New Aquarium Questions

[Reno]

We have bought a 20 gallon to step up from a 10 gallon. I have been messing with this thing for over a 2 months now and readings keep coming back for water with
Ammonia 1ppm
Nitrite 1ppm
Nitrate 40-80 ppm
Ph 6.6
Temp 78 degrees
Can someone help me get the numbers correct? What else can I add?

 

[Doig]

Have you tried testing your water source? Sometimes I like to do that just to make sure I am not the one causing such odd numbers.
Keep in mind that sometimes it will take a while for your cycle to balance out. My 20 gallon went into a Nitrogen Cycle due to a PH swing I caused and it took about 4 months before I could manage to keep anything living to live in it.

 

[Autumnsky]

Have you tested the water out of faucet / tap for ammonia?

Are there fish in the tank, or are you fishless cycling?

Did you use the same filter and media from the 10G. Did you change the media /filter pad or wash it with tap water which wasn't treated?

Or did you start fresh with a new filter and media?

Here are some articles which might be of help - since I am not sure if you have fish or not I included both options with fish in the tank, or fishless. Then the general information has many good tips to help keep a good, stable tank.

https://www.aquariumadvice.com/guide-to-starting-a-freshwater-aquarium/

https://www.aquariumadvice.com/the-almost-complete-guide-and-faq-to-fishless-cycling/

https://www.aquariumadvice.com/i-just-learned-about-cycling-but-i-already-have-fish-what-now/

 

[libertybelle]

Have you already moved your fish into it or are you fish less cycling ? If you moved the fish did you also move the filter/ decor.

 

[Reno]

I have moved fish earlier but lost a couple one day and moved them back to 10 gallon that I kept running in case of an emergency

 

[SassyHippo]

I’m new to fish keeping but in my research I’ve come across two things. I don’t suggest just taking my word for it but maybe dig a little yourself.
1) test the water source because there could be ammonia present. Well probably ammonium I think? Which leads to the next thing
2) the api test reads ammonia and ammonium totaled. Ammonia is dangerous. There are calculators online for getting the unionized ammonia which is the dangerous part. I put your numbers in and it calculated .2 so maybe the api is detecting the ammonium present as well?
*again I’m new here so read into it please.