How to Set Up a Freshwater Tropical Fish Tank

Video Transcript

"Hi my name is Micheal. Today we're going to talk about how to setup a freshwater tropical fish tank. First thing you want to take into consideration is where you're going to place that tank. When you look in your home, you don't want to place it in direct sunlight. Direct sunlight is going to cause too much algae to grow in your tank. The other thing that we want to look at is what size our tank is. This here is a 16 gallon fish tank so the first thing I'm going to look at is my gravel. And general rule of thumb is you want to have one pound of gravel per gallon. And that's important that you make sure that you've got one pound per gallon because that way you'll setup a correct bacterial level in your tank. And so I'll buy 16 pounds of gravel for this particular tank. Another thing that we want to look at is filtration. I like to buy a little bit larger filter for my tank. Like I said, this is 16, I'm choosing a filter that's for a 30 gallon tank. That way I'm going to have a little bit more filtration, more flow rate per hour and I can put a little bit more fish into my tank. The other thing that you need to make sure that you make sure you have enough of are the proper chemicals. Here we use ammonia detox. This gets rid of the chlorine, chloramines and ammonias that are in a tank. I recommend that you check with your local shop to find out what is the best use in your particular area. Another thing that's really important to do is to put in some fresh bacteria. We have a brand new setup here, it doesn't have any beneficial bacteria. A product like Eco Start has that beneficial bacteria and you can put it in your tank. Any of these products that you're using, make sure that you follow the directions for the size of aquarium that you have. Another thing that's really important to put into a tank is aquarium salt. Aquarium salt helps reduce stress in your fish and it raises the electrolytes in the tank which can help cut down on disease as well. When you get ready to set that tank up, you're going to take your gravel, you're going to rinse it really well. I use a kitchen colander. Place your gravel into your tank, set your ornaments up however you'd like to have them setup and then start putting your water in. Add your chemicals according to directions. Get your filter running and then you can look at adding fish at that point. Again, check with your local pet shop to find out what chemicals are best in your area and enjoy your tank. My name is Micheal and talked about how to setup a tropical fish tank."