Tank Setup after illness killed fish

Question
Hello Chris-
I want to keep this short as possible but alot has happened and  I can not figure out why. I have a 35 gal tank, had 1 oscar and 1 plecostomus for about 2 years. Bio wheel filtration and water changes when tests warranted the need. About 2 months ago my oscar suddenly fell ill, never could find out why and I lost him. While he was sick, I treated with every anti thing I found. This was over the course of 7 weeks and directions were followed as written. I wanted to make the tank 100
gain before I bought new fish so I removed the plecostomus and did a water change. Washed everything in the tank with a 2leach solution. Made sure to rinse everything real well. Did a 100 water change. Got a new Bio wheel and bacteria. I set the tank back up on Saturday. I am added salt, ammo lock, Stress zyme, and cycle. I replaced the carbon filters in the bio wheel. I added an under gravel filter and power heads also. Here is where I am confused. I have ammonia at 5ppm or higher. No Nitrates/Nitrites. No bacteria growth. The tank is empty right now. What else should I do? Am I missing something some where? Any help would be appreciated.

Sophia  

Answer
Hi Sophia;

It's probably from StressZyme and Cycle. There really isn't any "bacteria" in those products as we are led to believe. At most it is a source of ammonia for the real live bacteria to get going. Ammonia (NH3) is the first toxin in a new tank. After about 2 to 3 weeks nitrite (NO2) rises and ammonia begins to drop. at about 6 weeks the nitrite will drop too. It can take a very long time for nitrate (N03)to even show up at all, sometimes up to 3 months. It depends on how high the ammonia and nitrite was. They are all related.

Keep adding "food" for the bacteria and you will basically have a fishless cycle going on in there. It's much safer than using fish to do it. You can put a pinch of fish food flakes every day or a couple of rinsed cocktail shrimp to give the bacteria the ammonia it needs.

Your tank is actually pretty small for oscars, and really small to have a pleco with it too. The smallest for those two together is a 55 or 70 gallon. They may have just eventually been too much for the system. Weekly 25% water changes with a gravel vac is essential no matter what fish you have, or even twice a week if you have messy guys and/or it's overcrowded. Do the changes before your test kits show it really needs it. By that time, your fish are already unnecessarily stressed.

I hope your "new tank" with it's fishless cycle is successful and your future fish are happy and healthy!

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins