Dragon......I am having the same problem. My ammonia level went from around 0.5 to around 2.0 in the last couple days. I did a 50% water change last Friday, re-filling with tap water that is relatively clean. I plan on doing another 50% tonight.
I believe my problem may be this: I started cycling the tank on 12/30/11, only adding 3 snails. However, about a week later I added 4 fish. Then one week after that I added another 4 fish. And, one week after that I added 4 more fish. Even though I had been doing large water changes each week (50% each Friday), I believe I rushed into adding too many fish before the tank cycled a bit. As a newbie, I defiitely learned my lesson. So, now it's in crisis management mode.