hello its all new to me

Okay so I might not be able to tell you how many gallons your tank is..or explain cycling very clearly.. but I CAN give you some helpful hints.
1. The water won't adjust on its own. I reccomend a fishless cycle. I'm sure someone else can explain it... forgive me but I can't explain it too clearly(even if I could, I'd be sitting here typing all day).
2. Can you list all the 'bits' you have? Becuase there might be a few nifty little trinkets that you still need.
3. 6 at a time? That could be a little much. I've always been told 3 at a time was best, but it depends on how big your tank is. I really wish I could tell you the size, but I'm not THAT smart! I've only been around a decade or so.

GL!

~hc

This site has some great info that could help you in getting started in terms of cycling and such!

Welcome to AC!

This site have many wonderful information, for additon info,
the following link has convertor
http://www.fishpondinfo.com/convert.htm
where you can convert any unit to another unit :-D
And also http://www.fishpondinfo.com/fish.htm have useful info that you might like to read about setting up fish tank.

Welcome to AC!

Converting mm to inch, then dimensions to gallons, sounds like you have about an 18 gallon aquarium....

In terms of fish, a good place to start is the store where you will buy them from. Write down the names of some of the ones you like, then come home and do your own research on them and make sure they would be compatible and don't get too large for your tank. Employees can be well meaning, but they might not know any more about a particular fish than you do

Adding fish 6 at a time sounds arbitrary to me. Letting water sit for seven days sounds arbitrary to me. I wouldn't take any advice from the person who told you these things if I were you.
This site has some "fish profiles " to peruse, pay attention to temperment, tank size requirement and ease/difficulty of keeping because you are looking for relaxing tank.
Fishprofiles.com
has great profiles of fish too. with pictures .
In addition to selecting fish, of course, there is a bit more to know to set up a successful new tank.
ask as many questions as you can think of!
Can't wait to find out how its going.

Phil,

Given your tank size and your desire for a peaceful and colorful aquarium, I'd suggest looking into the various color morphs of the platy. They're quite peaceful, do well in groups, come in a variety of colors, and don't tend to be as "darty" or hyperactive as danios but are still quite active fish during the day. They're also relatively small and very easy to find.

A quick image search on google turned up quite a few photos of platies:
http://images.google.com/images?q=platy&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&sa=N&tab=wi

As far as getting the tank up and running, the sticky posts in the Freshwater Newbie Forum are quite invaluable, particularly information pertaining to cycling. I'm a fan of fishless cycling (basically you establish the beneficial bacteria without subjecting fish to the process). It's far less work and far less stressful on your charges.

Good luck and feel free to ask many questions.