Filefish died

Tested my water. PH is 8.0. Ammonia is 0.25ppm. Nitrite and nitrate are 0ppm. I know my ammonia is pretty high, and I don't know why it's that bad. Only have one fish in my tank, and haven't done anything to stress it out (haven't moved my rocks around yet). I dosed more prime today.

I've been holding off on water changes, since the plastic of the garbage can I was using started corroding, and pieces of plastic were floating in the water. Not good. But I located a plastic barrel to mix water in, so when I get it (later today), I'll mix water and do water changes.

Any suggestions on why my ammonia is so high/how to fix it? Is it because I had a fish recently pass away?

Edit: Also, he's turning a little brown.

 

How are you testing ammonia, and how old is the kit? If it is with an API kit, it can be very tough to decipher between 0 and .25. I would recommend getting a Seachem Ammonia Alert badge from your LFS. They will show you down to .02. My guess is you are getting a false read.

Edit: And what is turning brown?

 

Yes, it's an API kit. I've been wanting to get a better kit, maybe something electronic, that way there can be little to no errors in testing. Not sure how old the kit is; I got it from a friend.

The goby is getting little brown spots near its dorsal fin. Ammonia poisoning..?

 

Brought my water to the LFS to get tested. Nitrite, nitrate, ammona are all zero. Alk and calcium are 300 and 400. Since my params were good, I decided to buy a pair of clowns.

 

What is your Mag. level?? What kind of test kits are they using for Alk.??

 

It was the LFS that tested. I can't remember which was 300 and which was 400. Not sure what kit they used

 

Here they are. It's hard to get good pics because they move so much (and I'm using an iphone for a camera)