Just a few quick notes on things that had been said and not sure if they had been addressed or not...
1. When you buy and setup a tank...running a tank for two weeks without a source of ammonia (either from fish (aka fishy cycle) or from a pure chemical source (aka fishless cycle) is pointless. No bacteria will form because they have nothing to feed on. You do however want to setup and run the tank for a day or so to make sure everything is working properly (i.e. no leaks, heater works properly, etc) before you start trying to cycle.
2. Fishless cycling is often preffered by enthusiasts because it's less stressful to your fish...there are lots of threads explaining this.
3. There are several reasons not to keep goldfish with tropical fish:
- Goldfish have very high metabolisms and produce a lot more ammonia than other fish
- Goldfish have different nutritional needs...you shouldn't feed a Goldfish tropical flake food or vice versa
- Goldfish actually get much larger than most people realize
- Goldfish can live at tropical temperatures, but it's not necessarily good for them all the time...cooler water holds more oxygen which is what they are used to
4. If doing a fishy cycle: try to keep Ammonia and NitrItes below .25 ppm, and NitrAtes below 40
