin filters. I'll do the 50% change.

 

[Mumma.of.two]

What are your readings of nitrite and nitrate?

 

[Billbug68]

thanks billbug and laser. I checked my tap water and it had zero ammonia.

Bill, what did you find on yours?
laser, I have Penguin filters. I'll do the 50% change.

.5 ammonia straight from the tap