new tank help

Question
my 55gal tank has been set up for 2 weeks.the ammonia is 3.so i check my tap water and its at 3 always.so im not sure of the correct way to deal with this ph.8 nitrate o

Answer
Hi Lisa
Not sure how well you're familiar with the cycle process, so here's a link just in case:

http://freshaquarium.about.com/od/startupcycle/Step_5_The_Cycle.htm

Now your nitrates won't show up for awhile, at least a good 8-12 weeks.  For the ammonia....yes, that can be a problem.  What you can do is when you do water changes, use spring or RO water, but that can be a pain with a larger tank like yours.  I would probably recommend using some Prime by Seachem-it will remove ammonia from water.  It's expensive, but a bottle lasts a long time.  You would use it when you do water changes, before adding the water to the tank.  But I wouldn't use it while the tank is cycling.  You want the ammonia there while it's cycling.  Just use another product that removes chlorine and chloramines from your tap water, like Aqua Safe or something for the time it's cycling.  

The only thing though, you may still show ammonia present in the tank on your test kits, after using the Prime.  I know some products will just convert the ammonia to a nontoxic form, thus it'll still show up on the test kit.  I'm not sure which Prime does, if it actually removes it or just converts it.  I'll have to check more on that.  I believe the bottles says it removes ammonia though.

Hope that helps and let me know if you have more questions.

Christy