Need Advice On Filter Crash And Ammonia levels.... please help

[Morty]

Long story short, filter went down and I have fish in the tank. I did a big change, conditioned the water with API chlorine remover, not Prime. Waited a day, then threw in Tetra Safe start (can't hurt I assume?)

Water Parameters:

PH: 7.4
Ammonia: I think 2 ppm? I need help on reading these cards. Image attached
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 5 ppm
Tank: 50 gallon
Filter: Fluval 306 with flow turned down so they can comfortably hide but I can get some oxygenated water into my filter (don't want these guys getting thrown all over the place).
I have an air bar in there.
I don't really know what my hardness levels are, but I life in NYC and the water is soft. Last time I tested there was not a lot of alkalinity/buffering capacity, so I assume that PH is coming down as the bacteria go to work. I believe I read that they produce acids as they consume ammonia, but it was on the internet....

Advice on reading the ammonia test (do I hold the bottle right against the card, upright, look at it without the card and then look at the card for the color?) and how to get out of this pickle would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Matt100924100925

[Simplejustin]

Put the bottle legnthwise on the card. I would do larfe daily water changes as large as possible ASAP

[MD.David]

If your ammonia is really that high your burning your fishes gills (right out of) their heads!
Change 90% water twice in a row! (Back to back)!
Get that water cleaned up, for the waist that they are producing, your water change regiment is not enough to lower the "combined organic waist".

[Kyla]

can we get a pic of the tank? size? number and size of fish? why is the filter throwing them around, is it a new or temporary filter? how did it go down? how long was it off? where is the old filter media? (maybe possible to save some of the BB from it??) what kind of media is it? why do u mention ph dropping? do u have a ph test kit? what is ur ph?

i would completely change the water, like the post above says, back to back wc. then huge daily wc, even multiple wc a day if the ammonia raises between wc.

how r u doing wc? have u tested ur ph from tap and compared it to aged tap water already? these big wc can be hard on fish if there r any swings in ph if ur water isnt aged before wc

is there any nitrite reading?

[Morty]

I dropped my phone and cracked the heck out of the screen and there is a hole in it where the camera is, I am dead serious and not making this up. I will borrow a phone and get a pic ASAP (I am unemployed and on this computer cranking out resumes and cover letters 100 hours a week, also no joke). As such I have plenty of time to take care of the fish. My girlfriend claims that I love them more than her, so they are not neglected. I have maintained fresh and saltwater tanks previously with no issues, I had to give them up when I moved from South Bend, Wilmington, and New Jersey. On to your questions.

Fish: Seven discus that are 2-3 inches head to tail. 1 Angelfish that is 3 inches long. There are 2 albino plecos that are 3 inches long. There are 4 1 inch silver boys, no clue what they are probably tetras. One of the discus is usually isolated in the tank as he is VERY VERY aggressive and hurts the other fish. So 34 inches of fish in the 50 if my math is correct, I know this rule doesn't hold any weight. If advised, I will give some away or just buy another tank and risk divorce.

Filter: Fluval 306, they just can't handle the full flow rate. I have an air stone (bar) in there and some decor which I can move around to try and make them as comfortable as possible. My previous tank had a 205 and I put all the media in the new one and added additional prefilter media and biomax. There were NO issues for the 4 months this has been running, so I have no idea what took it down in a heartbeat.

Filter media: All fluval, the filter pads to start, then the biofoam, then prefilter media (I moved his over and added more), polishing pads with biomax on top (again I moved his over and added more). The additions are because I have more room.

I inherited an an acrylic 36 bowfront tank. It was not maintained at all, the nitrates were over 120 when I got it. So I did water changes to get them down. No problem at all, no ammonia, no nitrite.

Current tank: I purchased a 55 gallon acrylic tank that is 55G, it was the most voluminous I could find that was 3 feet wide (this was the stand it came with). I live in Manhattan and that is all that fits.

How did it go down: I have no idea, probably operator error. Something got in the tank that wasn't supposed to i.e. fumes from a cleaning product: I don't use any to clean the tank, but the wife loves to clean the apartment.

PH: I live in Manhattan, the water is very soft which is why I mention the PH dropping, there is very little carbonate hardness/alkalinity/buffering capacity. It literally doesn't stop dropping in between water changes or if I miss a water change, heading towards 6. Normally it stayed around 6.6, so I have used baking soda to stabilize it around ~7.2ish (I was instructed to do this by Dr. Tim while seeking his advice on my problem, only been doing this for a week). The aged water comes out of the tap conditioned with prime or API water conditioner. It goes into the tank at ph of 6.8. I have an API liquid test kit and Seachem PH alert in the tank, they corroborate. I mention PH because this is the only metric in the tank that had moved previously.

As mentioned, the old filter media, gravel substrate (1 inch), decorations are in the tank. The transition went smoothly.

Prior to this travesty, I changed 7 gallons, 13% daily. Conditioned in a bucket and left overnight with an airstone.

Presently there is a ~1 ppm ammonia reading. I have never had nitrites (maybe my api test kit is defective). There were nitrates ~15, they are around 5 now. The PH is presently 7.4.

There are fish in the tank. I need some ammonia to cycle. I see 2 options, keep it around ~1 and help the beneficial bacteria I have added get this done in a week. The other option is to keep it as close to 0 as possible and let the PH do its thing. Damage has been done. So either I try and get this thing cycled right now, or just manage with water changes.

Matt

[DJW]

I would not let the ammonia accumulate like that. You can do large water changes and if you use Prime, the Prime will detoxify the ammonia... it makes ammonia harmless for at least 24 hours while leaving it in a form that can still be consumed by filter bacteria. I don't think API water conditioner does this. The fish are producing ammonia constantly, which is all the cycle needs.

A falling pH (or buffer depletion) is caused by the consumption of ammonia by the biofilter bacteria. Your filter isn't doing that at the moment. Frequent large water changes to reduce ammonia will have no effect on pH at all, as long as the tap water is aged... in fact it will stabilize the pH.

In water that has little or no buffer, the rate at which pH falls is directly proportional to the bioload ("fish per gallon" + decomposing uneaten food). It shouldn't be a problem unless the tank is overstocked or it goes too long between water changes, or both. My water has no buffer, and if I had to go several days without a water change I would need to use some baking soda.