Help! Aquarium always has extremely high ammonia!

[Mapper]

On 1/4/2021 at 9:02 PM, lefty o said:

just a random thought, you said you have new media, and new sponge etc. it is possible you killed off the good bacteria in the tank, and it is now trying to cycle again.

Well it was giving us the high ammonia readings before we put in the new media and sponges as well.

[lefty o]

could be reading the prime.

[Mapper]

Just now, lefty o said:

could be reading the prime.

So should we not put anything in the tank for a week and see if the readings change?

[Coronal Mass Ejection Carl]

1 hour ago, Mapper said:

So we got the test kit and we measured the free ammonia, which was at zero, but total ammonia was as we had been reading it and off the charts. So are things okay? Should we hold off putting any Prime or Stability in the tank for a week or so to see if things change?

Stability is heterotrophic bacteria which competes with the autotrophic bacteria you want. I wouldn't use it at all.

If it's a false positive due to Ammo Lock I would do water changes. If it's real ammonia I would also do water changes.

[starsman20]

"We have new media and sponges and everything in the filter"

This may not cause the before and after water change to being the same but you may have taken out enough bacteria that there are not enough now and you need to wait out the recycle.