Rebuilding my 10 gallon

[markj]

*I know I posted this originally in getting started but with a suggestion I moved it here, thanks!
Although I am mainly a dart frogger I have had a 10 gallon plexi glass hex tank for a long time. I have had it running with fish for about 2.5-3 years. Right now I have a couple live plants floating around after being used with tadpoles and fake plants. I want to redo it with full live plants and new wood and such. I have a aquaclear mini pump and heater temp is 76-77 during the day and 74 at night. Just bought a new lamp for it, 2 9 inch 18 watt compact fluorescent and they are 10,000K daylight and a True Actinic 03 blue bulbs. Just wondering what some good plant suggestions would be. I am going to my lfs to get water rechecked because when I added 6 ghost shrimp 3 weeks ago I lost all but 1. And current fish population is 2 zebra danios and 1 leopard danio. I would like to add hatchet fish and am looking for suggestions. Thanks everyone!

 

[Mr Burns]

my first plant suggestion:

get rid of the actinic bulbs. they do nothing for plants. anything from the 3200K range up to 10000K is preferred, with 5500K and 6700K being optimal.

 

[markj]

After getting my water checked today they say it is probably recycling or something wierd is going on
pH 7.3
Ammonia .8mg/l
Nitrite .2 mg/l
Nitrages I think it says 50 mg/l but yeah
So the guys I talked to recommended some Amquel so I am doing a partial water change today with the amquel and checking water again in 2 weeks. About the bulbs, those are what came with it, I will look for a different bulb online because the store didn't have any the right size. Thanks!

 

[Endgame319]

Amquel??? Isn't that a dechlorinator? Who were you talking to?

What you do need is some major water changes, try 15-20% every day or so for a week or two. And you shouldn't have a heat difference during night and day if you're keeping fish in there.

 

[markj]

AmQuel
Removes Ammonia, Chloramines and Chlorine, thats what it says on the bottle. And the guy said it would reduce my ammonia level so we'll see