The Proper Way to Set Up Your First Aquarium Fish Tank
Many beginners may think that setting up their first aquarium fish tank is not easy as it looks; the truth is maintaining it and keeping the fish alive is a lot harder. To a set up aquarium, you must follow some rules. There is an unwritten law in aquarium word, Cleanness, Patience and Perseverance. If you follow that rules, I think you will be OK. Having said that, here are some basic guidelines for setting up your first fish tank. Hopefully, this can guide you through it.
Before considering buying an aquarium, you should consider the reason why you do it for the first place. Was it for your children, or for realistic display for your living room or bedroom, or was it because your neighbor has one, and it looked so cool? This can be affected on the size and location of your tank. A small aquarium tank can be sitting on top of the drawers or somewhere, but a big tank will possibly need its own stand to support it. So, it is important that you look at the total size of the aquarium into consideration.
If you are considering buying an aquarium tank more than 1.5 meters long, before actually putting your tank in the position you should check the floor base area to make sure it is strong enough to support such a weight aquarium and absolutely level with a good firm construction.
Once you are satisfied that the tank is posed on a solid base and absolutely level, then you can add gravel for the base of the tank. Make sure to wash the gravel before adding it to your tank. An easy way to do this is to put some of the gravel in a bucket and wash them out under running water until the water is absolutely clear. You will need to repeat this with all the gravel you intend to use, then place the clean gravel in a clean bucket for transport to the aquarium. Arrange the gravel up toward the rear keeping the front only around 2.5-3 centimeters deep. This allows every waste to roll to the front for easy removal. After adding the gravel you can place your plants and decorations.
After you are sure of the layout of your decorations, now it is time to add water to the aquarium. To avoid the gravel and plants being misplaced by the water you pour in, place a plate on the gravel and gently fill the tank onto the plate. Watch the level of the tank constantly when filling and keep watching just in case the tank moves. Fill up the tank approximately 5 centimeters from the top.
Some aquarium experts suggested allowing the tank stand for an hour or so before you do anything else. The reason is that if anything is gone wrong, it should do it in the first hour. So, always check the aquarium to see the tank is still in correct level during this time.
If everything seems fine, you may begin to install your heater and thermostat into the tank but do not switch it on yet until the thermostat in the heater has adjusted to the water temperature. This generally takes about 25 minutes or so. Next attach your filter and any other equipment you have, such as lighting system, and a filtration system. If all equipment are separate units, and you do not have any idea how to install it, you should have had them wired by a competent person, but if you are sure these had been done correctly then plug all the equipment into a power strip and then “turn on” the aquarium.
Now, wait a little more time. I know, you would like to add several beautiful fish in there, but it is not working that way. You must wait until your aquarium has to cycle before adding any fish. Aquarium Cycle process is the period of time an aquarium has to remain empty of fish until the good bacteria have established and controlling the conditions of the water.
There are ways of speeding up this process but there is a right way and a wrong way. You can either rush the job by using chemicals to speed the process, or you can be patient and wait for the correct amount of time before adding your fish.
