new and afraid I screwed up

[wildroseofky]

I was given a 10 gallon tank a few months ago and decided I would set it up. I set it up. Put in fake plants, heater, whisper filter, and gravel. I let it sit for 6 weeks while I decided what fish I wanted and to give the tank time to cycle. Decided to move the tank to a new location and emptied out half the water. Moved tank, refilled with water treated with tetra start, changed filter, even though I never had fish in it yet. Waited 4 days and then bought some ghost shrimp because they caught my eye. Bought 4 shrimp. Added a plant light over tank. Three days later the water started to look cloudy. Waited a week to see what happened and water started to clear. I then bought two mollies at the spur of the moment and added them to the tank. Well after two days the tank was looking more cloudy. I changed out a third of the water. Tank was looking better and the fish are doing fine. Waited 3 days and just changed out a third of the water but I am wondering if I should keep doing that. So far three of the shrimp are alive, eating, and have staked out separate areas of the tank. The fish seem to be doing well. They are eating, moving around, sometimes chase each other, and seem to be just exploring the tank. They also seem to like surfing in the water fall coming from the filter. The pet store said they were mid level fish and tended to stay about mid way in the tank and I should get some bottom feeders. However, these mollies move around quite a lot. Sometimes they skim the surface, sometimes they feed off the gravel, sometimes they hide in the plants. At night they tend to hang near the heater. Is this normal?

I didn't even think about getting a water test kit. Now it will be another week before I can get one. have to wait until payday. Should I just keep changing out some of the water or leave it alone and hope it is okay until I can get a test kit? Anything else I should be doing? I plan on reading through all the forums and educating myself better about aquariums. Hopefully I haven't doomed my two fish with my impulsiveness.

 

[Mumma.of.two]

Welcome to AA!
When you added the shrimp and fish the cycle started. Without an ammonia source the tank was just sitting and doing nothing. The very best thing you can be doing right now is daily water changes until you get your test kit to properly address the situation.
Here is the beginner's guide. It explains all about the nitrogen cycle and what steps you need to take to keep your fish healthy.
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/artic...-to-Starting-a-Freshwater-Aquarium/Page1.html

 

[librarygirl]

+1 to Mumma.of.Two. Two mollys in a 10 gal is pushing its limits as they are messy fish and can get to a good size. The ammonia levels in the tank are going to rise very quickly. I'd do a 50% water change daily until you can get a test kit. Read the link above that Mumma.of.two gave you, it'll explain fish-in cycling.

 

[wildroseofky]

I bought to very small mollies, about an inch long. In the pet stores they have huge numbers in 5 gallon tanks so I thought two in a 10 would be okay. I was planning on adding about 6 glofish or danos but I guess I will need to rethink that. I read through the forums on posts with mollies and it seems that a lot of people have more than one in 10 gallon tanks. I was planning on upgrading to a larger tank this summer. At least a 20 gallon, live planted. I saw a spotted puffer fish at walmart and thought I might get one later on for a brackish tank and move the other fish to a larger one. I am building a house and thought about adding a wall tank to the design. So glad I found this site.

 

[Oceangirl]

What the pet store won't tell you is that little molly, will grow to be around 3 inches or more. Some types of mollies grow to be 5 inches. I just traded that one it because it was eating my live plants. They are poop machines! I had 5 platys in a 29 gallon and the aquaclear sponge was BLACk/green every week! I went down to 2 and a lots of little tetras, night and day the amount of debris/poop I clean each week. I still do my 50% though.