funky can i just say again i am really sorry that you have lost some of your fish i know it hurts but if you have learned from it then some good has come from it but i would still go with you should not wash your fillter media with raw tapwater as this WILL KILL any friendly bacteria that has collonised your fillter you need your fillter to work to its maximum capacity with catfish this is why on my 6 foot tank i use a 4 foot sump tank with a 3 x 1 foot x 1 foot trickle tower on it with the fish i have in this tank i/they need the best filtration i can provide them so i dont think it will be the veggies that you have left in the tank unless they have been there for months which i find hard to belive you would let happen

I just tested the water again and the ammonia is still up at .5-1, the ph had dropped a little to 6.6-6.8. I won't be washing the filters in tapwater anymore. I still have to figure out this problem with the ph wanting to fall. The kh is at 40. This is the 29 gallon.

The 50 gallon the ph was about 6.6-6.8, kh 40, ammonia .25. I buffered the water in both tanks to bring th ph back up to 7.0.

what filtration do you have in the 29 gal ?

UGF with 802 powerhead (temporary) and a Penguin 330 bio-wheel.
I tested my tapwater last night and it has 0 kh, 75 gh, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 0 nitrate, 7.0 ph.

The 0kh is a worry.

Your tanks pH of 6.6 is not a real concern in regard that many of your fish are of South American origin, where the waters have a low pH.

Secondly on pH, raising it with high Ammonia levels, increases the Ammonia Toxicity.

So when you're adjusting your water, don't focus too much about getting your pH up to 7, your water changes will handle that. Your focus should be instead, on preventing a fall from 6.6. Does that make sense?

What are you using as a Buffer? And at what dosage got you up to 40-80kh ? (not that I have any advice - just interested!)

To buffer the tank I'd suggest trying sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and use water changes to increase the levels in the tank over the next few days. If you make any drastic changes with the ammonia levels you've been getting it will probably cause more casualties IMO anyways.

With the tap water also giving a 0 reading then it makes fixing it pretty easy. Add bicarb to 5 gallons of new water until you get a reading 6x what your after in the 29g and 10x what you want in the 50g. Take the 5g out of the tank you want to buffer and gradualy mix the new buffered water into the main tank and test its effects. Repeat over a few days until you get to the desired KH and from this point on check your tap water and add buffer to keep the tanks at your prefered level.

An easier way and this is a trick I've done a few times on tanks where the hardness fell for seemingly no reason. Get some fine net mesh, I normaly cut the feet out from an old washed pair of tights/stockings. Call in your lfs and buy some coral sand/gravel, argonite or crushed shell. Rinse it, tie it into the net and drop in the tank. The calcium will naturaly leach into the tank and gently raise the KH and pH over a few days in a reversal of what peat/bogwood does and is less messing. A small peice of tufa rock will do the same but it breaks up easily and can be a pita to syphon if it does. From experience this with bogwood should make the water medium/hard 7.5pH but as Kana said once you go from acidic to alkaline any ammonia reading will rapidly increase in toxicity.

I believe it was a seachem product that raised the kh and the ph. Now that the ph and kh are up and stable, the fish are doing great. There is still a little ammonia- .25 in the 50 gallon, but the fish don't seem to care. The ammonia in the 29 gallon is still at 1.0 and the fish are themselves again. I can't seem to lower the ammonia through water changes. Hopefully the higher ph and kh will let the bacteria colonize again and take the ammonia down in a couple more weeks. I'm not adding anymore fish to either tank until the ammonia is fixed.

That's still quite an Ammonia reading. If you're unable to reduce it through water changes, perhaps that's a clue to your overall problem.

I feel the use of some Ammonia 'scrubber' material would be worth it, rather than just wait for your bacteria to re-establish.

Because when they kick-in with this high Ammonia level, you'll get a very high spike in Nitrite. Reducing the Ammonia now, will still allow for your bacteria to re-establish, but your Nitrite spike won't have as much punch.

Don't forget that your fish are in 'recovery' right now...They need a steady flight, without turbulance.

So far so good. I tested the 50 gallon last night and the results are: ammonia 0!, nitrite 0, nitrate 10, kh 40, gh 50, ph 7.0. The 50 gallon has had .25 ammonia for the last 2 weeks. It finally went down. I guess thats what happens when you reduce your fish by 50+. The 29 gallon is also on the way down. It was at 1.0 for 2 weeks and now has dropped to .50. Nitrite 0, nitrate 5, gh 50, kh 40, ph 7.0. I tried the ammochips, zeolite, Amquel+ and nothing really did anything. Time and water changes is what it needed.

as well as a reduction in fish stocking levels

Yeah. That helped.