Actually, we’re not buying fish today. As we’ll explain later, you’ll need to wait a week after setting up your tank before putting fish in. today, we’re just looking at types of fish. You can peruse pictures and short descriptions in my Encyclopedia and look at the websites in my Fish Resource Page. also, look around at your local pet store and in books and ask people about fish.
Deciding the type of fish you want is the most important step; it affects everything else you do. For example, if you want a few neon tetras and nothing else, you can use a ten gallon tank. If you want oscars and jack dempsies, you may need a 50 gallon tank. If you love arowanas, you’ll eventually need a thousand gallon tank. Many other things are affected by your fish choice, like filtration, heating, food, and more.
For now, we’ll say you fall in one of the following three categories:
You want a variety of colorful fish, like barbs tetras, and platies (general community).
You want to breed fish easily so you want all livebearers.
You want or have goldfish.
Fish run from a few cents to thousands of dollars.
Now that you know what kind of fish you want, you can decide what kind of tank you need. Most people look to the commonly available ten and twenty gallon starter kits. These are all right because they come with all the basic items needed to set up a tank. Usually, the things in these starter tanks are not of the best quality. We will discuss each item later.
If you decided to go with one of the starters, I would suggest you get the 20 gallon. Twenty gallon tanks are the perfect size for beginners, not too big and not too small. You can fist more than twice as many fish in a 20 gallon as a 10 gallon and they are easier to keep clean. The reason for this is that the 20 gallon has greater surface area, allowing for more oxygen and bacteria growth. The same thing applies to hexagon versus rectangle tanks (hexes have less surface area). Plus, there is less of a chance of changes in water chemistry in a tank with greater volume, therefore there is less stress to fish. So, unless you want five measly neon tetras, get a twenty gallon. The three example tanks will use 20 gallons.
20 gallon tank:
tank alone: $20.00
tank with lighting: $35.00
starter kit: $75.00
50 gallon tank:
Usually found with lighting, glass: $90 to $100
Starter kits: $200
Acrylic: $200
A UGF is not enough to keep a tank clean by itself, unless you use power heads, but power heads are a bit too powerful for anything less than a 29 gallon tank. You should also use a power filter which is a box-like thing that sits on the back of the aquarium (like in the picture). For a 20 gallon, get a filter that pumps at least 120 gallons per hour. A little more won’t hurt. Also, look for a filter that has a sponge or other area to hold bacteria that is separate from the carbon. Some power filters have the area for bacteria and the carbon connected in one big cartridge so every time you replace the carbon (once a month) you throw away your bacteria, which takes a few weeks to establish. Aquaclears, Biowheels, and Whisper Triads all have a place for bacteria that you never replace. If it gets clogged with large particles you can rinse it in a bucket of dechlorinated water, don’t squeeze it and don’t run it under the tap. You kill the bacteria if you do so.
Another type of filter is the canister filter, which usually is used for larger aquaria. These filters are nice because they can sit on the ground, perhaps in a cabinet in the tank stand, and only a couple of hoses will draw water out from the tank and put it back in. these filter come in many designs, usually having places for sponges or other media for holding bacteria, and compartments for other filter media like carbon.
So, for all three tanks you decide to buy the Aquaclear 150. We have the UGF with the tank set up.
20 gallon filters:
150 gph power filter: $20 to $25
UGF: $10 to $15
Pump: $8 to $20
50 gallon filters:
400+ gph power filter: $70 or more
UGF: $30
Pump: $10 to $50
Powerheads (2): $25 each
Canister filters: $80 to $150
The heater is important no matter what kind of fish you get. If you have tropical fish, you must have a filter to keep the water somewhere between 78 and 82 degrees Fahrenheit. You do not heat your house enough to heat a tank, I don’t care where you live, the temperature is not a constant 80 degrees. And yes, the temperature must remain constant; changes in temperature will stress your fish and cause disease. The lights on a tank is not enough to heat it, especially if you buy the 20 gallon because it comes with a florescent light which produces little heat.
