I have 2 questions about 2 tanks

Question
Hi Chris,
My name is Kim we have a 10 gallon tank that has been up and running for about 6 months or more. We have 3 fantail goldfish in the tank, we resently moved them from a 5 gallon which my mom had them in. I know a 10 gallon isn't big enough for them, we're saving up to get a 30-55 gallon for them. The tank came as a set with filter & heater included, we arent using the heater. The gold fish have been in the 10 gal for about 6months at least. Everything was fine up until now, now the water is all cloudy and its a white color it's almost like it happened over night. I checked the ammonia level and its fine, same thing with the nitrite, nitrates, ph,chlorine, alkaninity,etc. all normal. we do water changes 1-2 a week & take out about 10% of the water each time. Any suggestions as to what the problem may be?

Now for my 2nd question...

We also have a 55 gallon tank we've had it set up for about 3-4 months, we started off with 10 fish (2 mickey mouse platys, 3 dalmation mollies, 1 lyetail molly, 3 swordtails (1 male, 2 female),& 1 julii catfish.) All died but 1 female swordtail, & 1 mickey mouse platy. When we test the water the ammonia level is 0.5-1.0 between stress & harmful. We thought that the cycle had stalled and added 3 Gurami's (not sure of the spelling) per our petco specialist. the ammonia stage has been there for over 3 weeks we're not sure whats going on with it. The PH is off too, we do 10% water changes on it 1-2 times a week. I feel bad that we're lossing all these fish, can you help me try to figure out whats going on? The tanks been up and running with fish for 3-4 months now. and the ammonia is still there, but no nitrite or nitrate. I'm so confused :(
Please help

Thanks for your time!

Sincerely,
Kim

Answer
Hi Kim:  White/blue water is caused by one of two things... not enough oxygen or not enough light.  The white cloud is actually beneficial bacteria reproducing.  It should clear itself up in about a week.  Continue to do your small water changes and monitor the water chemistry.  You can try to add another air source such as a bubbler, etc. Do you have an algae issue??? how much light does the tank get?  

In tank number two... something in your tank is rotting... the byproduct of decomposition is ammonia.  If you have ammonia in your tank then something is decomposing... find it and the water chemistry will sort itself out.  I would recommend removing all of the ornaments, etc and cleaning under them as well as trying to gravel vacuum the tank.  Do 20% water changes twice per week and monitor the ammonia levels.  If you discover whatever is in there rotting then expect the nitrites and nitrates to rise too. So long as the ammonia falls the nitrogen cycle will be broken and the tank will go back to normal.    keep me posted... dave