Have a bible question!!!?

Okay first I would like to know if you have to get baptized in order to be saved. Second, my dad did this when I was younger in our swimming pool. Does that count if at the time I knew why he did it, why i was doing it, and what it stands for. Third I heard about the 23 minutes in hell recently, is that okay to read, or would the ideal of hell explained in the book taint how I look at everything that I know of the bible now?