HIGH Ammonia and Nitrate + Baking Soda?! HELP

[pictuslover]

Hi there,
Hope everyone is staying healthy and doing well because sadly my fish can't say the same and I am struggling to keep my tank at a good cycle.. When we bought this tank, we were told it was 75 gallons. We JUST found out a week ago that it is 55.
TANK STATS TESTED TODAY:
Ammonia: 4.0
Nitrate: 7.0
Nitrite: 2.0
Ph: 6.4
High Range PH: 7.6
KH: 0
Within our first month we were told we were over feeding. We have stopped feeding daily and now feed every TWO or THREE Days. All the fish in total get to share 5 sinking pellets and half an algae wafer and the pictus cat eats a block of frozen beefheart. They eat it all within minutes...

IF YOU DON'T WISH TO READ THE WHOLE STORY SET UP SKIP DOWN TO THE BOLD WHERE IT SAYS IMPORTANT! (I thought it might be helpful since our tank is doing so poorly and its been 2.5 months! Here are our test results so far for our tank as of TODAY and what they have been steady around for about a month now...
Mentioning:
We did not use quick start when we set the tank up and we have about 15 LBS of gravel in our tank. We didn't know quick start was necessary or a thing.
Ammonia: 4.0
Nitrate: 7.0
Nitrite: 2.0
Ph: 6.4
High Range PH: 7.6
KH: 0

We use the API droplet tests in the glass test tubes for ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, ph and high ph but we also have test strips that show the same numbers just about for nitrate and nitrite also and KH.
We have a tank that is 55 gallons that has a 370gph polar aurora filter being used. We have been having problems since the first week we put fish in, and somehow 2.5 months later we still have our original 4! We have a full adult pictus catfish (6.5 inches and hasn't grown in 3 months), a common pleco 4.5 inches, a bristlenose 4.5 inches, and one Khuli loach 2.5 inches. We made a mistake by setting up our new tank with new plants and dropping our fish in within the day. Our cycle has been off and we were recommended (a total now) of 200 dollars worth of products and chemicals that we have accumulated overtime. Skipping forward, about 2 weeks into this aquarium we added balloon mollies, 2 other mollies, and one half gold half black fish. Within 2 days, 1 balloon mollie had died and within 4 days, the 2 mollies and the black/gold one died. One of the mollies went missing (Pictus probably ate it). We thought maybe they weren't hardy fish because that's what the petstore suggested. We had one balloon mollie who had surived over a week was missing half a tail so we separated him into his own 5 gal tank with built in filter and one cherry shrimp. We used bacterial infection remedy on him and his tail grew all the way back and he is still alive. Its been 2 months! He earned a name.. Chubbs! And hes 4 inches now! Anyways, back to the 55 gal. I want to mention our GH for water is over 300 ppm. When it comes out of the sink, it is anywhere between 90-150. (recently discovered our filtration to the sink water is no longer in action so the sink is undrinkable and somewhat dirty. ) Anyways we thought nothing of it and continued to buy more fish. We bought 6 danios... 2 went missing 2 hours in and the rest slowly died off within 2 days. We were like what the heck so we decided to get our water tested and they said we had an ammonia spike. I realized I haven't changed the filter in 1 month now. So I changed that replacing all the cotton like filter stuff, rinsing everything in a bucket with only the filter and tank water, did a 40% water change, and added some stability +stress coat. That seemed to do well for us, considering the original 4 fish were no longer " stress swimming" (mainly the cat) but were happily eating. Fast forward to maybe 3 weeks late, we decide to put some more fish in without testing for ammonia or nitrates. We add this time a group of 8 fish that are all about 2.5-3 inches so that they don't fit in the fishes mouth (thats what we thought was making them die) and they literally died one by one within 3 days. We bought a pictus that same night who was about 2 inches long. She did good for 4 days and showed no problem. We went to the petstore to talk about our situation and decided to buy another pictus because at this point, they seem to do relatively good in our tank... so I thought.

IMPORTANT!!!!!! 3 days ago, we mentioned that we had low KH and low PH so we were recommended to add baking soda to our tank that night. And we also purhcased a third pictus. The next day... our tank was completely foggy, you couldn't even seen through it. The school of 8 lost 3 this day and our newest pictus cat was at the top gasping for air. We took him out and tried our best to save him with bottled spring water and filtered water thats heated and he just didn't make it. I noticed half his body was completely silver and the other half was black.. looked to be ammonia burns. We found out our problem.
We have extreme levels of nitrate nitrite and ammonia, our hardness is beyond what it should be, and we have come to a complete WTF do we do before our fish die. We have done 4 40% water changes since the baking soda (which was 3 days ago at this point) and we have stopped adding all the chemicals they suggested before. We are ONLY using RECCOMENDED DOSES OF THE FOLLOWING ONCE A DAY

AmmoLock (we started using this 3 days ago and haven't used it in our tank prior)

Stability (used this since beginning of tank set up, only used the bottle 3 times.

Aquarium Salt: Used this at the end of December and 2 times this week.

STRESS COAT <-- Had used this 2 times the first month and 2 times
since the baking soda happend 3 days ago.

PRIME <-- Bought this yesterday and seemed to help tremendously.

