My ammonia is at 0.0!!!

I had a well for awhile, they give you awful water in most cases. Get some jugs and go to one of those water stations for your tank water. Better yet, invest in a RO system, if not a full system for your entire household water then a smaller system for your drinking water and another stage for DI water for the tank. You will recover your $ in a short period of time and will have less problems with your tank and your health. If you opt for the smaller system, capture the waste water for things like the washer, dishes or watering plants. Just put the waste water line into a bucket in the sink in case it overflows.
Keep asking questions, it will help you a lot, I know, I made big mistakes before getting online for quality information.

 

For the record, this refers to a Marineland Magnum 350 canister filter.

Here's a picture of the "poly filter" pad that I had in my filter. I had this wrapped around the carbon/media container instead of using carbon. As I previously mentioned, I was told to do this by the person I bought it from, as he never used carbon.

I just cleaned out the canister and was going to use the carbon, but realized I'm missing a piece for inside the carbon/media container. I instead used a micron cartridge that I had on hand.

Everything is back up and running. I'm getting a lot of tiny bubbles from the outlet tube, but hope they diminish after the pump runs for a while.

 

Just curious about water for tanks. If a RO/DI system is not possible immediately, what is the best course of action? Is distilled or other "jug" water any better for the time being?

As my cycle progresses I now have my 1st algae bloom!!! It's a neat reddish-brown algae on the sand in the back part of my tank, and also on some rocks as well. Is this what is called diatoms???

On top of that, my canister filter is starting to die. At times it makes a sound like rocks in a blender so I believe I need a new magnet. I hope it makes it a few days when I can get to the store for a replacement.

 

Distilled is somewhere between RO and RODI water in terms of quality. Any other water won't cut it.