Ammonia levels rising

[Bluedot]

Hello! My fancy goldfish named leelee is having a ammonia problem in her water once again. She has started to flot on her belly because of this.
My question is should I change the rocks out with brand new ones or just keep have and put new ones for the other half in? Any other ideas? My ammonia levels where at 1 when I last checked it but the pet store kept telling me to do the instructions listed below;
Put API stress zyme and API stress coat for four days straight
Then do a 25 percent water change and double dose her on the stress zyme, one dose of stress coat and water conditioner.

But do I need to change the rocks at well??? Would it be good?? I have not done the water change yet because I know im only supposed to do 25% everyother week and I had to wait until this weekend. She is eating okay but her swim bladder seems to be acting up a little now. I had planned to do the change tomorrow but I am just confused on what to do with the rocks.

Tank info:
Set up: a month or two less then a year
pH: 6.0
NO2/NO3: none
kH: 40
GH: 180
Ammonia: 1
Rocks have never been changed
I did a water change the not last weekend but the weekend before
I just changed one filter a little less then a month ago and changed the secondary filter last weekend

Thank you!

 

[King Fisher]

Is your tank cycled?
How long has the tank been running?
What size tank and what filtration do you use?
Are you using tap water and if so does it contain ammonia?

You need to change the water more often. Since you have high ammonia, change out 50% of the tank water immediately. Wait 6-8 hours then change out 50% and so on until your ammonia is down to 0 and no higher than .25ppm.

If you have 1ppm ammonia and you do a 50% water change you still have .50ppm in the tank. Another 50% water change and you have .25ppm. You get the point.

Goldfish are messy and dirty the water quickly so good filtration and frequent water changes are highly recommended.

Rocks shouldn't have anything to do with ammonia raising.

Seachem Prime would be my go to in your situation. It converts ammonia and nitrites into a safer form that's less toxic to your fish.

 

[Bluedot]

Ahh im sorry I forgot my tank size!
My tank soze is 30 gallons the tank has been running for a little under a year now as for my filtration system carbon filter.

Okay! I just wanted to be sure that the rocks were not going to be the problem and I didnt think about our tap water having ammonia! I usually use about half tap water and half spring water

Thank you for the reply!

 

[King Fisher]

What size is your filter (brand and model)?

By rocks do you mean a gravel substrate or actual large stones for decoration?

 

[Bluedot]

My filter is the Aqueon brand (quiet flow 20). Its a large filter with one 20/75 smaller filter. It says it cycles out 125 gallons of water per hour. It says the specialty filter (the smaller one) is souppose to remove ammonia and other things

And yes I mean gravel sorry about that! I do also have large plants and houses for my fish
I ended up doig a 50 percent water change last night and washing off some (not all) of the gravel

 

[King Fisher]

I'd at least triple your filtration or run another identical filter on your tank. You want 300 to 400 gph on your filtration or very close to this.

Don't wash your gravel substrate. You are removing beneficial bacteria when you do that and it's probably throwing your tank into a mini cycle and that's why you're seeing an ammonia spike. Just focus on your 50% water changes and leave everything else alone. After a month or so you can clean your filter media by lightly cleaning it up in old tank water. Don't scrub it.