A heater should be five watts per gallon of water. Therefore, for your 20 gallon tank, you’ll need a 100 watt heater (5 X 20 = 100). Submersible heaters are better quality and therefore less likely to break. They also have internal thermometers, making them easier to set (just like setting a home heater). Also, if heaters are exposed they may break and literally boil fish. Submersibles can be placed so they are never exposed (horizontally in the middle of the tank). They are more expensive, but you’ll never have to buy a new one. Some come with lifetime guarantees.
You need a thermometer with the heater, even if it has an internal one, in order to be sure you tank is the correct temperature. If you can read the strips that stick on the outside of the tank, go with one of those as mercury thermometers may break and poison the fish. Place the thermometer in the opposite corner of the heater. A starter kit will come with a heater (probably the cheap kind) and a strip thermometer.
Community or livebearer tank: you need to heat the tank to about 80 degrees.
Goldfish: heaters can be used to help treat sick fish.
20 gallon:
100 watt submersible: $15
crappy-fry-your-fish-replace-every-two-months heater: $5
50 gallon: it is best to use two heaters, one on each end of the aquarium, for better heating. You would use two 100 watts.
Thermometer: $1.00 to $3.00
The lighting will come with most tanks. Most come with florescent lights, which don’t mess with the temperature of the water. Smaller tanks, like 10 gallons, come with incandescent lights, which raise the temp. Yet another reason not to get a 10 gallon. Usually, you’ll only need to turn on lights when you want to look at the fish, but if you want live plants, you’ll leave it on eight to twelve hours a day. Florescent may be expensive, but they last forever. I had one on for 12 hours every day for almost a year, and before that it was unused for a few more years, and it finally went out just the other day. If you want live plants you must change your light every six months. Remember that you need something between the light and the water, either get a glass top or full hood. If water gets into your light you could get electrocuted, or fry your fish. Do not just leave the lights on 24 hours a day. Fish need a definite day time and night time and live plants do as well. Leaving the lights on too long, especially if you don’t have plants, will cause algae growth. If you don’t have live plants, only turn on the lights when viewing the fish to prevent algae.
$$Prices$$
20 gallon:
full hood: $30
light strip: $20
glass top: $18
50 gallon:
full hood: $70
light strip: $30
glass top (two 24 inch ones): $15 each
Gravel holds much of the beneficial live bacteria. You will need 1.5 pounds of gravel per gallon if you have an undergravel (20 gallon X 1.5 pounds = 30 pounds). If you don’t have a UGF, gravel doesn’t matter as much. Still, 1.5 pounds per gallon covers the tank nicely. A thick layer of gravel is good for plants too.
Dark, natural rock makes the fishes colors come out better. Bright, unnatural color (pink, bright blue) make fish pale up. White gravel is sometimes made from dolomite which raises pH. Only use gravel from a pet store to make sure it is not poisonous and won’t screw with your water chemistry. In UGFs it is best to get the smaller gravel, instead of the larger stones that are available. Plants will also appreciate smaller gravel.
Coral and sand are other things you can use in the substrate, but both raise the pH. Sand does not work well in UGFs.
Community: you want the fish’s colors to show and you do not want the pH to be high, so you use dark natural gravel.
Livebearers: livebearers do better in high pH, so you go with white ore light natural gravel and some coral.
Goldfish: we’ll say you’re looking to please the kids, so you use rainbow gravel. White gravel would be fine with goldfish as well—as they do best with a higher pH.
30 pounds of gravel: $15
50 gallon:
75 pounds: $30
Coral: five pounds is about five dollars.
There are many types of test kits you can get. Ammoniatest kits are the most important; you should check for ammonia frequently. Nitrite is the second most important thing to test for. Then there’s Nitrate, pH, Chlorine and Chloramine test kits. Nitrate and pH aren’t very important, though it’s nice to be aware of those. Chlorine removers will take care of chlorine and chloramine. It’s also good to have hardness and buffering tests if you want to be messing with the pH.
You need a chlorine remover that uses electrolytes and something to help the fish’s slime coating, like aloe vera (stress coat, novaqua). You will use a teaspoon per 10 gallons to remove chlorine or relive stressed fish. Use after water changes and when adding new fish.
