DLMyst

The glow fish was the only survivor from 6. According to Petco they have a 50/50 chance of surviving. Since I didn't want to bother afterwards, I decided to get platys and hifin blues with the store credit. Needless to say I can't tell if their sex and I believe the 2 mollies are male since their fins look the same. I may even need to remove one because one of them is attacking the other and I'm starting to see missing scales. Problem is that I only have this one tank and they like to swim together. So it's like a love/hate relationship there which I don't get.

Here's what currently in my dad's 30 gal aquarium. Water is a bit yellow due to the tannins from the driftwood. Thought I soaked it long enough to remove the majority of it but I was wrong. hehe Plants 6 Vallisneria gigantea 1 Taiwan Aquarium Moss Taxiphyllum Alternans 2 Brazilian Pennywort Hydrocotyle Leucocephala 3 Pearl Weed 1 Willow Moss Fish 2 Cherry Shrimp 4 Variatus Hifin Blue 2 Green Lantern Platy 1 Glo fish. 2 Dalmatian Mollies 2 Clown Pleco 10 Amano Shrimps 2 Hill Stream Loaches Want to add 3 Khuli Loaches to the mix and maybe 2 Bristle Nose Plecos.

I have 2 Dalmatian Mollies and only once in the first week I got them that they ate one of my Bloody Mary Shrimps. After that week, the Mollies ignores my 2 remaining Bloody Mary Shrimps plus my 10 Amano Shrimps of various sizes. Then again I don't trust those 2 Mollies much, hehe.

Yeah had to do another water change today since one of my dad's fish died. I checked the water and it was 0 ammonia, 2 ppm Nitrite and 0 Nitrate. After the water change it went down to .5 ppm Nitrite. I water vac the gravel to remove all the waste. There's only 15 small fish in the tank think the biggest is 2 inches long. Been stuck in the midpoint of this Nitrogen cycle but patience is the key. I wouldn't mind doing the water changes even more but putting the water back in sucks. I'm using a 32oz cup to pour the water back from two 5 gallon buckets of treated (removed chlorine) water. I need a pump or something that can help with that or this is going to be annoying. For now until I get my dad's tank stabilized there's no way I'll do anything with my 50 gal tank. It'll stay in the packaging. That and I still need to buy a cabinet to put it on, lol. But my dad's tank takes priority for the moment.

When I used the API master kit the ammonia and Nitrate was in 0. However, the Nitrite shows it was either 1 or 2 ppm. So I did a 30% water change this morning and will need to check the parameters again when I get back home. I did buy some plants to remove the plastic fake plants. Got a couple of Vallisneria gigantea and put them in the back of the tank since those suckers grow pretty big. My dad's 7 tetras and 3 shrimp love the plants which I found funny. I do wish @DShelton that I had another tank to help seed my dad's tank. However, I don't and it's been over 30 years since we had fish in our house (back then were goldfish). So this is a new tank that's slowly reaching the end goal (hopefully) of the nitrigen cycle.

Here's the water parameters:

Thanks for the quick reply. I actually know the Chlorine (ppm) 1.2. So I’ll add the dechlorinator when I get home. Dad bought 3 glow fish and 2 died after 2 days. Could be due to stress since water parents looked good. I’ll post my water parameters later too.

When setting up a tank and tap water was just used. No fish are added for 2 weeks. Would a dechlorinator still be needed? Second part to the question, if the answer is yes, if there's fish already in the tank is it safe to use the dechlorinator? Thanks in advance, just asking since I asked my dad if he put dechlorinator when he set up his tank a month ago and he said no. Some of his fish died when he added them and some survived but my guess is that the tank wasn't cycled enough. But now I'm thinking it might of been due to lack of dechlorinator too to treat the water. Since he told me the first day he added the fish a lot of them was sucking air. My guess to that was the gills were burning. Again I'm totally new and got most of my info from watching YouTube vids and reading sites.

Thanks for the advice and I'll keep that in mind. My PH normally is anywhere from 7.5-8.0 that I've seen in my dad's tank. We do have a water softener system since I live in FL and hate how hard water feels. Sadly my dad started the hobby a month ago and the 90% of his first batch of fish died overnight in his 30 gal tank. My guess was that the tank wasn't fully cycled after a week before getting the fish. Currently right now he has 3 Glo fish , 1 cherry shrimp, 1 orange fish that I have no clue what it is and lastly a catfish that has poke dots like zebra markings. I wasn't there when he got the fish and I apologize for not knowing their names. I included a picture of his orange fish. When the catfish gets out of hiding I'll take a picture of him too. Given I want different fish than my dad since his taste differs compared to mine;)

After seeing my dad's 30gal tank I'm getting that itch to start my own. I'm planning on getting a 50 gal tank and want to add a lot of crypts, moss and other plants to make it look like a cool forest. Not enough that you can't see the fish but gives a cool illusion that they can be lurking in the shadows. Now for the fish I want to add some Amano and cherry shrimp. Either 3 of each or 6 of one type depending on the suggestion from the community here. I want to have 3 Hill Stream Loaches since I love how they look and 3 or 4 Kuhli Loaches since again they look pretty neat. From there on I'm at a loss on what other fish I should get since that's like 12 in 50 gal and most of the ones I picked stay at the bottom. Also, I believe they don't even grow more than a couple of inches. What school of fish will cohabitate with the ones I would like and fill out the tank and how many I should get? Thanks in advance.