Setting up Your Tank

Preparing the Location
Preparing the Tank
Preparing the Gravel and Decorations
Filling the Tank
Aquascaping
Attaching the Equipment
Biological Filtration

Preparing the Location

By now you have decided where your aquarium will be located. The next thing you need to determine is whether the location needs any adjustments. If you have purchased a stand designed specifically for an aquarium, you're probably all set. However, if you are using an existing piece of furniture, you may need to make some customizations. You'll need to ensure that the location will hold the weight of your full aquarium that will be about 8 - 10 lbs per gallon of water. It is also important to ensure that your stand or furniture is level once it is in the desired location. A little tip that can help to equalize level and to minimize impact if your aquarium is bumped is to slip a sheet of Styrofoam under the bottom of the tank. You can purchase Styrofoam at your local home improvement store. Simply measure the bottom perimeter of your tank and cut the Styrofoam to size with a sharp knife. The Styrofoam will also keep your tank from making an imprint on a piece of furniture that you might want to use for another purpose at a later time.

Another thing to consider before filling your aquarium with water is the accessibility of your outlet. If you want direct access to your outlet, make sure you can reach it, for once the aquarium is full, it will be more difficult (if not impossible) to move the stand or furniture away from the outlet. You may prefer to simply use a power strip that you can slip under the stand or furniture, keeping it out of sight.

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Preparing the Tank

You'll want to make sure there are no chemical residues in your tank prior to filling it for inhabitation. If possible, rinse your tank out with a hose, being very careful how you handle a partially full all-glass tank to avoid twisting and possibly compromising the silicone seals. You may need assistance with this step. If you do not have the outdoor or basement space in which to rinse your tank in this manner, you'll want to take a wet cloth and wipe down all surfaces several times.

Prior to filling your aquarium with water, you'll want to attach background paper if you've chosen to do this. This will need to be cut to the exact dimensions of your back panel of glass and attached inconspicuously at the edges with transparent tape. Keep your background paper as taut as possible as you begin to fasten it with tape, otherwise, any sagging will show through the back of your tank and distract from the appearance you wish to effect.

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Preparing the Gravel and Decorations

Thoroughly rinse your gravel in a bucket by placing a few inches in your bucket and filling with water. This will allow small sandy particles to separate out from the gravel. Remove any sharp or discolored pieces of gravel as you come across them. Once you've rinsed a portion of gravel, add it to your tank by scooping it out of the bucket, leaving behind any leftover sandy residue in the bucket. Rinse out your bucket and repeat the process until you have rinsed all the gravel that will be added to your tank. You'll want about an inch to an inch and a half in the bottom of your tank for best results.

For the same reasons you rinsed your tank and your gravel, you'll want to rinse off your tank decorations -- including rocks, driftwood and plastic plants. You can do this directly under tap water or by swishing them around in your bucket of water. Set your decorations aside for now. You're almost ready to begin filling your tank with water!

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Filling the Tank

While this step would seem straightforward enough, I'm going to make it difficult for you in order to help you begin learning your maintenance routine. Here's what I want you to do:

1. First of all, make sure your hands are clean and rinsed of all soap or chemical residue. You should keep cleaners and detergents away from the area to avoid any chemical contamination of your tools and tank decorations. If you are using a surface near a wash or laundry area, wipe it down and place a clean towel over the area.
2. Measure the PH of your tap water using your PH test kit, following the instructions that came with your kit. Chances are, your tap water is fairly constant over time and this reading will give you a good idea of how much PH adjustment you'll need to do each time you add new water to your tank. Make a note of your PH reading -- is it neutral, alkaline or acidic? If the reading is neutral, lucky you! You won't have to adjust your water a great deal when adding water to your tank. If it is alkaline or acidic, you'll need to adjust your water to neutral using your PH adjusters.
3. Fill your clean water bucket with cool but not cold tap water
4. Place 2 - 3 drops of your water conditioner(s) to one gallon of your tap water. This step is one of the most critical, for it removes toxic gases such as ammonia and chlorine that would kill your fish.
5. If your water is alkaline, begin by adding a few drops of PH adjuster that adjusts PH down. Measure the adjusted water with your kit. Is it neutral? If so, you're done. If it is still alkaline, add a few more drops of adjuster. Keeping track of the total number of drops you add will help you develop a "recipe" for your tap water going forward. If your water is acidic, follow the same procedures using the PH adjuster that adjusts PH up.
6. Once you have achieved a neutral PH, carefully pour the water into your tank. If you'd like to prevent disturbing your gravel, place your hand under the stream of water to break its fall. Repeat steps 3 - 6 until your tank is about 1/2 to 3/4 full.

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Aquascaping

You'll want to do your aquascaping at about the 1/2 to 3/4 full mark. This way, you avoid spilling over the rim when you place your arms in and you greatly reduce the chances of getting your shirt all wet! While aquascaping is largely a matter of taste, there are a few general tips that will enhance the appearance of any aquarium decor:

• Reserve some fin room - in order to make sure your fish have plenty of room to swim around and play, you don't want to fill every inch of space with a plant or other decor. Fish need to feel that they have some wide-open space to "get up some speed," so to speak.
• Keep the height to the sides and the back - place taller plants to the sides and back of the aquarium, keeping shorter ones near the front and middle, or placed naturally behind a stone or rock formation.
• Landscape your gravel artfully - avoid a flat landscape by mounding up a bit of gravel around rock or driftwood formations and at the sides and back of the tank. It will look more natural.
• Don't lay traps - think carefully about how fish might use the decorations you place in your tank. You want to make sure that caves and other hiding places have an obvious entrance and exit, or a large enough entrance that the fish can swim in, turn around, and exit the same opening.

