NEW UPDATE ON AMMONIA ISSUES.
Remember I had two tanks at zero ammonia (finally) - well the next day Tank A went up to .50 ppm the Tank B stayed at zero. The little tank that was at 1.0 ppm is now at .50 ppm. I'm using AmGuard daily - regardless of what they say - I'm sick to death of killing myself with daily water changes only to have the ammonia zig-zag around all the time.
SO TODAY BIG REVELATAION: My best friend came over and she and I removed all the fish from tank A into a 5 gallon bucket full of tank water with an air stone.
We removed EVERYTHING from the tank - including plants and substrate, got rid of a lot of snails and discovered I had 2 more (small) cherry barbs than I purchased so I think we must have had a birth I didn't notice and two survived. So awesome.
Any way we scrubbed down every piece of cave, rock, driftwood and rinsed and rinsed all the plants.Scrubbed the sides of the tank. Ran the substrate through a colander and rinsed and rinsed and rinsed.
Once everything was spanky clean and all the rock, wood and caves were back in the tank we added water to the tank. Added prime. Added in most of my plants and got rid of semi-dead looking ones.
I then did a full test of the water (note the filter was completely cleaned the day before but the filter material only cleaned in tank water). and GUESS WHAT - the ammonia level was .50 ppm. NO FISH, NO FOOD, fresh clean water. I tested our city water again - zero ammonia - so the ammonia must be coming from the decorations (minimal) or the slate rocks or the driftwood or one of my many plants in the tank. It is NOT coming from overfeeding like I thought.
So NOW WHAT DO I DO? I have not added anything new to this tank (other than fish) except a plant since I first set up this aquarium and NEVER had an ammonia problem until now. This same plant is in the other aquariums and aquarium "B" is still at zero ammonia - so I don't think it's that plant. Plant (name unknown) but grows like a weed and has small leaves and pink flowers - some are so long they sit on top of the water (which is what I wanted.) I treated with prime, stability and AmGuard and replaced the fish - they all seemed pleased to be back in their tank - even the cherry barbs were interacting with the other fish for a change.
We did find one dead fish in the tank when we cleaned it - unidentifiable but most likely a Dwarf Honey Red that had gone missing (I have the other one still). I could not locate the two Licorice Gourami that I purchased in July and no remains of them. I only ever sporatically caught sight of them in the tank after I purchased - I assume they must have died and completely decomposed. These were $15 fish - one of my more expensive buys. I had two others in Tank B and they have completely disappeared as well. I have fish way smaller than they were - so I have no idea what happened other than water incompatibilities or the ammonia. None of my Gourami's or Cory Cats have ever been seen killing another fish. (just my psycho Zebra Danio and he is in tank C).
So I'm completely puzzled why a VERY clean tank with no fish or food would have an ammonia level of .50 All it had in it chemically when I tested it was Prime to declorinate the water. Prime is not known to increase ammonia levels, in fact it renders them inactive (but they will still show up on a test).
I ask for HELP and thinking outside the box for this ammonia problem. Thanks in advance.