Noob Questions

Hello. My son and I just set up our first 30 gallon tank about a month ago. We've got live plants including 2 amazon swords, some dwarf grass, 2 anubius, spider driftwood, two hiding nooks, etc. We cycled the tank, testing with API test kit. Once the tank ran through the cycle, we jumped on getting our fish. Probably every newbie's mistake, lack of patience! Anyways, we've got 2 dwarf gouramis, 4 balloon mollies, 4 corycats, 3 loaches, and a bumblebee cat. We put those guys in there about 4 days ago.
My issue is, yesterday my ammonia increased a bit to .25ppm, my nitrites were about .25ppm-.50ppm (difficult to tell the colors were very close) and nitrates are 40ppm, Ph 7.4. I did a partial water change last night, treating for chlorine obviously, and re-tested water today. Ammonia 0, Nitrites .25-.50, Nitrates 40ppm, Ph 7.4. Should I just keep doing partial water changes until I can get these levels to go down to 0?
I vacuumed the substrate a bit during water change yesterday and clipped a few of the leaves that looked like they weren't doing well. Now that I've begun reading about aquarium keeping a bit more in depth, I'm thinking I really have no idea what the heck I'm doing.
Oh yeah, all of the fish look pretty good except two of the mollies' fins are tucked. One was actually sort of stuck on the filter this afternoon, as if the suction had trapped her. I thought that was weird. I didn't really notice that they were acting differently from the other fish until I started reading more. We do not have a second tank set up as a hospital yet. I didn't even know there should be such a place! Anyways, needing advice on getting these water levels to go down!

 

(This is a photo of our tank)

 

It looks like you have introduced a bunch of fish all at once and the tank is struggling a bit to keep up. Just stay on top of the ammonia readings and hope the BB catches up. Nitrites should get close to 0 or 0, but you should always want some numbers for nitrate. In your case, nitrate could still go down a bit more. Later your plants will help with that when they are more established, but for now, your main recourse is the water changes.

 

It looks like you have introduced a bunch of fish all at once and the tank is struggling a bit to keep up. Just stay on top of the ammonia readings and hope the BB catches up. Nitrites should get close to 0 or 0, but you should always want some numbers for nitrate. In your case, nitrate could still go down a bit more. Later your plants will help with that when they are more established, but for now, your main recourse is the water changes.

Thanks for the info. It has put my mind at ease. So daily partial water changes are the best bet until the nitrites go down? I knew nitrates were supposed to be there in small quantities , just not looking so angry red!
I guess now I just really want my fishies to be content and unstressed.

 

diffinetly to many fish at one time , I would suggest doing some large daily water change , I would 50% water daily in tell ammonia and nitrite get back down to 0 and nitrates under 20ppm. Do you have PRIME as de-clhorinator?

Their is some stocking issues tho , if both dwarf gouramis are male they will fight eachother in tell one is stressed to death. I would up the number of corydoras to atleast 6. Bumblebee catfish need a 55 gallon at the bare minimum they can get 6-7" and are territorial towards other bottom dwellers. What kind of loaches do you have?

 

diffinetly to many fish at one time , I would suggest doing some large daily water change , I would 50% water daily in tell ammonia and nitrite get back down to 0 and nitrates under 20ppm. Do you have PRIME as de-clhorinator?

Their is some stocking issues tho , if both dwarf gouramis are male they will fight eachother in tell one is stressed to death. I would up the number of corydoras to atleast 6. Bumblebee catfish need a 55 gallon at the bare minimum they can get 6-7" and are territorial towards other bottom dwellers. What kind of loaches do you have?

One gourami is female and one is male, it looks like based on research I've done, so hopefully that isn't an issue. They actually hang out together quite a lot and so far they don't seem aggressive towards each other or territorial with each other at all. One is a an orange and the other is a three spot blue (which may get larger than I expected.)
We have kuhlI loaches.
The bumblebee catfish is a South American and from my understanding should only grow to 3 or 4 inches. It is the smallest fish in the tank.
I guess we'll get two more cories if I lose these two mollies that are acting weird.

 

yes a three spot gourami will get to 6" in size while a dwarf get roughly 3".

KuhlI Loaches also need to be in groups of 6+ , the more the better they are very shy loaches.

is the bumbblevee catfish a Pseudomystus siamensis?

 

They are shy for sure. They only come out once I turn off the lights. But at that point they are all over the place!

The bumblebee was sold in store as a Microglanis iheringi.

 

They are shy for sure. They only come out once I turn off the lights. But at that point they are all over the place!

The bumblebee was sold in store as a Microglanis iheringi.

ohh okay I was confusing them with the Asian ones , yes those ones will only get roughly 3" and arnt territorial actually very peaceful.

What kinda of Corys do you currently have?

 

Albino cory catfish: They aren't shy at all!

The bumblebee has found his spot under a rock cave. There is a small hole leading into the cave. He spends a of his time there but I've been lucky enough to see him twice already during feedings.
I suppose within the next few months, we'll upgrade to a larger tank and keep this 30 gal as a second cycled tank for fish emergencies.

(I've decided to name the loaches Kool and the Gang since I can never see them individually. And the two gouramis are Fire and Ice (GOT reference). My son thinks those names are "lame" but I'll let him name the rest. Lol.