12 week old tank, still ammonia trouble

Question
I have a 29 gallon tank with a whisper 30 hang style filter system, areator(sp) to move water around and 8 fish. 1 platy, 3 silver dollars, and 4 red eyed tetras. I overstocked tank when I bought it and didnt cycle first (bad advice from fish retailer) and had about 4 deaths in the first 8 weeks. Nitrite spiked about a week ago, ammonia dropped to .25. Nitrite is now zero but ammonia is back up to 1. Had an ick breakout and popeye all treated accordingly. No more disease (thank god) but ammonia keeps creeping up. I had them on bare bones rations for weeks trying to resolve ammonia problem, so when it dropped I increased feeding. They are ravenous and go behind after a feeding picking dropped food off the rocks. I use city water and treat with Amquel + . The time I overdosed the tank after a partial change with 2X reccomened dose of Amquel seemed to corrospond with ammonia drop. Also my gravel bottom is quite large rocks, about an inch and a half to two inches of marble sized aquarium gravel. Am I overfeeding? Inadequate filtration? Wrong substrate? Still lingering effects of Medication? Or just a poor fish keeper?               Thank you
                           Amy

Answer
Hi Amy,

You are not a poor fish keeper, you are just learning.  First, stop using AMQUEL, it is not necessary.  Secondly, you really need to get rid of that gravel.  Food is falling down and the fish can't get at it and it rots causing your ammonia to rise.  I know this will mean breaking down the tank but that is my best advice.  Also, your filtration is inadequate.  Use Penguin bio-filters, not Whisper and make sure you get one that is one size more than recommended for your tank size.  Finally, add an aerator if you don't wish to rebuild your tank now.  The aerator will increase levels of oxygen. Do a 25% water change, and add STRESS COAT to the tank water after draining and before adding incoming.  You cannot overdose with STRESS COAT.  Good luck and let me know how it goes.

Michael J.