Thank you! I've pretty much done everything that you suggested EXCEPT for the aquarium salt. I just added the ammonia chemicals today-so I'm hoping that may help.

I have a very large bubble stone, two top filters and the undergravel filter that creates more than ample agitation (at least I thought so.. :( ...)

The fish are not gasping for air, they actually seem very healthy! (After this fungus thing was treated)

My temp is 78/80-so I will raise it a notch or two.

I did list the fish in the 75 gallon tank up top-took all live plants out. I do have other fish that were in the same tank, but they are in a seperate tank now so that I could cut down on the ammonia and try to cycle the big tank again.

Only feed once daily (in small dose to cut down on ammonia levels)

Just to clarify, my post is unrelated to the posts above mine and I'm responding directly to the first, original question of there being too much ammonia in the tank.

There are two ways to remove nitrogenous fish waste from an aquarium:

1. Nitrosomonas bacteria convert ammonia to nitrite, nitrospira bacteria convert nitrite to nitrate, water changes dilute nitrate in the aquarium.
2. Plants eat ammonium to grow new tissues, plants are trimmed and nitrogen in the tissues is removed from the aquarium.

For method 1 the beneficial bacteria live on surface areas, for example on the spongey material in your filter (the 'filter media'). Beneficial bacteria do not live floating in the water column. They need something to attach themselves to. Method 1 would be interrupted by you removing that spongey filter media from the filter box. That is why many filters have multiple bags of things in the box and they tell you in the instructions for the filter to only remove one of those three things every month. It ends up that all three (sponge, bioballs, activated carbon) are all fully new every three months, so the filter company keeps making money from making you buy new things and you keep your cycle intact because there's always a part of the old filter media left to seed the new part. If you put in new bioballs, the bacteria from the sponge will colonize it. If you put in a new sponge, the bacteria living on the surfaces of the bioballs will colonize the sponge. So it's win-win for the filter company to keep making money and for you to maintain a significant population of beneficial bacteria to convert ammonia to nitrite to nitrate.

For method 2 the plants can't just be sitting rotting in the tank, they actually have to be actively growing. This means they need a finely grained, nutritional substrate and light that emits energy in the wavelengths that the chlorophyll in the plant absorbs. Here is a picture of chlorophyll's absorption spectrum: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... ectra2.PNG
As you can see there are peaks around 400-500 nanometers and 600-700 nanometers. These are the numbers that chlorophyll can absorb. Light that is shining on the plant that is 500-600 nanometers is reflected, not absorbed, so the plant can't eat it. So buy a bulb that is either "full spectrum" (has energy values at all of the visible wavelengths) or specifically made to grow plants (has peaks in the blue and red section of the spectrum). Also use a substrate that will give the plant the nutrients it needs to grow. I use kitty litter (pure baked clay) because of this article: http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/Fertilize ... jamie.html but you can use Seachem Co.'s Fluorite(R), EcoComplete(R), soil capped with a few inches of gravel, soil capped with a few inches of sand... basically anything you want as long as it's not pure silicon dioxide like new pea gravel and sand are. Plants need things like iron, calcium, magnesium to grow. Brand new pea gravel or sand don't have that. There's a way around that if you really want to use gravel/sand; just use fertilizer sticks or allow the fish poop to build up in the substrate. But I don't like the idea of having to regularly fertilize the tank and kitty litter is $4 for 25 pounds and needs no capping layer, so, yeah, it works. My point is that there are a lot of different substrates that work; you don't just have to use kitty litter because I do. *nods* So, growing plants. That's one way to get rid of ammonia.
More info can be found here: http://theaquariumwiki.com/Plants_and_B ... Filtration

Also, use dechlorinated water to fill up your tank during water changes, not chlorinated water. The chlorine we add to our tap water at water treatment plants is specifically added to kill bacteria. Our beneficial bacteria in our filters are bacteria, too, and chlorine can kill them. So can drying out. They really like to stay wet, so any time you're moving stuff around or moving your tank, make sure the sponge in your filter stays submerged in dechlorinated water. As long as you use dechlorinated water you can do as many water changes as you like, and it's going to be necessary to do a lot of them to keep ammonia less than 1 ppm, which can kill your fish and make them sick.

If after all of this you still find that there is ammonia in the tank, perhaps it's time to add another sponge for the bacteria to colonize. You say that you have filters appropriate to the size of the tank. It takes approximately 40 days for any sponge to be as colonized as it is going to get. If it's been 40 days since that filter was added to the tank and you're still seeing ammonia, then the number of 'homes' available for the bacteria to move into (surface area available for them to colonize) is not sufficient and your tank would benefit from the addition of more surface area. May I recommend a fluidized bed filter? If you read this http://www.bioconlabs.com/abtqs.html you'll see they have 6,000 square feet of surface area per cubic foot of media as opposed to trickle filters' 200 square feet of surface area per cubic foot of media. They're also cheap to make; you just need a container, some sand, a pump, and some tubing. Here's an example of a home made one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xutRnqYtPdw Or you could skip the hassle of making one and buy one for about $75, but to me that's worth my time to make one because powerheads are like $20 and I have containers laying around for free. *shrugs* I'm sure you'll figure it out.

If you have any other questions don't hesitate to ask :)

Also, I do have the undergravel filter in addition to the two top filters.

Natalie - in cases of ich ONLY...to incrementally raise the temperature, what it does is it slows down the process of ich's reproduction cycle

ich is a process: ich forms inside the fish...it slowly eats away the inner scales so that a cyst protrudes from the scale, when it bursts, it falls to the gravel, but in order for it to find another host (a fish) it must attach to a new fish, and the cycle repeats itself

what higher temperature does is, it slows down the process - does not eradicate the problem - only slows it down, so that there will be more time between the ich finding a new host

what salt does, is it protects the fish's immune system in order to help fight off the ich process - it does not completely do away with ich, but it does help the fish better combat any ich

as for medication - which I completely frown upon, as you must know by now, I do not use any chemicals in the tank - though as stated above, I do recommend Prime (it will completely bring even high levels of ammonia down to 0 in an instant...it's a little expensive, but well worth the investment if there is an ammonia problem) - but you are correct Natalie, that as long as the carbon is not in the filters - for as we know, carbon will literally minimize the effect any medication may have - then yes, one could use medication to eradicate the ich problem (or any other bacterium, disease, etc)

Okiimiru made an excellent point, by taking out the live plants as well as the filters - word of advice: most fish salesmen have very little idea of science or even the basics of the fish hobby, so please please never listen to a salesman - the good bacteria was unable to keep up with the ammonia which is from the fish feces, thereby causing the rise in the ammonia and nitrite level - or a complete new cycle or mini-cycle

so absolutely, you need to replant the tank and the best way to handle filters - you should have a filter box that allows two filter pads, that way, when you rinse - ONLY RINSE IN COOL WATER - one pad, the other pad remains in the filter box or there is a good amount of good bacteria or nitro-bacteria left in the filter box, and that way, it will certainly help the tank from going into a cycle or mini-cycle

let us know how it goes...what decisions you made since all of these replies - I look forward to your response(s)