Once you have all your plants and other decorations in place, it's time to finish filling your tank. Simply repeat steps 3 - 6 above under Filling the Tank, making slight adjustments to plant and decoration placement in order to get everything just right.

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Attaching the Equipment

Now that your aquarium is full, you'll put on the finishing touches by attaching your equipment.

• External filter - if you purchased a hood, you may need to trim off a section of the removable thin plastic panel on the back section to accommodate your filter's intake tube and output flow. You'll want to place your filter at about the midway point at the back of your tank for best results. Follow the manufacturer's instructions for priming your filter. Once your filter is running, rinse the sponge and carbon inserts under cool tap water and insert into the pre-designated sections of your filter housing. You may need to add just a bit more water to your tank once your filter has filled its basin. Your filter is intended to run continuously and should not be powered off except when detaching for cleaning purposes.
• Heater - like your filter, your heater may require you to trim a small section of your hood to accommodate its attachment head. If you're like me, you'll want to hide the heater tube behind a tall plant, so you'll probably want to position your heater near the least visible back corner. Once your heater is adjusted to maintain your water temperature at about 75 - 78 degrees, you should never need to bother with it again. Your heater has an internal thermometer that will automatically trigger it to come on when the water falls below the temperature you set and go off once the water has reached the designated temperature.
• Thermometer - attach your thermometer on the opposite end of the aquarium from your heater to ensure the most accurate reading. If you purchased an adhesive LCD model, position the thermometer midway between the top and bottom of the aquarium in the far back corner on the external surface of your aquarium glass. You'll want to monitor this for the first few days to ensure your heater is maintaining the desired water temperature. During the summer months, you may see the water temperature rise above the desired temperature if you don't have central air conditioning. While this rise is gradual and poses little danger to the fish, it becomes even more important to maintain or increase the frequency of water changes in order to keep ammonia levels in check.

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Biological Filtration

Now that you have everything set up and running, it's important to develop an understanding of biological filtration before heading to the store to purchase your new fish. There are many definitions and explanations of biological filtration and something called the "nitrogen cycle" that make you feel as though you need to be a microbiologist to be a successful aquarist. Not the case. I'm going to provide a very simple explanation of both that will be sufficient information for now.

Right now, your aquarium is a pretty sterile environment. Nothing is living in it, and nothing is dying in it. It's just a bunch of water, clean gravel and plastic plants. Will it support life? Yes, but not a lot, and certainly not a lot all at once. Believe it or not, the life you need to worry the most about supporting at first is too small for you to see with the naked eye! For without this life, the life of your fish will be in jeopardy.

Soon you will be adding two ingredients to your aquarium - fish and fish food. And soon your fish will be adding two new ingredients to your aquarium - fish poop and ammonia. Types of bacteria called "heterotrophic bacteria" consume uneaten fish food and fish waste, but not ammonia. In fact, as the heterotrophic bacteria consume the fish food and fish waste, they convert these components into ammonia. Luckily, another group of bacteria called "Nitrosomonas" feed on ammonia and convert it to nitrite. Finally, a third type of bacteria called "Nitrobacter" feeds on the nitrite and converts it to nitrate. Nitrate is an essentially harmless by-product of biological filtration and will be removed through the partial water changes that you will perform when cleaning your aquarium.

While the three types of bacteria discussed above are known as "beneficial bacteria," there are other types of harmful bacteria present in you tank that will cause illness if your fish are in a weakened state. A weakened state is often the result of high ammonia or nitrite levels. This is why many aquarists find that their new fish are dying off at an alarming rate. The natural biological filtration and nitrogen cycle has yet to be established, and the fish fall victim to parasites, bacterial and fungal diseases.

The best way to establish your biological filter and nitrogen cycle is to proceed slowly for the first month or so. Add only a couple fish during the first week, then add a couple more during the second and third weeks. This will allow a slow introduction of fish waste and allow your colony of beneficial bacteria to begin multiplying before introducing a heavier load of waste that could not be converted by a such a small colony. As your beneficial bacterial colonies grow, so too can your community of fish. Check your ammonia levels daily. If they are high, do not add more fish. If they are low or non-existent, it's probably safe to add a couple more fish. You may also want to purchase a nitrite test kit to measure the levels of nitrite. While nitrite is not as harmful to fish as ammonia, it's still important that it is converted to nitrate. If you test your water and find that ammonia is low but nitrite is high, then your biological filter is strong in Nitrosomonas bacteria but still weak in Nitrobacter bacteria. You should not add more fish until the nitrite level is under control. Once your ammonia and nitrite levels are controlled, your biological filter is established (and still growing) and your nitrogen cycle is taking place fully. It is now safe to add more fish, but always a good idea to proceed slowly in order to reduce the chance of disrupting the delicate balance your fish require. You will maintain this balance by establishing and practicing good aquarium maintenance routines. For information on selecting and acclimating fish, see Your New Fish.

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