Unexplained Ammonia

Sarah_13

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Hi all
 
For just over a year I have had my 90 litre tank. In the tank I have 11 danios (pearl & orange finned), 3 platies and 2 platy babies. Excluding the baby platies, I have always had this amount of fish and have not experienced an ammonia problem before. I am using an Eheim bio filter 160; I cleaned this in fish water after I discovered the ammonia, only one area was a bit clogged.
 
For about two weeks I have had ammonia readings of 0.6, this is not increasing or decreasing. I am testing the water nearly every day now. I started doing daily or every other day wc’s of 25l and this does not make any difference. Two days ago I did a big 60l wc and I still have the exact same amount of ammonia. I use Prime water conditioner and the tap water is clear of ammonia.
 
Luckily, the fish don’t seem distressed; I can’t see any signs of ammonia poisoning. I have some plants, they are not dying but are a bit brown, could this be the cause? The plants have been there from the beginning. I am usually feeding every other day or less and I clean out the baby platy box after feeding. I have sand substrate; I am thinking ammonia could be caused because I don’t stir up the sand during a wc. But I have never done this before so I don’t see how it could only become a problem now.
 
I don’t know what to do anymore as the water changes are not making a difference. It is very depressing as I always try and do everything correct and I spend a lot of money on my fish. My other peramiters are:  Nitrate 5-10 & PH 8 (normal for my tank)  Nitrite 0.3
 
Any help is really appreciated.
Thanks, Sarah     
 

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