Comment moderation

I have followed the instructions to stop comments being held for moderation, but every one is. In Settings>Discussion, I do not have author has to have previous comments or an administrator must approve checked off. I have the # of links in a comment to make it be held in moderation at 2. Regardless, every comment is being held. How do I stop this? Also, comment spam has really only started since I downloaded a new theme two weeks ago: https://www.whatnowandwhy.com. I tried using Akismet, but wasn’t aware I had to pay for it.