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New tank set up for beginners

23 16:48:53

Question
QUESTION: Hi, I just purchased a 29 gallon tank as a gift for my husband. Neither one of us knows ANYTHING about fish tanks! I have been reading everything I could find on line and am starting to become familiar with certain things. My question is this, I just started my tank Monday, it is now wednesday, I started it with 7 goldfish (even though I know i was not supposed to add fish for two days) I set everything up by the book added all the conditioners, the bacteria, everything I was supposed to. I started doing water readings and everything is perfect! no nitrate or nitrite reading, ph is good, ammonia, everything is at a perfect reading...now, its' only been two days...should my readings be that good? Am I doing something wrong? I had one goldfish die (which I was expecting) but the rest are perfectly fine (now), but my water is cloudy?? why is that? also, since my water is good (if I'm not doing something wrong to have good water so soon) can I start adding fish? I really want a sucker fish :-) Thank you very much for any advice you can give.
ANSWER: Hi Brandi,
The cloudy water is a good sign that the tank is getting ready for adding fish. It is normal. Don't add any water clarifiers.
Since the readings are good, a sucker fish would be an excellent choice at this time.
Things look great!

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi again! I'm a little concerned because I wrote in to another expert (I didn't want to keep bothering you) and  asked this "Hi there, I am new to taking care of a fish tank, I have a 29 gallon tank with 6 goldfish, 2 molly fish and a pleco. (My tank is only 4 days old) I was wondering if you could give me a breakdown of how my tests should read...Ex: ammonia Okay from x -x, danger from X - X, Toxic from X - X, Nitrate, okay from X-X, danger from X- X Toxic from X-X, etc. etc...."
you said my tank was good and the pleco was a good choice...she said my tank is over populated and I shouldn't have gotten the pleco because my tank is too small ?? Now I don't know what to do? Can you help me...again? Thanks!! PS - my water is clear now and my readings are still good.  

Answer
You are never a bother to me :-)
Everybody has their own opinion on what over populated means.
The Golden rule is one inch of fish per gallon of water.
But that is not always true. You wouldn't put a 29 inch fish in your tank, but the fish you have, even though they may add up to 29 inches, are fine. Just test your water weekly and do weekly water changes.
Trust me, I have been doing this all my life :-)