ammonia in aquarium

Question
Hi Stephanie,  we have a 55 gallon aquarium and set it up a couple of weeks before Christmas.  The ammonia is off the scale, have lost 4 Mollies, 3 algae eaters, 3 sharks, 1 bottom feeder, 7 guppies.  We have done 25% water changes, 50% water changes, treated the water with ammo lock and ammonia buddies, we have done everything we know, and still high ammonia readings.  Please help

Answer
Hello,

From the sound of it you are changing too much water at one time which is preventing your good bacteria colony from establishing itself. This is probably only making your ammonia problem worse. You should change no more then 10% of your water per day. Also, I have never heard of a success story with people who use ammo-lock, instead I recommend a product called Cycle which aids in the entire nitrogen cycle by adding good bacteria to your aquarium. If you haven't already done so, I recommend syphoning your gravel but you do not want to do that more then once per week as over-syphoning can also cause beneficial bacteria loss.

I hope this helps.

Regards,
Stephanie