Unbelievably high Ammonia - HELP!!!

[lee1]

My 75 gallon tank is just over 3 months old and over the last month I have seen my ammonia go from .25 to over 8!! (It's actually higher than 8 but my test kit stops at 8). I only had 2 damsels and 6 snails in the tank once it had initially cycled and nothing died to cause the ammonia spike. I moved all of the livestock to my QT to save them and yet my ammonia still is so high. Does anyone know how this could have happened?
Is it possible that the bacteria died in the tank?
Also, should I just let the tank sit and hope it will recycle or do I do a 100% water change and start over?
P.S. When the ammonia started to climb I did a 40 % water change and added Stress Zyme but nothing seemd to help.

 

[naclfish]

either your test kit is bad or your tank might not have completly cycled id do 10% water changers a day for 5 days how much live rock and sand do u have also skimmer lights and filtration would help

 

[cjworkman]

Did your tank ever complete the cycle? Ammonia spike, nitrite spike, nitrate spike... then all settle to zero?
Just a question, because it's a common mistake... but did you attempt to speed up the cycle in any way? i.e. do a bunch of water changes when it was supposed to be cycling?

 

[lee1]

I never had the ammonia at zero. It was always between 0 and .25. I didn't do any water changes while it cycled, but maybe it wasn't completely cycled.
Also,I know the test kit works becasue I have zero ammonia for my QT.
The interesting thing is that the water really went bad after I added the skimmer. I went 2 months without one and then when I added it, 3 days later the ammonia doubled. After a couple of weeks of seeing the ammonia increase, I took the skimmer out to see if this was the issue. It didn't help.

 

[cjworkman]

sounds like it never fully cycled correctly.
if that is the case, unfortunately the best thing to do is just let it finish. Which coudl take several weeks...
You may do water changes to get the tank ready a little faster but only once Ammonia and Nitrite have fallen to 0 on their own.

 

[lee1]

That's what I thought.
Should I put the skimmer back in? (It wasn't skimming anything anyway.) Or does it not matter as far as cycling is concerned.