Hello! I'm New Here.

[DiscoFace]

Yay! I wasted more money on stupid products that claim they'll help water conditions! lol! In my experience those ammonia removing products are bunk as well, didn't change my levels at all.

Anyways, my filter has no sponge in it. My friend didn't give me anything, he told me about the bio filter sponge and said that might be my problem. He said it's the only other thing he can think of that'll help me out. So next time I get the chance, off I go to the pet store!

Thank you SO much for your help so far! I appreciate it!

 

[Wills]

No problems I like helping.

Right we are down to the route of your problems now. If the filter is just running water through an empty box it is doing 0 apart from aerating the tank slightly which in high ammonia conditions is important but its not going to help the problem.

You desperately need to get to a pet store and get a filter complete with sponges and bio balls or something. You want something rated around 500 liters an hour. Something like a Fluval U3 would be ideal I think they are about £30 but a U2 might work and they are around £25 but if you can get the U3 they are better as they are more powerful but also have compartments for bacteria to grow in where as the U2 only has one big sponge.

When you say ammonia stuff do you mean ammo lock? Or ammonia neutralizer or something similar. If so that would partially explain why your cycle has not started at all and how your fish have survived so far. Those kind of products convert ammonia into ammonium which is harmless to fish (you also find it in penguin chocolate bars as well fact!). And in doing this it will send your ammonia readings off and inacurate as the tests wont read ammonium properly.

Once you have your new filter set up you will have to start from scratch to get your cycle going. Every tank has to have the cycle established using stuff like ammo lock just wont work long term. Does your friend have a proper filter? If so you could ask him for a dirty sponge to add to your filter, you want it to be covered in gunk and it will seriously help your tank. But once you have your filter you need to do a large water change in the region of 70% to get all of the ammonia product out of the tank and then stop using it because other wise the bacteria will not be able to survive with no ammonia.

From that point on you will be in whats called a fish in cycle which will mean your fish will be exposed to high levels of ammonia and nitrite but this can be controlled by daily water changes of around 50% this is quite essential as your fish have been exposed to less than ideal standards for such a long time I imagine they will start to weaken soon and thats when the problems could happen but if you keep on top of the water changes you should have 100% survival rate. For a more detailed version of the fish in cycle there is an article in the beginners resource section which is in the new tank part of the forum - a lot of other articles in there well worth a read as well.

The good news is that once you have this cycle sorted when you come to upgrade your tank you will be able to move this filter media your going to grow straight over with no problems. Also just to bring something to your attention about your Green Terror if you look in the new world cichlids section you can see a few posts about people having issues with their green terrors at the moment just think it will be worth a read for you to have a rounded view of what GTs temperments can be like.

Hope thats helped a bit more
Wills

 

[DiscoFace]

The filter isn't running water through an empty box, it has a Tetra Whisper filter cartridge in there. The filter cartridge says it has a bio bag, wouldn't that do the same as a biofilter?

 

[steelhealr]

SH

 

[DiscoFace]

Hi! Thank you!