AMMONIA AGAIN

Question
I continue to have ammonia problems. (on and off.) 25-50.  Even though for the past 4 yrs I have been doing water changes every 5 days. I also took a sample to the pet store. I recently took out rocks and replaced ornaments and plastic flowers. I  do have well water with a water softner.  I have a 75 gal, 2oscars, a Cascade and Aqua Clear filter, a water pump. Over the past 11 days I have done 7  - 25-30% water changes, and vac,  The last time was wed of this week.  no change in ammonia. I added zeolite 6 days ago.  The nitrates and nitrites are fine.  The ph is fine 6.2-6.4.  Ive been told by other experts oscars like low ph,  The fish seem fine.  I dont want to add chemicals.  Id like to figure  out what im doing wrong.

Thanks

Answer
Hello Ms Fran,
You may want to test the well water by itself, and see if there is a noticeable amount of ammonia in your well water. If so, that is probably the cause of your problem, and you will want to switch to a different water source.
If you test one or two times, and there is no ammonia, it is also possible your water has chloramines, which is actually a mixture of ammonia and chlorines, and much harder to detect but just as toxic to your fish. You can solve that by always adding water conditioner that removes chloramines.
If neither of these apply to you, you may want to consider buying one or both of these - an under gravel filter, and a biowheel. Both are really great for biofiltration - which is the best weapon against ammonia.
Basically, both of these aerate the water, and the BB (beneficial bacteria) as well as give it a place to live. BB eats the ammonia and turns it into less toxic nitrites and nitrates, so it will be much easier for you to keep your fish alive.
This will be a long process, so don't expect to add a new filter and see changes straight away, but within two weeks you should notice ammonia levels dropping. You will want to keep in your old filter with the new filter for at least a week or two before removing it, or just leave it in. You can never have too much filtration.
You can also add some BB supplements to help speed up the process. Let me know how it goes.