Pros and cons of Ammo chips?
Ok so I have a 20 gallon freshwater tank which currently has one red platy, two flame dwarf gouramis, and one guppy. My cori catfish recently died for apparently no reason; I've had him in there for about two months now, he was one of the originals. My other guppy I had died on me too, but he had just come from the pet store less than a week before he went, so I don't think it had much to do with my tank. I don't have exact numbers on my any of my tests, but when I took some water to petco they said everything checked out at acceptable levels, nitrites especially because I was having some problems with that for awhile. My pH was slightly low, but that was about it I just threw in some water conditioner to try to up it a little bit. Anyway on to the real problem... my water has been cloudy for quite some time now. It started, from what I can remember, a good few days before my last water change which was on Tuesday 12/1 (I did a 25% change). I was told it may be cloudy because of the fish I added which would put extra ammonia in the water. Would it be a good idea to put some ammo chips in my filter, which claims it helps remove ammonia, to help get rid of the cloudiness? I did a couple minutes of research online to find that it binds ammonia to the rocks with a chemical reaction and the ammonia itself doesn't break down for weeks which can throw off readings, but it still keeps it from being harmful. I know this can throw off the cycles and make my tank dependent on fresh ammo chips to keep the water safe, but would it hurt to just throw some in until the cloudiness stops and then let the ammo chips just sit there until they stop absorbing ammonia or take them out completely, only adding new ones when I have another spike? So I guess the main questions here are: Is it a good idea to use ammo chips to get rid of the cloudiness in the water? And what what are the pros/cons of using ammo chips short term and long term? Thanks in advance :)