Ammonia remover (ammono-lock, amquel) will help remove some ammonia, but won’t do the job of established bacteria. Put a teaspoon per 10 gallons about half an hour before ding a water change. This breaks up the ammonia, then you remove it with the water change. Use a chlorine remover with stress coat afterwards.
Live bacteria (stress zyme, A.C.T., cycle) is used to help the establishment of your tank. Put a teaspoon per 10 gallons when you first set it up, when ever you add fish, and when you do water changes.
$1.00 to $20 depending on size and brand
Tt’s good to have decorations for fish to shelter in. Sunken ships, rocks, and wood all work. Only buy things from pet stores because they have been treated to make them non-toxic and so they don’t mess with the pH. Large pieces of coral can be used if you want to raise the pH. Bogwood will make the water softer.
Plants are always a good idea. No matter what kind of filter you have, what kind of lighting, or fish, you can at least attempt to keep them. Plants are great for fish to spawn in, great for babies to hide in, and babies as well as adult fish will munch on them, adding variety to their diet. Plants are never a bad idea.
Community: get some rocks with holes or other decorations for fish to hide in if they get bullied (this will happen in any tank). Bogwood is fine. Plants will be good for hiding and good for fish that don’t like really bright light. Most fish will munch on these plants, and many will lay eggs in them.
Livebearer: live plants are very important for babies to hide in and eat. Livebearers need lots of vegetable in their diet. The more bushy plants you have, the better. Coral will work as hiding places and for raising pH. Any other decorations that babies can hide in will be nice.
Goldfish: they don’t like big decorations as they want more swimming space. Most goldfish will completely devour live plants, so you may want to go with plastic, but try some live ones just to see. Broad leaf plants and sturdy grass often work.
$1.00 and up on plants and decorations.
It is best to choose a flake or pellet as the staple food, as well as frozen and freeze dried foods to supplement the diet. Variety makes for healthy fish.
Community: tropical flake, frozen glass worms, and brine shrimp flakes would work well. Also, if you get bottom feeders you’ll want sinking pellets, like sinking shrimp pellets.
Livebearer: tropical flake, frozen brine shrimp and spirulina mix (spirulina is an algae and vegies are very god for livebearers), and freeze dried tubifex.
Goldfish: goldfish flake or pellet for larger fish, frozen bloodworms, and spirulina discs (vegies are good for goldfish too).
These food combos are just examples, not set in stone. I just thought them up so you would have an idea of what to buy.
$1.00 and up.
It’s good to have books on your fish so you can easily look up info. Books can be found at pet stores, used book stores, and the library. Also find magazines. Get books on your specific fish, if they’re available; books on disease, and general aquarium care. There are plenty of books on keeping general community, livebearers, and goldfish.
You’ll need a proper aquarium stand because aquariums weigh a lot with the water in it. These are available in many styles: wrought iron, wood, and plastic. For a 20 gallon, it would range from $30 to $150. For a 50 gallon, $70 to $250.
Canopies are covers for the aquarium that are purely decorative. Usually wood. $50 to $150.
Air pumps are used with UGFs or to run decorations or just make bubbles for decorative purposes. $5 to $50.
Algae scrubbers can be used to clean tanks. Available as pads or on spiffy sticks with neat gadgets on them. $1.00 to $10.00.
Syphons are used to clean gravel. You can get the kind that needs buckets or you can get one that connects to your sink to take water directly to the sink and also put water directly from the sink into the aquarium. $5 to $50.
Nets should be unnecessary unless you need to move fish from one tank to another. A few dollars.
Breeding traps are used with egglayers and livebearers to keep babies safe. $5 to $10.
Find a place
Read the directions
Set up the tank, filter, heater, etc.
