Aqurium help: my tanks plants dying / anyway food to clean or reduce ammonia levels/ tips to clean t

1.) my aquatic plants' leaves ( i think they are elodea or somthing like that) are becoming stringy.they fall off and the entire plant dies. this happens to every leaf. what's happening and is there anyway to prevent it?

2.) i think i have high ammonia levels in my tank (my guppies' gills are really red) however i'm not sure how to reduce it. do you have any tips or medicine/liquid that helps reduce it? any certain brand?

3.) do you know any good way to do a full clean up on a tank without putting more stress to the fish? i'm really scared because the last time i tried i managed to kill off most of them.

thanks for your help

In regards to the plants, it sounds like you have inadequate light levels. Elodea is usually pretty robust. What kind of light do you have? There are many brands of aquarium plant food. Ask your local fish store. You can add a bit to the tank as well and that will help. But do NOT use normal plant food. That will kill everything. Is your tank heated? I assume it is since you have guppies. Keeping it between 74-78 will also help.

High ammonia levels are really bad as you know. Do you know about the nitrogen cycle? Basically what happens is that fish produce ammonia when they pee. Ammonia has to be converted by bacteria to nitrites (still toxic, but not so much) and those nitrites are eventually converted to nitrates. Nitrates are pretty much non-toxic, especially when compared to the other two. It takes several weeks (maybe 6) to build up enough bacteria in your tank to deal with the ammonia produced by the fish. The best way to "cycle the tank", that is get good bacteria in the tank is to just have plants in the tank and add a bit of fish food every day. Test the water each day and eventually you see an ammonia spike followed by a nitrtie spike. See www.wetwebmedia.com for more information.