yeh i have tubes and some other surface areas.
i added "cycle" which is bacteria for the tank, that would help right?
so for the next week or 2 i should do water changes every 2 days, and keep using prime?
I used a product similar to Cycle, and it made no appreciable difference. I know many other members of this forum who have had similar experiences with these type of products.
My recommendations for the filter. (1) Keep the tubes in there at all times, never replace them. (2) Don't change wool or sponges until they are literally falling apart. Rinse them in old tank water, NEVER tapwater. (3) Your fish shop will have told you to replace the carbon cartridge every 4-6 weeks. Don't. Take it out now, throw it away. Go and buy a new one, and some more ceramic tubes. Put the tubes in the filter, in the place where the carbon cartridge goes. Put the carbon cartridge in your cupboard, and leave it there until you need to use it to remove old medication from your water.
My recommendations for testing and water changing
As I said, get your own test kit. You have to keep ammonia and nitrite levels below 0.25ppm at all times. Right now that means immediate multiple large water changes, because you have 6-7ppm ammonia in there.
For the future, you need to be testing probably twice-daily, morning and evening.
If you have more than 0.25ppm, you need to change enough water to get that level down to about 0.1ppm. That will give you enough leeway to allow levels to rise until you can test and water-change again. EG if you see a level of 1ppm, you need to change 90%, to get down to 0.1ppm.
If you are approaching 0.25ppm, change 50% to give you that same leeway.
As you go forward, and the bacteria in your filter grow, you will see your test showing lower results. If you get to a position at one of your tests, where the results are 0ppm for both ammonia and nitrite, you don't need to water-change.
In a couple of weeks or so, you'll get to a position where you only need to test and change once a day. Then after that, it'll be once every two days, then once every 3, and so on, until you get to a position where you get Double Zeros for 7 days in a row. You are then "Cycled".
Until you are cycled, please don't add any further fish to your tank.
On an ongoing basis, once you are cycled, you need to do water-changes once a week. I personally change 30%, but you need to test nitrate to find out how much you need to be doing. Nitrate is far less toxic to fish, you need to target no more than, say 40-60ppm immediately before a water-change.
Any more queries, just ask.
