Ammonia spike?? Four month old tank

I have had my 35 gallon hex tank for four months now, thought it was cycled tested the water and looked good. Put Molly fish in (7 intentionally under stocked). The tank seemed to be doing fine with a few ammonia spikes, then I put driftwood in and it seems that the ammonia spikes got worse? It’s been weeks now since the driftwood and still major spikes. Yesterday ammonia was .25 and I did a 25% water change…. Today tested it again any it is between .25-.50!! I have another established fishtank I seeded this tank with, I just don’t know what to do and don’t want to loose my fish. Doing another bigger water change and will probably dose with stability for a week. Any other advice?

 

Check the pH and use this chart to determine the safe value for ammonia.
http://www.blueridgekoi.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/pH-and-Ammonia.pdf

Your tank is just adjusting to all the new fish.

 

driftwood lowers pH, lower pH increases ammonium.

Temperature, pH, ammonia table
http://www.aztic.org/wp-content/upl...re-on-Ammonia-pH-Water-Temperature-v-2017.pdf

 

I calculated it using the chart and it’s dangerously high. I am not sure, my pH has always been high (around 8.0-8.2). This tank was cycled (I thought) and stable, it seems to now spike in ammonia every few days. I don’t want to keep doing water changes and I do not want to lose my fish. I just do not know what is wrong?

 

are you cleaning the filter/filter media?

use Prime every 2 days to detox the ammonia, .5ppm isn't that high, a dose of Prime will detox it for 48hrs.

 

Hmm seems odd. Assuming all of your mollies are accounted for, any idea where the extra ammonia would be coming from? Do you have plants? How are they doing? If not good, the ammonia could be from them decomposing. Does your tap water have any ammonia? Possibly overfeeding?

 

Hi, how did you cycle the tank? And what was your ammonia source while cycling?