Ok. If Stacy or no one else helps you I will try. I cycle the old fashion way I guess. A lot of people on these sites use tetra Safe Start but I have never used it. Plants are nice but that's a whole other subject and not the time. Right now you are trying to save your fish.
You need to measure your ammonia, nitrites and pH and make a little chart to write these down with dates. This is so you cabn see the trends over time. Any time you see ammonia or nitrites, do a 30-40 percent water change. Use tap water and be sure it is the same temperature as best you can. Be sure to put the appropriate dose of Prime in the tank for the water you are replacing BEFORE you put in the new water. If the tank is not cycled at all, you will be doing this daily for a month to 6,weeks. Once you see nitrites, the tank is starting to cycle, once they go down and you start seeing nitrate, and little to no ammonia and nitrites, then the tank is cycled. As I said, do not add any more fish until the tank is cycled. Do not listen to advice from people at the fish store.
I said do water change any time you have ammonia, I'd say any time it is above .25.
Oh, one thing you could do to speed things up is to find someone else's filter to take a piece and put it in with yours to get the good bacteria to grow faster. You might get some from a fish store, only thing is you have to be pretty sure they don't have any disease going on.
Good luck keep us posted.
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