How to Set Up a Freshwater Aquarium

The first step in creating an underwater zoo is to set up your tank. Then the fun begins as you choose a variety of colorful underwater decorations and inhabitants.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Gravel
• Gravel
• Distilled Water
• Thermometers
• Thermometers
• More Fish

1. Clean the tank, gravel and decorations with an non-soap-based product.

2. Set up your tank stand in an appropriate location.

3. Install the filtration system. Follow the manufacturer's instructions carefully, since models vary in their installation.

4. Add clean gravel. Figure on 1 pound of gravel per gallon the tank holds.

5. Put the plants in, anchoring the bottoms in the gravel.

6. Fill your tank with water, leaving about an inch at the top. Tap water generally has chemicals in it that aren't good for tropical fish. Ask at the fish store if you'll need special conditioners, since they will be familiar with the composition of the local water.

7. Start the filter system.

8. Add the heater and thermometer. Most tropical fish do best at 76 to 79 degrees. Cold-water fish prefer a range between 50 and 70 degrees.

9. Let everything run for at least 24 hours and get the temperature settings right and the water moving.

10. Put the new fish in when the chemical levels are all OK and the tank temperature is within tolerances.

Tips & Warnings

• If a tank isn't level, put a 1/4-inch sheet of Styrofoam under the tank to help distribute the weight more evenly. Stress will be put on the seams and could cause an eventual leak.
• Gravel can be boiled as long as it isn't plastic.
• Remember that it will need to be positioned near an electrical outlet and away from direct sunlight or drafts.
• Ask an expert about cycling your the tank. A just-set-up fish tank lacks the bacteria that it need to form a steady biological cycle.
• Never use soap or detergent to clean your tank or gravel - if you don't get rid of all traces of soap, you will have to buy new fish.

[Raptos]

on 12/31/2008 The cycling process should be elaborated on much more in the step by step section. Failure to properly cycle a tank has resulted in the untimely and cruel demise to many a fish. I advise to search for "cycling a new aquarium". Follow the steps closely. I know the process takes longer (4-8 weeks) than many would like...but you will spend much more time trying to figure out what happened should you be hasty through this process. Even if you don't kill your fish, you will have a grossly out of balance tank. Remember, you should only need to treat a tank with chemicals for a few specific reasons. Fish disease, tap water conditioner, and to adjust water chemistry such as pH (rarely) and hardness/buffering ability. If you need to reduce ammonia, eliminate algae, etc., something is creating that situation. Ammonia is the symptom...not the cause.

on 8/8/2006 If you completely replace filter media, you will have problems with ammonia and nitrites; very bad news for your tank inhabitants. The filter pads in your filter have beneficial bacteria living in them.

When they become very dirty, just give them a rinse in a bucket using the tank water from your water change, or clean dechlorinated water roughly the same temperature as the tank. This keeps your tank healthy, and also saves money.

You can also use filter squeezings to seed the filter of a new tank. Just squeeze filter media from a cycled tank over the new filter pads.

Also, skip the carbon unless removing meds. A healthy tank has no need for carbon and over time carbon can leach harmful things out into your tank.

on 8/8/2006 1. Use dark gravel/sand, which does not deduct from the rest of the aquarium.

2. Plant heavily on one side of the tank. I would recommend using plastic plants.

3. On the other side of the tank, construct a tree stump, using either a hollowed out half-side of a tree or several of those reptile caves stacked on top of one another. Plant lightly around the stump.

4. Any where in the tank, but preferably close to the center, construct a cave using a piece of flat slate with a oblong rock underneath it on one side.

5. If the aquarium now appears to dark, provide either an extra strip light, or lean the stump backward so it reflects more light.

6. Lastly, add your fish. I would not recommend adding many different species, but a large school of fish. Such fish include cardinal and neon tetra's, and non-amazonian fish include white cloud mountain minnows or rasboras.

on 11/22/2005 Be sure to pick up a good water testing kit. The strip tests work OK, but the drop tests are more accurate and more cost effective (in the long run). You want to be able to test for ph balance, ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite (bare minimum). Eventually, you will want to test for other chemicals, but these are the essentials.

on 11/22/2005 Hot water and natural salt (not iodized salt) is just fine for cleaning tanks and bowls.