29 Gallon Tank Not cycled enough?

I'm new to the hobby and didn't know about cycling a tank so I did what most people did and put fish and a tank with equipment and thought I was good. I did my research and have learned a lot. Its been over a month now but ammonia keeps showing up strong in my tank. I'm using ammo lock and doing about 15-20% water changes once a week. What else can I do to fix this i care about my fish and don't want them to suffer

 

Perhaps check out the thread "PSA: Please Do NOT Use ammo-lock when cycling a tank". No experience with Ammo-lock myself, but this popped up as a recommended thread for your post and seems to be pertinent.

 

So it seemed useful at first but reading my bottle of ammolock it does exactly what that seachum prime does. It does right on the bottle it doesn't remove ammonia but rather it turns it into safer bacteria so I feel like the ammo lock is doing a proper job
The thread seemed useful at first**

 

This might not be the answer you're looking for but I find when cycling tanks you actually want ammonia at first. Without ammonia there is nothing for the bacteria to 'eat'. Once it starts building up, usually bacteria can start to establish. If you start to see cloudy water that's a good sign! It's often a bacteria bloom which means they should be starting to establish a little colony. If you don't have any fish in there, I would personally just sit back and let it do its thing without water changes or anything. It'll sort itself out after a bit of patience

Like the thread said, Prime will turn ammonia into the safer form which is harmless to fish - ammonium. From my understanding you will still get an ammonia reading even after using prime or ammo-lock from the test kit as it can't tell ammonia from ammonium.

If you have fish in there I would personally just use prime every 24-48 hours if the ammonia reading is 0.5 or under. After that I would do another water change.

 

Do a large water change and add tetra Safestart. Or Seachem stability.

 

I'm new to the hobby and didn't know about cycling a tank so I did what most people did and put fish and a tank with equipment and thought I was good. I did my research and have learned a lot. Its been over a month now but ammonia keeps showing up strong in my tank. I'm using ammo lock and doing about 15-20% water changes once a week. What else can I do to fix this i care about my fish and don't want them to suffer

How high is your ammonia reading?

 

. . . Its been over a month now but ammonia keeps showing up strong in my tank.

Please define "strong". What's the number?

. . . I'm using ammo lock and doing about 15-20% water changes once a week. What else can I do to fix this i care about my fish and don't want them to suffer

I'd stop with the Ammo Lock, and don't set a predetermined amount or frequency for water changes. Test your water often and do water changes when needed, and as large as needed, to keep the combined ammonia and nitrites definitely below 1.0 ppm, and preferably not over 0.5 ppm.

The Ammo Lock is likely to be messing with your readings, and if you keep those levels low with water changes you don't need it anyway.

 

So it seemed useful at first but reading my bottle of ammolock it does exactly what that seachum prime does. It does right on the bottle it doesn't remove ammonia but rather it turns it into safer bacteria so I feel like the ammo lock is doing a proper job
The thread seemed useful at first**

Do note, however, that at least as I read it the general conclusion of the thread is that ammo-lock is likely producing false readings, that many people have this issue, and that this may be a product problem.

 

So it seemed useful at first but reading my bottle of ammolock it does exactly what that seachum prime does. It does right on the bottle it doesn't remove ammonia but rather it turns it into safer bacteria so I feel like the ammo lock is doing a proper job
The thread seemed useful at first**

You can of course go by what it says on the bottle or go by real world experience from folks that have used this product while cycling a tank and have experienced what you are experiencing. In real life it doesn't do exactly the same thing Prime does.