I recently suspected that my fish tank was not done cycling because my ammonia is so horrible, but then i thought of the possibility that maybe my water conditions are just that bad. I change my filter cartridge once a month and have recently done a 50% change (last weekend) and a 25%change yesterday. i have an oscar around 3 inches and a pleco around 5 inches. It is a 29 gallon fish tank. ok now down to my question my ammonia since the beginning of the cycling in the beginning of january has not been at zero which is why i thought it could still be cycling but i do not believe this is the case since it has been so long (is it a possibility that it is still cycling?).
What i was wondering was what can i do to get rid of the ammonia i had also thought about getting bags for the pleco and the oscar then changing all of the water and reassimilating them do you think this is a bad idea. I realise to much change could kill a fish and i have had it done many times but i am desperate to get the ammonia out of my tank what can i do.
No matter what i do my ammonia stays at 2.0-4.0 (how my fish are living i am unsure) and my nitrates stay at 20 nmy nitrite however is finally at 0. I have tried water changes, ammo lock, and amquel i dont know what to do any help would be appreciated.

When you use ammino lock your ammonia reading stay. All it does is change the ammonia from a harmful kind to a non toxic kind. So when using this product you will still get an ammonia reading.

What do you mean when you say you change your filter cartridge, do you mean clean it (do you clean it in tank or tap water) or do you mean put a new one in??

Dont remove the fish and all the water, this will stress the fish and isnt good for your tank. Even if you removed the fish and changed all the water, ammonia will still come back as this is produced from your fish. The only way to remove it effectively is to have a cycled filter

I have never used ammo lock but if it converts ammonia into a harmless version then in a cycled tank with ammo lock added you should expect a reading of 0 as the filter will remove it? I dont know this for sure but it sounds reasonable to me. Anyone used this and could they tell us what to expect? I am a little confused to how you have a reading for ammonia, nitrite is 0 and a reading for nitrate

If your Ammonia has never hit zero then your tank has never cycled. Now I take flak on here for my practices but, I don't do water changes to deal with issues of Ammonia or Nitrite. The reason being that you little ecosystem needs to find it's balance and the only thing getting in the way of nature is the fishkeeper themselves. As long as your Ammonia isn't seriously high, your fish can handle it because the level came up gradually. The simplest remedy is to feed your fish less until the level stabilizes. They don't need to eat everyday. Just give them a taste every couple days and everything will normalize. Less food means not only less nitrogen waste but less solid waste as well. You won't need to clean the filters very often either. And just like Delboybully said. Never clean the biological filtration media of your filter with tap water.

Mneilsson, some fish can handle more ammonia than others. Oscars are not the most sensitive but ammonia can cause long term damage.

As you say about the fish being ok if the ammonia doesnt get too high, well doing water changes stops it getting too high. So if you combine the not feeding much with water changes oscar will more than likely be ok. The lower the ammonia the better is my rule

I'm now 4 weeks this past Thursday cycling my 150gal with fish in it. On the hagen test kit my ammonia has been anywheres from 2.0-2.4 steadily. PH on the lower side.
This ammonia reading has been like this since week 2 of the cycling process. I have not used ammo lock but have been doing water changes to keep the ammonia from getting
to high. My fish are all happy and healthy and I intend to keep them this way through this cycling crap, lol. Even my Dempseys have been mating and laying eggs something I have never witnessed prior to moving from my 30gal to the 150gal. I'm "STILL" patiently awaiting the reading of some nitrite or trate to tell me something is happening here, lol. I have two cascade 1500's on the tank from the start and was wondering should I be taking
a peek in there to see whats going on ? Should I be changing anything yet? Well, back to painting and then on to the taxes, joy!!!!

i am really sorry but as you read above i am not doing to well with my tank and i would feel horrible if i gave you advice and your fish died i am sorry about this i hope you get the help you need

Margeret just keep doing things as you have been and leave the filter alone to do its job, just be patient

Cherry What do you mean when you say you change your filter cartridge, do you mean clean it (do you clean it in tank or tap water) or do you mean put a new one in??

delboy ~ thanks again for the reassurance.
I'm driving myself, and everyone around me crazy with this cycling process. But on the upside as I mentioned under the breeding post my Jack Dempseys have breeded for the first time since they have been in this tank and as of today I have what looks like a couple 100 baby Jacks swimming around.

i mean by changing my filter cartridge margaret i'm really sorry it took so long my computer doesn't really cooperate with this site for some reason. So i have to hope i can get on.

when you say you clean the filter every month you dont clean it directly under the tap do you???? you should always take the water out from the aquarium and clean the filter and media if nessassery in the bucket of aquarium water , i didnt know either untill they told me on ofl just stick to this site and its advice and hopefully it will be ok