pH and ammonia and hardness?

Im pretty sure its uncycled. At first, when I set it up, then I made a really pathetic attempt to cycle it. but I didnt know what I was doing so I just guessed it was done.It was a fishy cycle. Afterwards I dumped a whole load of fish in there and they all died. Thats when I understood that its poisonous to them. Your probably thinking right now that Im the dumbest blonde there ever has been and your probably right, but im a brunette! so Im hoping I can try and cycle it right now I've had it for 6mon. and Ive killed alot of fish :sad . I dont mean to . :sad . Anyways It dropped from 3ppm to 1ppm what now? whats the next step in cycling the tank?
oh, and my fish are guppies (thats the only thing Ive been trying to keep in there the whole time. better late then never,right?
 
Begin at the beginning

Let's begin at the beginning, moonbaby.

First, when you change water, what do you add for water conditioner? Do you know if your local water has chlorine or chloramine? It is important to use the right stuff, for if you have chloramine and use stuff that only unlocks the chloramine but does not neutralize the ammonia it just adds the ammonia to the tank.

Next, how much are you feeding these fish? How many fish? How many times a day? Too much food is adding a lot to the load of ammonia in the tank, for a fish will eat anything it can and the undigested food just falls out the back end as more is shoveled in the front end. They say to feed as much as one fish eyeball per fish once per day. Are you overfeeding?

If you have been feeding too much, then there is a lot of poorly digested food that is in the gravel rotting away, this will add to the ammonia level in the tank. You'll need to gravel vac to remove that. Don't try to do it all in one day, it may take a few days to get it clean.

Next, look at your filter. The filter is the key to processing ammonia and it needs to be correctly sized and kept relatively clean. What sort of filter do you have? What size and what size is your tank? When was the last time you cleaned the filter? How exactly do you clean it?

Now, and maybe this should have been first, how many fish do you have and what size is this tank? Overcrowding will also make for too much ammonia in the tank.
 
OK, thank you so much for being so patient. I have a 10g tank with a pleco(I know he'll be too big as an adult, but I just want to keep him for like a year),2 adult female guppies and two baby guppies(also an invasion of little snails, but i didnt think they counted) . I've been feeding them a fingernail size of flake food twice a day, for the adults and a very small pinch of powder fish food for the babies.The tap water in this area is all natural, I live in a very small town and the water comes from a natural spring in a canyon nearby. They never put any clorine in the water,but I dont know if there is any choramine(or dissolved metals) in the water. Just for saftey I treat it with either a liquid stuff from lfs that treats for both or a powder that also puts the PH at 7.0 and removes ammonia (temparily). I tested the water for ammonia and there isnt any in it. My filter is the kind that hang over the back and water fall into the tank. It takes carbon filter cartridges that I change once a month. If it gets really dirty I like to wash it off in the sink, in between monthly changes. I have a gravel vac and i vac with every water change once a week. (or at least thats what I was doing) so what now?
 
I tested the water again today and Its thourgh the roof so Ill do a water change and gravel vac again. but what else?
 
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