Guides

These are some good beginners tips for both fresh and saltwater aquariums that you must follow in order to have a successful aquarium.

First off, don't start a tank if you dont have time to take care of it (water changes,filter cleaning, feeding...) it also requires a lot of patience, it's a long process to start an aquarium and if you go too fast you will have problems later on.

Decide your tank size based on which fish you want to keep, bigger fish need bigger tanks. before you set up the aquarium know what kind of fish you want (community fish or more aggressive, aggressive=bigger tank.) Keep in mind that the bigger the aquarium the more stable it will be.

When setting up the aquarium make sure the stand is strong enough to hold the tanks weight when its filled with water because they can be very heavy (about 8.3lbs per gallon), and try to place somewhere it won't get direct sunlight.

Buy the right equipment the first time. So you dont waste money, do the research and see exactly what kind of supplies you need for the size of your tank and the fish and other creatures you plan to add in. Don't go for the cheapest equipment, quality is important.

If you're going to use tap water to fill your aquarium, make sure it doesnt contain chlorine, you can treat the water with this. If you leave chlorine in it will kill the bacteria your tank needs.

Don't add too many fish at one time, no more than two at a time at first and about 1" of fish per two gallons, so if you have a 20 gallon tank you can have 10 inches of fish but be careful not to get too many, the less fish you have, the easier it will be to take care of your tank. Choose hardy fish when you first start the tank. For freshwater this could be goldfish, platys, tetras and guppies. For saltwater this is damsels, clownfish, and pseudochromis.

When your tank is first put together and you added fish it will go through a nitrogen cycle, this is bacteria starting to grow in your tank, it starts out with ammonia rising, then ammonia will fall and nitrites will rise, and finally nitrites will fall and nitrates will rise. After the nitrates rise is when you should start doing water changes. don't do any water changes for the first month, it will slow down the nitrogen cycle, after that you should do them about 1-2 times per week. You can monitor the levels of ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates with testing kits. If you are starting a saltwater tank you can also start the process using live rock, so you dont harm any fish.

When you buy your fish make sure you acclimate them carefully before you put them into the tank, at least two hours, three is safest.

When adding plants consider the type of fish you have, if you have livebearers find something the fry can hide in. Make sure you wash them to make sure there are no parasites before adding them to your tank. Here you can find a great selection of plants and their descriptions.

Here is the equipment youll need: (This list is for freshwater, if you are making a saltwater tank you will need more supplies as well as these.)

  • aquarium
  • filter and replacements
  • heater
  • plants (fake or real)
  • food
  • test kits
  • fish net
  • lights
  • gravel
  • thermometer
  • ph and nitrate testing kits

For a saltwater tank you will also need these:

  • protein skimmer
  • live rock (unless you are making a fish only tank), get about 1.5 lbs of rock per gallon
  • live sand 1-1.5 lbs per gallon (should be about 2 inches of sand at the bottom of your tank)
  • powerhead
  • lights (about 5 watts per gallon)
  • sea salt mix
  • ammonia, salinity, nitrite, nitrate, phosphate, and ph testing kits

This is a simple step by step setup guide to help you find out the order to put together your tank.

There is a lot more to know about starting aquariums, there are a lot of books to read about aquarium care and maintenance, reefkeeping, and set up. I recommend these guide books, they cover every detail you'll need to know to get and keep your aquarium running successfully.