Help...I think I got wrong information

[cmbarnes10]

We started our tank about 2 months ago. It is 20 gallons, 8 pounds of live rock, filter and protein skimmer. We tested our water weekly for the first 4 weeks and by the 4th week it had seemed to have cycled, I had .25-.50 ammonia which then by the fourth week had gone to zero as did my nitrite and my nitrate was 10. So we started to add fish. We did it weekly, we have two false perculas, one purple psuedochromis and one blue damsel. The I added one mexican turbo snail and 10 hermits. We were waiting to get a brittle startfish and some more hermit crabs and possible small snails if they can be with the turbo mexican snail. Well before i addded more I checked the water and my ammonia spiked again and has not gone down in a week. I don;t know what to do....the fish are doing well, as is the snail. I try to count the hermit crabs but I can't find them all but they may be inside the rock. All the fsh are very active, and eating great. Should I worry? What should I do???
I am not happy with my lfs they all give me diffrent answers.
HELP!!!!! :help:

 

[travis89]

First you need to do some water changes to get the ammonia down then you can go from there on what to do next. You probably had something die like hermits or something which would spike the ammonia.

 

[cmbarnes10]

If the hermits did die do I need to take out the dead one because I can't find them or would the live ones take care of it?
I did a 10% water change this morning...forgot to mention it above...how long should I wait to test the water again?

 

[travis89]

The live hermits will take care of the dead one. You should probably test the water tomorrow morning.

 

[cmbarnes10]

thanks for the help...