Ammonia test question

Feel like i am doing something wrong. API ammonia test is showing 8.0 ppm
Nitrite 0 ppm
Nitrate 0 ppm
Seachem alert is showing .05 ppm
Have been fighting this ammonia reading for a month with weekly to twice a week water changes. Have used AMguard and ammo lock in this time frame to detoxify until o got the seachem alert and read this only reads the harmful ammonia. Now have one guppy acting funny. He is hiding and not schooling with other guppies. Was before
Have 5 guppies, 2 mollies(1 male 1 female) and a glow shark.
Changed to a whisper IQ 60 filter from a aqueon 30 filter. Have had filter for 2 weeks and added media from old filter to new. Also have been adding stability with water changes.
Have had tank running for 2 months. Had a cycle crash, because newbie things misinformation and had to rinse a filter, all but the glow shark died. Recycled tank and then add fish 2 at a time everything was fine for a week. Tested tank everyday and had no high ammonia spikes. Then high spike will not go away.
Thank you for any help

 

Forgot to add its a 29 gallon tank and have been doing 10 gallon changes. Just started using prime
Last water change was 5 days ago and am doing a 15 gallon change tonight

 

Stop using ammo-lock and you should be able to get your ammonia down. Unlike ammo-lock Prime won't lock up the ammonia. It will detox it but won't lock it up. Unlike ammo-lock your bacteria will still be able to eat it when detox with Prime. Ammo-lock works in an emergency to lock up the ammonia thus protects the fish until you can do a water change to remove it. That is the ONLY time I would even consider using it.

I would be doing a 50% water change daily until the ammonia drops down to no more than .5 Your bacteria should be able to clear that out fairly quick. Be sure to temp match and add prime to the new water before pouring it in there.

 

Stop using ammo-lock and you should be able to get your ammonia down. Unlike ammo-lock Prime won't lock up the ammonia. It will detox it but won't lock it up. Unlike ammo-lock your bacteria will still be able to eat it when detox with Prime. Ammo-lock works in an emergency to lock up the ammonia thus protects the fish until you can do a water change to remove it. That is the ONLY time I would even consider using it.

I would be doing a 50% water change daily until the ammonia drops down to no more than .5 Your bacteria should be able to clear that out fairly quick. Be sure to temp match and add prime to the new water before pouring it in there.

I imagine that's the reason for the two different ammonia readings between the api and seachem tests? Should I use both?

 

I imagine that's the reason for the two different ammonia readings between the api and seachem tests? Should I use both?

I agree. I am not sure what ammo-lock does so don't know what exactly is showing up in the test. I do know each time someone reports 8ppm ammonia that won't go down the common denominator is ammo-lock. It is probably safe ammonia but we really don't want to see any of any kind in our tanks.

Personally I would stick to one test as long as I felt the one I chose to use was fairly accurate.