Ammonia 8 help needed

[JillianLockwood]

Hi
I am new to this group and am wanting some advice regarding my 3 month old 30 litre (8 gallon) fish tank.
I had the ammonia down to almost 0 and then put a food pyramid in for 3 days whilst I was away. When I came home the ammonia was 4. I got some ammo lock ( I have only 1 fantail fish) and did 25 percent water change every day for 4 days. The ammonia went up to 8!
I rang a local aquarium shop and they told me to get the pH to 7.0 (it was around 6.4) and to only do a water change twice a week.
Today 4 days later the ammonia is still 8, nitrites 2, nitrates 20 and pH is 7.0. I am using ammolock every two days. I did a water change today.
Why is the ammonia not going down?
Thank you
.

 

[drm315]

Sounds like your tank is in the middle of cycling. With an ammonia of 8, I would have done a 90% water change (since you stated there is a fish in there). Not quite sure how it survived that ammonia spike. You're going to have ammonia and nitrites until your tank has cycled. If you don't have any live plants in your tank, I would get some.

Here is a link to some info:
Fish-in Cycling: Step over into the dark side - Aquarium Advice

 

[paytertot]

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/i-just-learned-about-cycling-but-i-already-have-fish-what-now/

 

[toolman]

If your fantail fish is a fantail goldfish, your tank is too small.
They have been OK up untill now because they were young.

http://animal-world.com/encyclo/fresh/goldfish/FantailGoldfish.php

Rule of thumb is 20 gal of water for the first goldfish and 10 gallons for each additional goldfish.

 

[toolman]

Just a word of advice take everything lfs tells you with a grain of salt. Although they sell them, usually have very little fishkeeping knowledge. Would be doing daily water changes until you get ammonia and nitrites down below 0.25 or you won't have any fish. Continue to treat water with ammolock, however I prefer seachem Prime.

Your fish is producing more ammonia than your biological filter can process. This is going to get worse as it grows.

 

[toolman]

By the way, welcome to AA.
Don't worry about the pH, fish won't die from that they will adapt.

 

[JillianLockwood]

Thank you for your advice

Thank you for your advice. I have done a 25% water change today and purchased some Prime. I will do daily water changes for a week and let you know how I go. And I have got some live plants which were looking good until recently.