Set up the water
Plug it in
FIND A PLACE
The most important part of setting up a tank is figuring out where the tank is going to go. Location is everything with tanks. Remember that once you find a place for it, you won’t want to move it ever again, unless it’s absolutely necessary. Keep it out of direct sun light and away from windows or sources of heat which will mess with the temperature. Keep the tank in a place where it won’t be too busy, or you’ll stress the fish and people will run into the tank. Don’t keep it in a kitchen, in the living room against a wall is a good place.
now, very important, read the instructions to everything: heater, filter, pumps. If you got a video or book with the starter kit, watch or read it. You’ll find out important things that if you don’t do you could destroy your filter or heater. For example, fill the power filter with water before you turn it one, rinse the carbon out, leave the heater unplugged in the water for 15 minutes.
never use hot water which can cause the glass to crack. Don’t use strong cleaners or you can poison the fish. By the way, only use vinegar solution on acrylic as other cleaners may ruin acrylic (especially glass cleaners).
before you set it up, fill the tank with water outside and check for leaks. If everything’s OK, Empty it completely again. Set the tank and stand in your pre-determined spot. Make sure it’s exactly where you want it because you’re not moving it again.
if you have a UGF, get that in first. After the plates are put down and the uplift tubes are in, you can add the gravel. rinse gravel thoroughly in a bucket. When the water in the bucket isn’t cloudy, you can put the gravel in. you may have to rinse the gravel and pour the water out of the bucket several times, especially if you have coral.
After the gravel is in, assemble and place the power filter and heater. Do not plug them in. you can place decorations now. Make sure your hood and lighting setup will fit.
put a shallow dish in the aquarium and poor cool water (not hot, not really cold) water into it or pour over a large decoration to keep from upsetting the gravel. You can easily place plants when it’s half full. When it is completely full, add the chlorine remover and then the bacteria. If you have a pH tester you should test it now or you should have had your tap water tested at a pet store.
Community: a pH from 6.8 to 7.4 is fine. Don’t try to change the pH if it’s OK, inconsistent pH can kill fish. If it’s above 7.6 or pellow6.6 try using chemicals to change it before you get the fish. Apply the chemicals and immediately check the pH. Check it again the next day. If it didn’t change, then you’re safe. Every time you add new water you’ll have to alter the new water’s pH first. If it just jumps back tot he original pH, life will get difficult. I would suggest just using fish that can handle your pH.
For Low pH Try: neon tetras and other small tetras, barbs, danios, corydoras, gouramis, kribensis.
For High pH Try: platies, danios, hardy barbs (tiger barbs), swordtails, rainbow fish (dwarf rainbows, featherfins, celebese), guppies, halfbeaks, hardy gouramis (dwarf, opaline).
Livebearer: it would be best if the tank is at least 7.0. use coral to raise pH and add some aquarium salt, about a tablespoon for ever two gallons. Coral will also make it easier to alter pH chemically, as it buffers the water so pH can’t jump up and d0own.
Goldfish: don’t worry about it, especially if pH is between 6.8 and 7.4.
Make sure the filter cartridges are in their places and fill the power filter with water. Plug it in. it will make awful noises for a few minutes, but if set up properly will soon be working smoothly. Make sure the UGF is set up properly and plug in the pump. If the heater has been sitting in the tank for at least 15 minutes plug it in. if it is a submersible, set it to 80 degrees. If it is the cheap-fry-your-fish kind, turn it up until the pilot light comes on (the heater instructions will explain the rest). Set up your hood and lights and plug the lights in. your tank is officially set up.
This is the most important part. Leave your filter running for a week to help build up some bacteria. Now, finally, we’re going to learn about our friends, nitrosomas and nitrobacter.
when you have fish, they produce waste. Fish waste, old food, and other rotting materials create ammonia. Ammonia is highly toxic to fish. Nitorsomas eat ammonia, but you only have so much nitrosomas in a new aquarium, as they had little to eat. When you add fish, they make more ammonia then those few nitrosomas can eat, so your ammonia jumps up pretty high. If you only add a few fish, that’s OK, soon the nitrosomas breed and devour all the ammonia. But if too many fish are added, the nitrosomas wouldn’t be able to catch up quickly enough and al or at least most of your fish will die from ammonia poisoning.
