Hi everyone but have questions

[caraways5]

Just wanted to start off by introducing myself. I am new to owning a fish tank. I have a 20 gal hexagon with silenstream 20 and 100 w heater with 2 bubbler with a mixture of artificial plants and live plants. The tank was clear and then started to get cloudy which I have discovered through Google search is normal with starting a new tank. Now I have noticed these things in the picture which I have circled and my nitrite level is between a 3.0 and 5.0 on just some test strips I got from Pets Mart. I have 3 dwarf gourami, 3 glofish longfin tetras, 3 Bueno Aries tetras, 1 glofish cosmic blue shark and 1 albino algae eater.

I hope the oucs upload, as all this is new to me. Any help would be greatly appreciated

[Aiken Drum]

I cant really see what the photos are showing. Is it like a growth?

One thing is for sure though, your nitrites are too high. I presume you are doing a fish in cycle? Thats going to be tough with all those fish in there. On a 20 gallon tank you should only be starting a fish in cycle with 2 or 3 small fish.

Do you have your other water parameters? pH, ammonia and nitrates?

Anyway. We are where we are.

You need to do a water change, 50%. Followed up by another 50% water change tomorrow. You should be doing daily water tests and if you have detectable ammonia or nitrite do a 25% water change. Eventually you will see 0ppm ammonia and nitrite and your nitrate will start to rise. That is when your tank is cycled sufficiently for the fish you have in there.

Do you have access to any established filter media? Or failing that some bottled bacteria like Dr Tims one + only or seachem stability? That will help speed up the cycling process.