Hi guys...
Ok so kept on doing my water changes every other day ... bla bla went to LFS they sold me ammo lock and stress zyme said it would help bring down my ammonia levels ..... they said I could put them in together at the same time so last night did approx 40% water change put them in together - today my tank is cloudy!!! filter full of this creamy stuff and there is a constant film on the top surface of water.... Tested my ammonia levels which were 6!!!! they have never been more than 1.5ppm ... im so upset did a emergency 90% water change cleaned my filter .... tested water again still ammonis levels 5ppm what the hell has happened ????? advice please .....

I did some quick research on the ammo-lock and this is what I found on another site. These are responses from people who have used the product.
>> http://au.answers.yahoo.com/questiohttp://www.dwarfpuffers.com/forum/posting.php?mode=reply&f=1&t=14640n/index?qid=20090716040042AASBJmC
>>http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090530012137AAbIR8d

Hopefully these are somewhat helpful in understanding what happened. I have never used the products so I can't give any real life advice.

StressZyme is pewp. Don't use it again. You're just adding dead, rotting bacteria. Ammo-Lock impedes the cycle.

Get Prime and read this: http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/lib ... encycycle/

It's for new tanks, but it applies to crashed tanks too.

Thanks guys you are both a great help... yeah I have just done a second water change of today (im knackered now) 90% i hoovered all the creamy stuff from the bottom of the tank and ceramic media... cleaned the pebbles and filter sponge in tank water as this was also covered in creamy stuff....and had to wipe the insides of the tank as it was also covered ... then I added fresh water with prime in it.... will not use that other crap again..... will try and get another sponge filter from another tank... as it wont be the right shape to fit in my filter shall i just put in a corner under some ceramic media is this going to help?? ta guys
My brother had a look at my tank he used to keep alot of fish he seems to think these fancy looking tanks arent that great esp the filter in it - he thinks i should set it upwith an external filter.. and put a sand bottom in with undergravel filter so it would be better for my puffers, any views take care guys

Just cram the sponge in wherever it fits in the filter.

Sand can't be used with undergravel filters. Undergravels should only be used with low-waste fish, IMO. They are difficult to clean properly.

External filters are generally used with larger tanks.

There's no reason to change the filter if yours works and water is coming in and going out. My guess is that something rotted in there - maybe uneaten food.

Hello guys ...
OK so went to LFS where they sell used filter sponges from healthy aquariums... although these filters have been used they were at the bottom of the tank floor but they assured me they had been taken out of mature tanks.... i presume the bacteria will still be living on them??? I hope !!!i put one in my filter and one next to the filter under the ceramic media so water can pass through it.... I also got that prime stuff... thank god my ammonia levels are little over 0.25 now which is the best so far... i got some of that prime stuff so will do water changes reguarly with that. also feeding a little less than before... so how long roughly will it take for the used filter bacteria to get in ....?? Cant wait for my ammonia levels to be 0!!! eventually I would like to add another small fish ....thanks guys

Was the store adding some sort of ammonia source to the tank of sponges? If so, great! That's a really nice product. I wish other stores would do that.

Well there was a fish in the tank so I presume thats the source?? I hope it will do the trick quickly

One? How big? I hope it was healthy, too!

There was one big fish - looked healthy to me !

I hope the sponge filter has enough bacteria on it.

How are your parameters doing now?

I AM SOOO HAPPY ! My ammonia levels are 0 yipppeeee!!!!! It did the trick.... My only worry is I still have traces oof Nitrite?? is this bad what can I do about this ... how often should I hoover the gravel at the bottom of the tank ?? and how often water changes now??? Do u think I can add one more fish soon. ?? thanks Anna

Keep doing water changes until you have no nitrite either.

I vacuum the gravel and change 50-80% of the water every week in my tanks.

What size is the tank, what fish do you have in there now, and what fish do you want to add?

its a 60L tank think thats bout 16 gallons

Currently have 2 danio 3 DPF 1 loach... really would like 1 ram... tried to take back the danios but the LFS were not intertested really said they would need to be booked in and may take weeks before they IF they could have them back .....

My DPS....... fingers crossed have not been aggressive to the other fish.... so far so good ... they are in fact quite scared of other fish and will swim away ....just in case u were thinking of their behaviour.... If u think a ram is a bad idea I also was thinking about very small shoal neon tetras.....