STARTING A TANK

TANKS

when choosing tanks, there are very many different combinations. first you need to decide on what tank to buy. you should buy the biggest tank that you can afford and are willing to pay for. Also do not buy "tall" tanks, because it makes it harder for oxygen to reach the bottom of the tank

Lighting

most standard lighting is fine, but if you want to have a planted tank, you will need atleast 1 watt per gallon, up to 3 watts per gallon.

Substrate

in choosing the substrate, or the bottom, there are 2 different options, one is gravel. this comes in many shapes and colors. i would recomend medium size natural gravel. painted gravel will eventually fade and looks ugly. the next is sand. sand is the easiest to clean, the cheapest, and most natural looking substrate, but the only drawback si that you will have to wash the sand very well and when you first put it in your tank, it will cloud it for a few days and will kill all fish, so dont add sand with fish in the tank. i prefer sand because it is so easy to clean and it is so cheap, for a 50lb bag. i would recomend quickrete medium grade commercial sand. looks great. also sand is easier for planted tanks, it holds down plants easier.

filtration

the most important thing in the aquarium is the filtration system. powerfilters work great and are easy to clean/change carbon. for tanks larger than 200 gallons, you should use a sump filter. this is basically another smaller tank, filled with in some cases carbon, some spongey material to collect solid waste, and bio balls which collect bacteria. i recomend keeping 2 times the filtration in your tank than suggested because most filters that say they are for up to 50 gallons, only work well in tanks about half that size.

choosing a spot

for tanks larger than 125 gallons, they should all be placed on a basement floor with a cement foundation, this is because each gallon of water and tank weighs 10 pounds, so  a 200 gallon tank weighs 2,000 lbs and that is way too much to put on a upstairs floor.for tanks 125 and below, if you choose to put it on an upper floor, you should place it along an outside wall. this is where the floor is the strongest and where it will cause no or minimal floor damage. also choose a spot that gets little sunlight because sunlight causes algae to grow very easily.

cycling

This has to be the most hated part for all people. a new tank will not be able to hold the bioload of new fish very well and causes ammonia spikes which will kill the fish. to cycle a tank, you should add about one goldfish for every two gallons(they only cost 19 cents or less). feed them extra food so they poo a lot. later, helpfull bacteria will appear in the tank, consuming the ammonia made from the fish poo. this should take about 3 or 4 weeks. you should use ammonia and nitrite test kits a few times a week to monitor the status of the cycle. when there is zero ammonia and zero nitrite, then it is ready for real fish. this cycle can be dramatically shortened if you use a existing filter from a tank, or if you use sand or gravel from an existing tank. these already have bacterial on it and they will reproduce and fill the tank.