I knew NOTHING about fish tanks and whatnot and I bought my boyfriend a five and a half gallon tank and got him two tetra neons (I know five gallons isn't enough for them, I just found that out. I also know I should have more than 2.) and a two white fish that I don't know what their name is. Now, after I got him the fish, he noticed that the white ones were only staying near the top and that they were breathing hard. After some research, I found out that I should get a filter (I got one that has a little water fall effect) and that it would spread the oxygen around. Then he noticed the tank was cloudy, and I looked up that it was an ammonia issue because of cycling. SO, I bought ammonia test strips (though I know liquid is better, they don't have any in the store I'm at) and ammonia treatment, as well as water conditioner. The ammonia strips were really bad, and so I added two doses of AmmoniaSafe and they got better, and the water cleared, but it's still between stress and safe. But, the strips are so hard to read, I'm not even sure if that's right. So now I'm lost. I don't want his fish to die because they weren't meant to be 'cycling fish', they were meant to be his pets. I need some clearer advice, and more realistic ones. I'm not getting him a bigger tank, we don't have the money. And we have no where to get real plants, either. The neon tetras seem perfectly fine, the white ones are doing bad though. One is already dead, but once I came home and treated the water with both AmmoniaSafe and some Water Conditioner, as well as installing the filter, the remaining fish is swimming around a lot more actively. It's still breathing hard, though. Is there anything I can do to keep the fish from dying? Also, I used spring water, but it's now conditioned, so what water should I use? Is distilled good? His tap water is full of all kinds of nasty floaty stuff, so I don't think I should use that.