after the nitrosomas eat the ammonia, they make nitrite. Nitrite is also poisonous to fish. Fortunately, nitrobacter eat the nitrites. There were only a limited amount of them too. So, your ammonia will go down, but your nitrite will go way up. The nitrobacter will breed like crazy to eat the nitrites.
when nitrobacter eats nitrites, they make nitrates. Nitrates are only mildly armful to more sensitive fish. These are absorbed by plants, algae, and removed through water changes.
when the ammonia, nitrite and nitrates are about equal, your tank is probably cycled. The nitrates can be a little bit higher. If your ammonia and nitrites are zero and your nitrates are a bit higher, your tank is perfect.
As mentioned earlier, fish should be added slowly. Also, you don’t want too many fish in the end, no matter how slowly you add them and no matter how good your filtration is you can only fit a certain number of fish in your tank.
Community: the general rule with tropical fish is one inch of fish per gallon of water. This varies a bit, for example, neon tetras get 1.5 inches long but they’re still tiny fish, so you could fit about one per gallon. Plecostamus, on the other hand, are very dirty so although they get 18 inches long, they shouldn’t be kept in a 20 gallon tank. This rule translates to 2.5 centimeters per four liters in the metric system, or about one centimeter per two liters to make it more simple.
let’s say you like tiger barbs, neon tetras, red wag platies, and albino corydoras.
Remember: all barbs, tetras, rainbows, danios, corydoras and most other catfish, and some other fish need to be in groups of three or more. Certain species will become destructive if they aren’t in schools, such as the tiger barb which could be a fin-nipper. Other fish, like neon tetras, will be very stressed and more prone to illness. This is because their only protection from predators is to stay in large groups, and if they are in small groups they feel more open to attack.
you could get three tiger barbs (three inches each), three cories (three inches each), two platies (two inches each), and five neons (one inch each). Technically, that brings you to 27 inches, a little much for a twenty gallon, but manageable, especially if you got a power filter. Tiger barbs are the hardiest fish, so you can use three of them to cycle your tank.
Fish To Avoid: (avoid them as if your life depended on it. Your fishes’ lives do) Angel fish (you need a 29 gallon tank for a pair), most cichlids (kribensis/violet cichlids are one exception),mollies, gobies, puffers, bala sharks and pangasius cats (get too big), large catfish such as pictus and pimodellas, silver tip sharks, knifes, and goldfish among others.
Livebearers: the inch per gallon rule applies to live bearers too, but you may want to leave a little extra space for babies. Choices in a high pH, livebearer tank are more limited than in a general community, so I will list some fish.
Platies, swordtails, guppies, mollies, halfbeaks, goodeids, a few small rainbow fish wouldn’t hurt, and mosquito fish are some that work.
we’ll say you like sunset fire platies (two inches), green swords (about three inches, fancy guppies (two inches), and black mollies (two inches). You will want a male and female of each, but with guppies it’s best to have two females to one male, so you end up with about 20 inches. Platies are the hardiest, so you cycle the tank with the two sunsets.
Fish To Avoid: neon tetras and other fish that like low pH, most everything that I listed for the community except the mollies.
Goldfish: for goldfish, the rule is a bit different, you need about a gallon and a half per inch of goldfish. Because most goldfish can get at least 10 inches long, you’ll need about 15 gallons for a full grown goldfish. In your 20 gallon, you could put three or four goldfish in now and remove them as they get bigger. Eventually, you’ll be down to one or two goldfish, though. Try to find a friend with a pond or large goldfish tank.
Your choices for fish are limited with goldfish too, so I’ll list most of the ones you could possibly keep:
Common Comet: (14 inches) often sold as feeders, this is what you would win at the fair. Fancy comet varieties available. Usually orange, sometimes with black and white.
Chinese fancy goldfish: (8 to 12 inches) Orandas, black moors, lionheads, pearlscales, fantails, ryukins. Can be orange, red, white, black, bluish, chocolate colored, gold, yellow, and any combination of these colors. Very fat looking fish with long tails.
Nishkigoi (koi): these can’t be kept in tanks as they get f
Fish Index
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