Help! Ammonia at 6ppm

Hi everyone, new here but found a lot of info on this site when I first started.

I took advice from my local fish store and didn't fully cycle my new tank when I first started, added fish about 7 days after starting it with top fin bacteria. Battled Ich using Ich-X right off the bat from acquiring the new fish and after that everything seemed fine. For about a month everything stayed at Ammonia: 0 Nitrite: 0 Nitrate: 0 Ph: 7.5 and kept at 77 degrees. A week ago my ammonia began rising up to about .5-1.0ppm (using API master test kit) and I performed my normal 20% weekly water change and added ammo lock per instructions. Tested a few days later, all is well at 0ppm Woke up this morning (5 days later) to a full bacteria bloom that made the tank very cloudy and a whopping 6.0ppm of ammonia!! Per my friend's instructions, I changed 35-40% of the water, gravel vacuumed the part of the tank with the most activity and used tetra aquasafe water conditioner. Still at around 5-6ppm of ammonia.

I ordered Seachem prime with next-day shipping but I'm not entirely sure how to use it and I'm not sure if I should be doing daily large water changes continuously. I haven't changed any of my filters and rinsed one of the two filters once in tank water 2 weeks ago. Not sure what caused this massive spike and don't want any of the fish to die from it or from shock! Any help would be appreciated!!

Edit: 20-gallon tank. 3 honey gouramis, 6 Columbian red tailed tetras, 2 mollys, all are relatively small. Tap water is 0ppm for ammonia

 

Welcome to FishLore.

I think you can thank the ammolock for that ammonia spike. Throw that stuff away; it does the opposite of what it’s supposed to do by essentially pausing the cycle.

You need to be doing more than 20% when doing water changes. Do 50% for a better effect.

Don’t gravel vacuum during cycling. By doing this, you remove lots of the beneficial bacteria necessary for the cycle.

Prime is also a water conditioner, however it can detoxify up to 1ppm of ammonia/nitrite. Try not to rely too hard on this property.

 

Welcome to the forum. I'm a little surprised you haven't lost fish with the ammonia that high, but I'm any case if it was mine I'd quit adding chemicals (except declorinator of course), and do 50% water changes until you get it down below 1.0 ppm. Then keep doing water changes when needed to keep the combined ammonia and nitrites definitely below 1.0 ppm, and ideally below 0.50 ppm.

 

Welcome to FishLore.

I think you can thank the ammolock for that ammonia spike. Throw that stuff away; it does the opposite of what it’s supposed to do by essentially pausing the cycle.

You need to be doing more than 20% when doing water changes. Do 50% for a better effect.

Don’t gravel vacuum during cycling. By doing this, you remove lots of the beneficial bacteria necessary for the cycle.

Prime is also a water conditioner, however it can detoxify up to 1ppm of ammonia/nitrite. Try not to rely too hard on this property.

Thank you Ouse! I'll get rid of that ammolock, I wish I had known better.
Should I continue using 50% water changes daily and using solely prime to condition it? I assume I should be doing these water changes until it gets down to something manageable like .25 or 0. In terms of my bacteria, will the cycle eventually catch up?

 

Thank you Ouse! I'll get rid of that ammolock, I wish I had known better.
Should I continue using 50% water changes daily and using solely prime to condition it? I assume I should be doing these water changes until it gets down to something manageable like .25 or 0. In terms of my bacteria, will the cycle eventually catch up?

Yes, yes, and yes.

 

Welcome to the forum. I'm a little surprised you haven't lost fish with the ammonia that high, but I'm any case if it was mine I'd quit adding chemicals (except declorinator of course), and do 50% water changes until you get it down below 1.0 ppm. Then keep doing water changes when needed to keep the combined ammonia and nitrites definitely below 1.0 ppm, and ideally below 0.50 ppm.

Thanks Jetts,
I'm very stressed since I don't want to lose any of them, these guys have been tough and all survived ich. Do you think my tank is too stocked to be able to recover and continue well?

 

Thanks Jetts,
I'm very stressed since I don't want to lose any of them, these guys have been tough and all survived ich. Do you think my tank is too stocked to be able to recover and continue well?

I don't think you're overstocked, but I wouldn't add anything else.