Tap Water Levels

[lizjamie]

It turns out before putting my new fish in I did not cycle my water properly and so now my tank is cycling (cold water, 1 baby oranda 1 baby black moor).
I noticed my ammonia levels were up from zero so I did a teeny water change (about 4 litres in 60) ths morning. The water had been left out overnight and 1 used tapsafe.
When I came home from work I tested the wtaer again, and the ammonia was still up a bit (0.25ppm) so I did a big water change, about 10 litres. (didnt leave water out but used tapsafe again)
I tested the water + tapsafe before I added it, and it contains ammonia!(0.25ppm) 0 nitrites and 5 ppm nitrates!
So I am making my water worse by changing it!
What do I do?
And are my fish going to be hurt by what I've done? And if so what do I do to make them happy?

 

[rdd1952]

Goldfish are very hardy but having ammonia in your tap water isn't going to help your fishkeeping process. I don't use or advocate the use of any chemicals other than a dechlorinator but you may have to check into a product like Ammo-lock that transforms ammonia into a non-toxic form until the bacteria can process it. Do you have any nitrite present?

 

[lizjamie]

The nitrite test was a bit inconclusive, it was purple for 0.25ppm at the top and blue for 0 at the bottom.
What I dont understand is that I had been getting readings of 0 for all 3 on the water which had 2 fish in it since saturday and and been trying to cyles since mid december. where did all these bad things come from?

 

[@ombomb]

What type of test are you using? Liquid or struips?

 

[lizjamie]

Liquid, the "freshwater master kit"