Research Stage

Will you be shopping online or local? your LFS usually will not do anything special to the water chemistry unless the fish are brackish or really sensitive to water conditions. Depending on what part of the state you are in I can make a few suggestions for places to buy from that I have been using for years.

 

Ok so you are roughly from my area cool(I'm a few miles from Detroit). The stores that have been very friendly and knowledgeable are Fantastic Fins in Livonia(great place for the hard to find stuff and my favorite), Anchorbay Aquarium in New Baltimore and Preuss Pets in Lansing( kind of a hike but its the biggest mom and pop place you'll ever see), online I typically use aquabid and trade sections of various other forums. Another great experience is visiting the various auctions our local aquarium clubs hold several times a year. If I think of any other stores I'll let you know.

 

Not really I checked them out once but the prices were way higher than anyone else and their info is commonly contradictory or false.

 

I usually do a Google search for fish that I'm interested in, read though a bunch of pages and go with the info that is the same on multiple sights. Asking around the forums is another great way to research also.
I was just going to suggest checking out fish doctors in Ypsi, I've never been there personally but I've heard it is a pretty nice place.

 

Welcome to the community. There really isn't any one comprehensive site that tells all you are wanting to know about fish. I would suggest coming up with a list of fish that you are interested in and posting it here, we can help you I am sure

 

Ghost Glass Cat (Kryptopterus bicirrhis)- Lower third
Ghost Shrimp (Palaeomenetes sp.)-Bottom dwelling
Clown Plecostomus (Panaque maccus)-Any plec will utilize the entire tank in my opinion
Gold Dojo Loach (Misgurnus anguillicaudatus)-Lower third
Algae Eater-Not for sure what you are specifically referring to here.

 

You will need driftwood in the tank for the clown pleco to chew on though.

 

I've always rinsed the gravel with tap water and after I put it in the tank then I would put enough dechlorinator (I use amquel plus) for the tank capacity.

 

Rinse thoroughly with tap and then treat the tank again after adding no sense wasting chems, but ideally you add water after substrate and scape to avoid having to remove the water that will get displaced.

 

You're going to have a hard time with 2 sets of cichlids in a 37 gallon. I would go with only one angel and one ram...if you have your heart set on a pair then pick a pair of one of the two because you will have nothing but a bunch of dead fish when they start to breed. If you want a male and female angel pair then go with those remove the danios they will surely parish if the angels start to lay eggs. You could add 10 cories or so with the angels but nothing else. Try Corydorus Aenus to begin with they are relatively cheap, hardy and are pretty much available anywhere. If you want a male/female ram then you can go with 6 Cherry Barbs and about the same amount of Rasboras..DO NOT add cories since they will occupy the lower quadrant of the tank with the rams and will be killed if/when the rams start to breed.

 

Do not put gouramis in with the Angel it will end badly, larger tetras I happen to like colombian will work but anything smaller is going to be angel food. If you end up with two male GBR's there may be some issues two females should be fine. They really don't need any specific conditions to breed if they are happy they should breed.