My first ever aquarium

HI people how's it going? I'm new to fish keeping. I have a ten gallon rectangle. It has a 20 gallon marineland bio wheel filter and a 40 gallon capacity air pump with 4 inch flat airstone. It's gravel bottom. It started off as a single goldfish tank. My gf bought 7 neon tetras and 4 guppy and 2 panda corydoras. The fish have all lived together about 2 weeks now. I change out a half gallon or just under every day to help keep the water clear. Today I decided to go to the pet store and found marimo moss balls and added 2 2 and 2 1 inch balls to my tank and 5 ghost shrimp. I plan to add 3-4 more moss balls and a new leafy plant or 2 for the tetras and guppies to hide around. I have one cave but I'm adding another in a week or 2.
So my questions are 1) can I afford to have 1-2 more panda corydoras and another 5 ghost shrimp or will it be overcrowded and uncomfortable for all of the life in there now?
2) what leafy plants can I add to help contribute to water cleanliness?
The goldfish is not aggressive. It acts like it's smaller than the smallest tetra but it's 3 inches.
I also have 5-1 test strips. Just bought them never used them. So any help there would be good. I can read and understand the results I don't know how to correct them if need.

 

Littleblueguppy I am trying to find a home for the goldfish. I am getting a 55 gallon in a few weeks that I'm going to do a ww2 ship plane graveyard. Sand bottom. There will be marimo moss balls Amazon sword and I was thinking duckweed or some other floating plant. I planned on cycling it before adding fish. The fish from my ten gallon minus the goldfish are going in there. The fish list of
4 pearl gourami
6 kuhlI loach
6 guppy
8 panda corydoras
12 neon tetra
12 ghost shrimp
8 horned nerite snail
That's for the finished cycled and planted 55 gallon. The 10 gallon I would then like to use as a quarantine/sick/nursery tank. I will be adding fish one species at I time spaced out a month apart or so. Gouramis will be the last. So figured a month apart between species and a month in quarantine would be ok?
I have not figured lighting out. I'm open to all fish, lighting and plant opinions. I want a floating plant. I do a 5% water change daily on my 10 gallon with 3 gallons every Sunday. I like the routine and will probably try that with the 55 gallon.

Sounds like quite the nice stocking solution.
I've got a Finnex Planted 24/7 for my 50 gal. It cost me about $120 but it provides plenty of light and has a day/night cycle option that I really love (keep in mind though the default day/night cycle may be a bit too much light).
I'll second the Red Root Floater suggestion. I've ordered a few of those myself and am waiting on their arrival. Keep in mind you may want to make an airline tubing corral for the floating plants. This'll keep them away from the filter and prevent death due to repeated dunking.
I'd like to point out the option of wild or alien Bettas. I've been told by a few people here that the wild and alien bettas are less territorial than their selectively bred counterparts and a few of their variations look pretty similar to the standard gourami look. I would greatly recommend making a separate thread asking for specific advice on them in the Betta section under Freshwater Fish & Inverts if you consider them though.

 

I like your tubing corral idea! I was wondering if something could be made for that.

 

I like your tubing corral idea! I was wondering if something could be made for that.

Thanks but I can't take credit for it. I got the idea from someone else here.
Great thing about hobby forums: The help with the propagation of good ideas.

 

I've looked at them. My girl and I like the shiny rainbowy pattern of the pearls. If there was a bright colored gourami we would be into that. We wanted more color than the tetras as she wants albino kuhlI loach. I've grown quite fond of the neon tetras red and blue. I wake up and feed them and there colorless but after I feed they are extremely blue and bright red. And I have a fondness for corydoras since I spent a lot of time catfishing. The snails for algae and to sift sand. I like the ghost shrimp. I know there feeder fish but I like them. Any bigger 6 inch or so max centerpiece fish I can substitute for the pearl gourami? It needs to be compatible with the Cory, tetra, kuhlI loach, shrimp(ghost) and horned nerite snails as these are a definite to the tank. I can live without guppies if I need to. I hear they can be fin nippers on some centerpiece fish?

German blue rams maybe? rams are gorgeous.

 

That is pretty. I'll think hard on the Rams. But I'm looking for a bit bigger. Not to much which is why gouramis are my first thought. Can Rams live with gourami? According to aqadvisor with my current fish selection I have only 80% stocked at full size.

 

That is pretty. I'll think hard on the Rams. But I'm looking for a bit bigger. Not to much which is why gouramis are my first thought. Can Rams live with gourami? According to aqadvisor with my current fish selection I have only 80% stocked at full size.

You don't want to exceed 80% unless you have to. 80% is the usual recommended max stock unless you are planning on extra maintenance (water changes multiple times a week to keep nitrates down). I think your stocking level seems pretty good.

 

You don't want to exceed 80% unless you have to. 80% is the usual recommended max stock unless you are planning on extra maintenance (water changes multiple times a week to keep nitrates down). I think your stocking level seems pretty good.

I didn't know this. I'm glad to have learned it, thank you!

 

I was going to do 10% daily water changes and 25% on Sundays as I've been doing with my small tank. Would that not be enough? I'm ok not having the Rams if it's not healthy or way more work or stressful to them or the other species in my tank.

 

I was going to do 10% daily water changes and 25% on Sundays as I've been doing with my small tank. Would that not be enough? I'm ok not having the Rams if it's not healthy or way more work or stressful to them or the other species in my tank.

That’s totally fine for water changes. I usually just change about 35% every week.

 

I got used to feeding them when I wake up and when Thier done eating I'll dip out a gallon and replace it. Can't see 5-6 gallons taking much longer tho.

 

Sounds neat! I like the stocking idea.
Gouramis are nice centerpiece fish. Have you ever looked into honey gouramis? I have never owned any myself, but I’ve hear they are really sweet and have a lot of character. For floating plants, I think red root floaters look really nice. As the title suggests, they have really pretty red roots that hang down in the water.
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Honeys are very sweet. I have three myself