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Back to Fish/Aquarium Articles Aquarium Setup - Steps To A Successful Hobby Author: Fish Hobbyist Successful Aquarium Setup.Everything you need to know about Aquarium Setup. One may have had a tough time to Setup an Aquarium Purchasing Aquarium For Aquarium Setup, first step is to purchase an aquarium. There are various shapes and sizes available. A beginner may get confused on entering the local pet store and wonder which one to buy. There may be robot shaped aquariums, fish bowls, Hexagonal etc. There are 2 major types of aquariums to consider based on material: a. Acrylic Aquarium. b. Glass Aquarium. Acrylic Aquarium may be unbreakable or less likely to break with little kids around. But these are very scratch prone. Avoid these if possible. Glass Aquariums are breakable. But these are virtually scratch proof. These need to be handled with care. Visibility in these aquariums is better. Aquarium capacity selection. One may be tempted to go for a smaller 10 gallon aquarium. Please avoid this. The cost difference between a 10 gallon and 20 gallon is not much. Go for the largest size your budget allows for. I have a 20 gallon aquarium and am pleased with this. Aquarium dimensions: An aquarium may come in various configurations for the same capacity. Some aquariums are longer versus the taller ones. Most fish enthusiasts prefer the longer aquarium. The reason being that fish have more room to swim (length wise). But one would choose a taller aquarium, if one is choosing an angel fish as a pet. These grow taller compared to other fish. One can get a used aquarium (from craigslist/ garage sales or buy a new one. If purchasing an aquarium as a kit, these normally come with hood lighting, heater (for tropical fish), thermometer and filter. Aquarium Setup list of items to buy: 1. Gravel: One would need to buy at least one pound per gallon of aquarium water. This is required for the biological filter to establish in the tank. Type: Select rounded smooth gravel or sand if considering to keep catfish (algae eaters). The sharp gravel can damage the barbels on these fish. Color: Any colorful gravel to suit your liking. 2. Live Plants. These help in oxygenating the water and providing some food source for some fish. 3. Plastic Plants. These are colorful and impossible to kill. 4. Water conditioner/dechlorinator. (Essential, one needs this during every water change). 5. Driftwood or other decorations (if you want to keep this in the aquarium). 6. Other decorations like moving ornaments/ aerators. 7. Buy water testing kits. At the minimum buy an Ammonia test kit, Nitrite test kit and Nitrate test kit. The liquid test kits from API are good and accurate. Process to setup the Aquarium: Wash gravel in tap water thoroughly 3 to 4 times, till the gravel is clean. For the final wash use dechlorinated water. Follow instructions on the dechlorinator bottle. After this is done fill the aquarium with gravel. Fill tap water in a bucket. Dechlorinate this using dechlorinator. Dechlorination is very important. If this is not done, the chlorine will kill the fish and the helpful bacteria very quickly in a couple of days or less. Then pour this into aquarium. When aquarium is about quarter full, setup the live plants, plastic plants, decorations, aerator wands etc. Fill to the top using a plate at the bottom to deflect the water and not disturb the gravel. Aquarium Setup - Fishless cycling the tank. One may be very excited with the aquarium setup and then add fish immediately to the tank. Stop and read the following before doing so. One needs to go through the following important step. Before adding fish to the tank, the tank needs to be cycled. Cycling an aquarium is a process where good bacteria are established in the tank. This can take anywhere from a week to about 2 months. It is safer to have patience.If this is not done, the fish may die rapidly and one may give up the fish keeping hobby altogether. Aquarium Setup. Process occurring in aquarium. 1. Fish wastes and uneaten fish food get converted to ammonia. Ammonia is harmful to the fish and burns the gills of the fish. Due to this fish cannot absorb oxygen easily. 2. Ammonia eating bacteria convert the ammonia to nitrite. Nitrite is harmful to the fish. Though not as much as ammonia. 3. Nitrite eating bacteria converts this to nitrate. Nitrate in concentrations of upto 20ppm is not harmful to most fish. 4. If live plants are present in the aquarium, these consume the nitrate and keep this concentration down. Aquarium Setup - Starting a cycle Add a source of ammonia. - This could be from a frozen prawn kept in stocking within aquarium. - Get a pure source of ammonia like the Janitorial strength from a hardware store. This is typically the one without surfactants kind. On shaking the bottle there should be no foam. I hunted high a low and could not find this. - Alternatively use urine. This may gross out many people but this is a good source of ammonia, it is sterile and free. I used this and successfully setup my aquarium. Aquarium Setup - Monitoring the cycle - Raise temperature of aquarium to 86 degrees F. Bacteria grow faster in this temperature range. - Check ammonia reading each day. These should not exceed 2 to 3 ppm. Any reading above 5 ppm will slow down the process of setting the biological filter. When this level goes down, add more ammonia (see above). Need to keep the bacteria fed or the population dies off quickly. - In a few days there will be high levels of nitrite. - This will eventually turn to 0ppm - At this stage you may get a reading of nitrate based on whether you have live plants or not. An aquarium is fully cycled when: - Ammonia readings are 0ppm. - Nitrite readings are 0ppm. - Nitrate reading between 0 to 20 ppm. If nitrate are any higher, do a large water change to lower these levels close to 0ppm. I have not had much success with Prime or other chemicals claiming to cycle the tank quickly. Aquarium Setup - Adding Fish Add fish slowly to the aquarium. Start by adding about 3 to 4 each week till tank is fully stocked. Add fish by the 1 inch of fully grown fish to 1 gallon of tank water. This is to prevent over crowding and have healthy fish. If you are sure you want to pursue this hobby then follow this link to my site where I will be posting a series of articles outlining the step by step process for successfully setting up an aquarium and keeping the hobby alive. Click here Aquarium Setup for beginners About the author: Fish Hobbyist's blog is full of tips and techniques that beginners can use to have a successful hobby. Check it out here. Aquarium Setup For Beginners Back to Fish/Aquarium Articles |
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