Algone Water Clarifier and Nitrate Remover

NEW carbon: The filter came with carbon. We swapped old out for new into the filter yesterday which caused what looked to be like a fizz in the filter.
Our Ammonia is still coming up as 4.0 and I know the ammolock messes with the tests but I did a full 40% water change and gravel sift and filter change this morning and DID NOT use ammolock so it should've been a slight bit better.
I also added some tap water conditioner to the 5 gal bucket I was using to do the water change. We also have added ALGONE water clarifier and nitrate remover 2 times now. I added two bags about a month ago and replaced those with one bag this morning.

In total, these numbers are what the tank is:
Ammonia: 4.0
Nitrate: 7.0
Nitrite: 2.0
Ph: 6.4
High Range PH: 7.6
KH: 0
We have stopped feeding daily and feed every TWO Days. All the fish in total get 5 pellets and half an algae wafer and the pictus cat eats a block of frozen beefheart.

Our Loach has also been coming up and our which is RARE and not normal and our plecos have been recently seen sometimes sitting at the top of the tank.
We don't know what else to do besides water changes and stress+prime coats. We have 20 lbs of gravel coming in the mail along with more stress coat and QUICKSTART which we haven't used before and more ammonia tests strips. All should be arriving within 2 days.

 

[pyealands]

Sorry ive got to go to work , so quick answer, ur tank isn't cycled ,
4ppm ammonia is lethal to any fish . If u can't set up a hosptal tank asap, then Water change Pronto., get it down to 0.25 ppm .
It needs to be cycled preferable before putting fish in , hopefully someone will come on and tell u how to set up a hospital tank .
, ur tank needs cycling for up to 8 weeks,
Fish produce ammonia by pooping , and left over food turns to ammonia, they also release ammonia when they breath .
The nitrogen cycle is simply the process of growing a specific type of bacteria that turns the highly toxic ammonia to the also toxic nitrite , then another type of bacteria grows that converts that nitrite into the far less harmfull nitrate ,
This doesn't just happen , there are steps u need to follow, ,because if there's something else thats wrong eg ur ph is far too low or far too high , ur tank will never cycle . ...ph 6.4 is really low , it should be above 7 . but you won't know if its cycled or not unless u have a test kit . And even if today it is cycled , its easy to crash a cycle ... welcome to the world of fish keeping.. it is simple , it appears a bit complicated at first , but its just a matter of understanding the basic science behind whats happening with ur water chemistry.
The good news is ur 3 quarters cycled the fact that ur tests are showing ammonia and nitrite and nitrate , means the correct benificial bacteria is there working , so I'm guessing two weeks till u are fully cycled .
BEST WISHES,

 

[pyealands]

Don't undefeed ever , I dont care what anyone says , fat fish are healthy fish , ive spent decades farming , the quickest way to sick animals , is to undefeed ,
Ive NEVER had sick fish . Always overfeed , even in winter ponds ..
The benificial bacteria builds up to accept the overfeeding .
If ur fish spend the next couple of weeks in a hospital tank , still overfeed , just means more water changes , but ur fish will be healthier ., stronger immune system etc,

 

[pyealands]

The ph of my tap water is 6.6 , I use crushed seashells in all my tanks and ponds , just mixed in the substrate cause I've got fry at the mo im only using sponge filters in my tanks . and they sit around 7.2 To 7.4 now. ,( im sure u realize u can't add shell or nothing to a sponge filter lol but I also have seashells in my canister filters when im actually useing them )
Keep in mind ph raises dueing the day and drops at night , quite drastically... so keep ur testing at a consistent time to sunrise and sunset..
If useing crushed seashell u need 1 pound per 100 litres .
If useing crushed coral u need 1 pound per 30 litres .
U can get crushed seashell from garden centres ,

Also of note lol crushed shell and coral , are a very slow and gradual change in ph , VERY SAFE for fish , no sudden ph raise etc , so if u add eg 4 pounds coral to a tank , don't expect to see a difference in testing for at least a week, if u add and test ph that same day and there's no change it doesnt mean ur coral isn't doing anything. Its not defunct lol

U can use lime all are calcuim carbonates .. the big commercial fish farms use lime .

Don't use baking soda , it increases ur ph instantly, this is dangerous to ur fish .

 

[Rutrag]

I agree for the most part with pyealands. Your #1 issues is ammonia. Also, adding baking soda increases pH which increases the toxicity of ammonia. You need to focus on dropping that through large partial water changes. Don't forget to use a chlorine remover (Prime OR Stress Coat (not both at once) is fine - I prefer Prime), assuming you're on a municipal water supply. Don't add ANY animals until you are consistently (meaning everyday for a week or so at least) reading under 0.25 ppm ammonia on a test kit.

I also note you said you only had 15 pounds or gravel in a 55 gallon tank. That's not much, and doesn't provide a lot of surface area for bacteria to grow on. You don't have to have gravel, but it makes cycling easier IMO. I'd consider upping that to 50 lbs.

I wouldn't worry about tinkering with the pH at all until you have a cycle completed.

Finally, be aware that pictus are predatory catfish with mouths that might be bigger than you realize. When I was much younger, I was under the assumption that all catfish were scavengers, which is absolutely false. In general, long whiskers = predatory. Combine that with smaller fish and underfeeding, and you're going to have some losses. They are also more active a night when things like danios are sleeping and can make an easy meal.