I am still trying to get ammonia down after 6 weeks of cycling my tank, needless to say I've lost 4 of my 6 fish, and surrendered last 2 to store due to sickness...so 55 gal only has 2 snails left and ammonia is still 2.0 I switched from Cycle to Stability adding every day for past 4 days and added TopFin Ammonia remover twice today to bring down ammonia....it still reads 1.0
What is my next step?
Do I add more ammonia remover (what is maximum to add daily?)
Do I do water change - how often - I don't want to lose my bacteria.
I've stopped feeding goldfish flakes to my snails and dropped in a cucumber slice instead....just in case that's causing ammonia rise.
I cannot believe how hard this fishkeeping hobby is...I never had these problems with my 10 gallon and as soon as I switched to 55 gallon, I've had nothing but TROUBLE with ammonia killing all my fish! I am SO frustrated!

WEll, lets look at things for a minute. This does not have to be that hard - but I can admit it can be frustrating at times - particularly in the beginning.

When you say "ammonia remover", exactly WHAT product are you using? I cannot find any listing as to WHAT is in the TopFin stuff. If it is removing the ammonia by binding it permanently from the water, that is bad. If it is binding it, while still leaving it available for the beneficial bacteria that make up your cycle to use - that is good.

I am assuming you are attempting to cycle the 55? Was your 10 gallon cycled? Di you transfer any of the filter media to the new tank?

What temp is the tank at?

Exactly what are you adding to the tank on a daily basis? Food? Chemicals? etc....

What filteration and what media do you have?

What type of water changes/cleaning are you doing and how often?

What types of snails, how big were the fish, how quickly did you add them?

How about trying some Prime as your water conditioner...Its truly the best and a little goes a long way! I don't know about top fin but what I do know is when I first got my fish the lfs told me to use Aqua Safe to condition my water and remove ammonia. It wasn't until one day that I flipped over the bottle and read ALL of the fine print that I read "Aqua safe will not remove ammonia from an uncycled, overstocked aquarium." Since then I have used Prime and its been much much better. And I have 5 large comets/commons and 8 fry. Cross fingers everyone is doing fine.

Hi
Okay Daryl, here's the info you asked for....
I bought Topfin brand (made in Usa, bought in Canada) Ammonia Remover, label says neutralizes harmful ammonia, chloramine, chlorine. It doesn't specify bind or remove, except title on label "Remover" and dosage can be repeated every 2 hours if levels still high, to max 3x daily.
Tank temp is 68 /66 F (on outside wall - winter weather coming here ) no heater on tank cause I want goldfish...( can't wait to get my fish!!!!!)
I brought my big rock decor from 10 gal over to 55 gal. (didn't bring filter or gravel- ugly gravel, didn't match new tank, and filter just 5 inch sponge pad/carbon deal)
3 weeks ago I started treating my ich ridden fish tank with Rid-Ick meds for duration of 2 weeks until my fish died...so did 30% water change...that's all so far.
So no more fish...so I then brought my 2 little apple snails from 10 gal over to the 55 so I'd have at least something in there!!! I just carried them in my hands and set them in...they seem okay...one cruising around, other in different places when I wake up in am.
When I first started this 55 gal with the rocks from 10 gal. I added my current comet (3 inches) and black moor (2 inch) from 10 gal. Then in 5 days I bought 4 more goldfish ( 1 inch) because I was so excited to grow my tank and lfs encouraged more fish to get it going. But 'course ammonia spikes killed nearly everyone!
My tank uses Whisper power filter/bio filter 60.
Last couple days since adding snails and giving them pinch of flakes, I decided to take them off flakes since ammonia still high...and just do fresh veg instead
I hope my answers help you determine my problem!! Thanks for your help!

Just to update, I changed to Prime based on your advice...so just finished a 30% water change then added Prime (removes ammonia, chlorine) and Stability (bacteria)
Will re-test ammonia in a hour.

Yahoo...my ammonia level is at 0.5 can't believe it's finally going down....just did water change and added new product Prime....wow...i'm so excited....but now what? I still need it to go down to zero before getting my fish....so do I add Prime again...when? Water change?
Yeesh, I need help every step of this cycling!