For a few weeks at least I would put the white ammo chips in your filter. Nitra-Zorb is another brand. Recharge it every 4-5 days. Use as much as you can fit in your filter. It removes the amonia,nitrate & nitrite from your water. You soak it in salt water to recharge it, as per the directions on the pkg. Use carbon . You didn't say what kind of filter you have, but if you can fit it in put a sponge there as well. I run 2 filters on all my tanks < if you can do this, great. Get a 300 aquaclear, and never clean both filters at the same time. If you can't, then just make sure you don't change all the media in the filter at one time.
I firmly believe that a tank with live plants is more stable than without. Both anubias and java fern are easy to grow and neither have to be planted. Just attach them to a peice of driftwood or ornament. Remove any leaves that die.
Change 40-50% of your water every other day for the first month or more, and after that check your water at 4 days & if its still good change 40-50% of your water every week,forever. I'm not a believer in using the test to determine how often to change your water, because that implies that the water doesn't need to be changed until it goes "bad", and my goal is to keep the water as perfect as possible. I would set some of your tap water aside for 24 hours and then test it for everything. It needs to sit to get an accurate reading, and this will tell you what you are starting out with. Treat with a dechlorinator/conditioner if you have any doubts at all about your tap water.
Buying healthy fish is a whole page in itself, so i'll skip it. I'm also going to assume you have no place to quarentine your fish. When you buy fish,float their bag until you are certain that the temperature in the bag is the same as your tank. Then very slowly add small amounts of tank water to the bag until you have at least 2-3 times the water you started out with. This should take over an hour. Then put a large bowl in your sink, put your net across the bowl and pour the water from the fish bag through the net into the bowl until the bottom of the net is under water, then empty the remaining water and fish into the net/bowl. I then take bowl and net to the tank and transfer the fish from the bowl to the tank as quickly as possible. The whole point of this is to avoid stressing the fish any more than you have to. When putting new fish in your tank, keep the light out at least for a few hours. The less stressed the fish are the less likely they are to die on you.
I firmly believe that a tank with live plants is more stable than without. Both anubias and java fern are easy to grow and neither have to be planted. Just attach them to a peice of driftwood or ornament. Remove any leaves that die.
Change 40-50% of your water every other day for the first month or more, and after that check your water at 4 days & if its still good change 40-50% of your water every week,forever. I'm not a believer in using the test to determine how often to change your water, because that implies that the water doesn't need to be changed until it goes "bad", and my goal is to keep the water as perfect as possible. I would set some of your tap water aside for 24 hours and then test it for everything. It needs to sit to get an accurate reading, and this will tell you what you are starting out with. Treat with a dechlorinator/conditioner if you have any doubts at all about your tap water.
Buying healthy fish is a whole page in itself, so i'll skip it. I'm also going to assume you have no place to quarentine your fish. When you buy fish,float their bag until you are certain that the temperature in the bag is the same as your tank. Then very slowly add small amounts of tank water to the bag until you have at least 2-3 times the water you started out with. This should take over an hour. Then put a large bowl in your sink, put your net across the bowl and pour the water from the fish bag through the net into the bowl until the bottom of the net is under water, then empty the remaining water and fish into the net/bowl. I then take bowl and net to the tank and transfer the fish from the bowl to the tank as quickly as possible. The whole point of this is to avoid stressing the fish any more than you have to. When putting new fish in your tank, keep the light out at least for a few hours. The less stressed the fish are the less likely they are to die on you.
The fish (6 black phantom tetras) seem so much happier :dance and the water is crystal clear. I also added 2 - 6" air stones. Does anyone know if this is of any real benifit or is it more just for look 
?