Help for a newcomer?!

[LuxeEternal]

My boyfriend and I are total newbies with fish and when we got our twenty gallon tank two weeks ago we had never heard of cycling. After finding this site I noticed that it seems like a pretty important step to starting your fishy family. Since starting three fish have died... Is this due to our lack of cycling? Do we need to start over and cycle? Any help would be great!

 

[Galligak]

Welcome to A.A! Yes that is probably why the fish have died, ammonia poisoning. Defiantly restart and cycle the tank. Here is a good link to followhttp://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f15/the-almost-complete-guide-and-faq-to-fishless-cycling-148283.html

 

[librarygirl]

Do you still have any fish left? If so how many and what kind?

There's two links in my signature; one is for fishless cycling (which AquaKai gave you) to follow if you don't have fish; the other is for fish-in cycling if you do have fish. Make sure you get a good quality liquid test kit (like the API Master kit). If you still have fish you'll want to test your water every day and any time ammonia or nitrite are over 0.25 do a pwc to get it down. The guides will help you whichever way you choose to go. Post any questions you have and we'll help. Good luck, and sorry about your fish.

 

[LuxeEternal]

We still do have six fish left; 2 Neon Tetras (the other 3 died), 1 small Plecostomus and 3 of what I think are White Skirt Tetras. All the articles that have been provided have been very helpful and I'm optimistic that we can get our fish family settled in!
We have just been using paper test strips so far but I'll be sure to pick up a liquid test kit asap. Thanks for the help so far!!

 

[librarygirl]

We still do have six fish left; 2 Neon Tetras (the other 3 died), 1 small Plecostomus and 3 of what I think are White Skirt Tetras. All the articles that have been provided have been very helpful and I'm optimistic that we can get our fish family settled in!
We have just been using paper test strips so far but I'll be sure to pick up a liquid test kit asap. Thanks for the help so far!!

A test kit is best, the strips aren't very accurate. Water changes are you friend during a fish-in cycle, so do as many as you need to in order to keep the water safe for the fish. I don't know what dechlorinator you use but Prime is supposedly one of the best and it can help detoxify the water too. Good luck!