Aquarium Set Up

Step by Step Basic Setup Guide

1. Research! You dont want to end up making lots of beginner mistakes and wasting a lot of money and the lives of your fish. Before you begin you should plan what kind of fish you will be keeping and the equipment they will require.

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2. Find a stand and good spot for your tank, make sure the tank is level and not where it will get direct sunlight.
3. Clean the inside of the tank, dont use any soap, it's best to just use a cloth thats never been used and water.
4. Fill the tank with water and test out your equipment to make sure everything is working. this would be a good time to get your salinity (for saltwater tanks only), and the temperature right.
5. Add your substrate/gravel, if you are using live rock now would be a good time to "aquascape" your tank, try to set up your rocks so you create lots of caves for your fish.
6. Cycle your tank.
When your tank is first set up it will go through the nitrogen cycle. Basicly, it starts like this: when your tanks been introduced to fish waste or decay ammonia will rise and the water will get toxic. When an aquarium is first starting there arent enough nitrifying bacteria to get rid of the ammonia. So, because of this we have to wait for nitrite levels to grow so it can eliminate the ammonia. Then, nitrate will grow and eliminate the nitrite, nitrate is harmless at low levels and can be removed through water changes. You should test the water to see where it's at every few days.

When ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate have reached 0 (nitrate doesnt have to be 0, anything under 20ppm is acceptable, though the lower the better), it's safe to start adding livestock.

You can start the process by adding very hardy fish. For saltwater tanks you can also cycle the tank with live rock. If you are making a reef tank then you should use live rock. For freshwater you can add fish, food, and plants to start the cycle. To speed up the nitrogen cycle you can try a nitrifying bacteria product, they will add nitrifying bacteria to your tank in large numbers to quickly reduce ammonia and finish the cycle.

You should only do water changes during the cycle if you are cycling it with fish, otherwise just let it sit until ammonia and nitrites are gone and nitrates are low. This will slow down the cycle but hopefully keep your fish alive. Keep your aquarium lights off until the cycle is over to prevent algae blooms.
7. As soon as ammonia and nitrite reach 0 its time to start doing water changes (assuming you werent cycling with fish). You should change about 20% of the water twice a week, this helps keep nitrate levels down.
8. When nitrates are below 20ppm you can start adding livestock. Start with your clean-up crew. For marine tanks this is hermit crabs, snails, shrimp, starfish, sea cucumbers, worms and sea slugs. You dont need all of them, only two or three, and dont add too many at the beginning. For freshwater this is plecostomus' and snails.
9. Wait a couple weeks inbetween adding fish just to make sure your tank is stable. Don't add too many fish at the same time because this will increase the bioload of your tank and can set off a nitrate spike. I suggest never adding more than two fish at a time. If you are making a reef tank you can start adding corals after about two months. The tank has to have good quality water for them because they can be quite fragile.
10. Keep frequently doing water changes twice a week and monitor your nitrate, temperature and ph levels.