its been almost a month since the cycle has started, ammonia is at .50ppm, nitrite is at 0ppm, nitrate at 10-20ppm, and ph at 8.0. How can I bring ammonia down to 0? It’s been at .50ppm for so long now. Nitrite was off the charts but that has went down to 0 now.
There's the problem. API has proven to be an unreliable test kit. Been there, done that, tossed it in the bin. You should get a better test kit and try again. Red Sea and Salifert are proven test kits. I have used both with great results.