Ammonia and nitrate

[MACHO]

So I literally just did a water change maybe 2 days ago it was 60 gallons I have a 200gallon aquarium. My question is whenever I removed everything filter floss and socks cleaned them and then I removed some pretty old ammonia and phosphate pads my ammonia is still reading 0.2 and nitrate at 5 nitrite at 0 how is this happening all the fish are still alive and with such a large tank invert or 2 dying shouldn’t effect it too much. My only thing is that i took the ammonia and other pads out literally 20 minutes ago and did a test for a ammonia before and after I removed them. I also don’t feed very heavy I feed pellet a maybe do 4 pinches.

 

[Jeffcb]

How long has the tank been running?
What ammonia test are you using?
Sounds like you have a cycled tank. Could be a false reading.

 

[MACHO]

How long has the tank been running?
What ammonia test are you using?
Sounds like you have a cycled tank. Could be a false reading.

About 2 years I’m using Red Sea test kit

 

[Danroo]

0.2 shouldn’t be a worry run your tank without the ammonia pads, see what happens. Maybe the pads are making the tanks go through mini cycles ( can happen ) run the tank with filter floss and carbon for a while and see what happens.