new five gallon tank

Question
I was given a new 5 gallon tank with 3 goldfish 2 weeks ago.  As
you may have guessed one goldfish died in 2 days, and another
2 days after that one was covered in ich.  I have since done
extensive research to most of my questions on the internet and
this has helped alot.  My remaining goldfish is a calico fantail
and his ich is gone probably from the aquarium salt that I
added.  I have bought test kits and test everyday, changing from
10-25% of the water every other day vacuuming with a syphon
the gravel.  I put it amquel plus 2 days ago hoping that this
would help with ammonia.  But, I've read since that this throws
off the test reading for ammonia.  What can I do now to get an
accurate ammonia reading?  

I'm also wondering if their are any live plants that I could or
should put in to help with cycling that would fit into a 5 gallon
tank?

By the way, my plan is to set up a 29 gallon or larger tank to put
my fantail and maybe one or 2 others into (cycling this first of
course) and to put a betta in the five gallon in the end.

Answer
Dear Annette,
I'm sorry to hear you've lost almost all of your goldfish. But it's true as you have found out that they just don't belong in such a small aquarium and especially one that hasn't been established or 'cycled' yet. They just produce too much waste for a un-established or small aquarium.

You are doing a very good job at testing your water everyday and making water changes as well. But if there is ammonia in your water (which I might suspect there is) I would increase the volume of the water changes to at least 50% as this size of a water change is far most efficient and effective when ammonia levels are high. You must be sure the replacement water is equal in temperature to that of your aquarium and that it is properly dechlorinated everytime as you probably already know. It is also good to test the ammonia after the water change as well to insure that water change was sufficient to lower the level down to a somewhat safe range. If not then another water change may be in order. Ammonia can make fish very ill or worse. Amquel plus is a excellent water conditioner that will help with your problem especially when doing water changes. And it's true that Amquel does throw off the reading of the ammonia test kit. But the key here is it is NOT compatible with ammonia test kits using "Nessler" reagents. For accurate ammonia tests you can use an test kit that has Salicylate reagents.

Live plants are excellent for any aquarium. They can help with cycling by using some of the ammonia and other pollutants that comes with a cycling aquarium. It is said (but I'm not sure if it's fully true) that a heavily planted aquarium doesn't even need to be cycled and fish can be added with no worry it is the plants that keep ammonia levels down. But this would mean plenty of plants. But remember it would have be heavily planted for something like this to work.
Aquatic plants are beneficial in any number. Some plants you might want to try are Anacharis, Hornwort, Java fern, Java moss, and water sprite. These are just a few of the easy-to-care for plants. Try to get the plant species that are low-light or easy to keep healthy. As some just don't do well if the lighting is not strong enough or special substrates aren't used. The above mentioned plants do well with even your normal florescent bulbs that come with the aquarium. And all those plants will fit well in your 5gal. They really aren't a hassle to maintain. As long as they get enough light and are pruned regularly if any of them grow too bushy and shade the others of light.

A 29 gallon aquarium would be just perfect for your fantail and perhaps 1 or 2 other goldfish. And a 5gallon is absolutely perfect for a betta!

Well, It sounds like you are on your way to a sucessful fishkeeping hobby and sounds like you already got the basics down of good fish care. I wish you only the very best and I hope this helps!!

Karen~