Hey guys I am new to the aquarium stuff and had a few general question that I hope can get answered. I have a 22 gallon tank. I was just wondering what I need to do to start out as far as checking and maintaining the P/H balance and all the good stuff. Can someone give me a complete little run down as to far as what I need to do to get the water ready to start adding some fish.

Thanks guys!!

Welcome lots of good information and well people here.

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100G->African Cichlids:Kribensis-2,Bumblebee-2,Red Zebra-2,Elec. Yel. Labi.-2, Acei-2, Elec. Blu. Johanni-2,Peacocks-2 / Community: Australian Rainbow-3,Turquoise Rainbow-4,Dalmatian Mollies-2,white molly-1,Dojo Loaches-1/Cleaners:Chinese Algea Eaters-5/Murderers: Dinosaur Bichir-1And lots of other tanks,2-Gourims,6-Rams,1-Arrowanna,6-FW Flounder,1-Farlowella CF, 1-Spiney Eel

Hello and welcome to the hobby! If handled properly, you can run a tank with minimal stress and effort. Here's a rundown of a general low-maintenance setup:

#1. Build the tank well, and plan for a LONG time! Get some good substrate (not the cheap gravel), because eventually you might want live plants, once you've got the hang of the way aquariums work. Get a filter rated for 2x the size of the tank (i.e. 20 gallon filter for 10 gallon tank), get a heater, and a good light (try for 2-3 Watts of power per gallon of tank water). I would recommend getting an air pump, some airline tubing, and a few air stones so you can run a bubbler in the tank - it helps add oxygen to the tank and some fish enjoy bubbles. It's also a great source of current for fast swimmers like danios and barbs. Also get some structures like driftwood (especially if you want to keep bottom dwellers like a plecostimus or shrimp), to give the tank some character and hiding spots. In planning for a long time, choose your fish carefully! Because when you get them, they're not going away unless you can find a place to donate them or don't mind killing them.

#2. Don't overstock! 1 inch of fish per gallon, generally. So for a ten gallon, you can keep 5 danios (when full grown are about 2"). Also, keep in mind schooling fish like groups of 5-10 to school and be happy, and you can bend the overstocking rule with the advent of live plants. A bottom dweller or two can be added without worrying too much (except plecos - they get BIG), as they help clean the tank and are low impact (especially shrimp and snails).

#3. Establish a nitrogen cycle! A nitrogen cycle is a vital biological system where ammonia (NH4) generated by your fish through poop and uneaten food, etc., is processed by bacteria first into nitrite (NO2) then to nitrate (NO3) which is then removed through partial water changes or live plants. You can get a test kit to test for these things, but in general a safe way to start the cycle and keep it going is to throw some fish food into the tank when it's set up and running WITHOUT FISH, let the food decompose and flood the tank with ammonia, then add a bottle of Tetra SafeStart, give it a week for the bacteria to colonize and get busy on the ammonia, then add fish slowly, my general rule is 3 at a time with a week in between additions.

#4. Patience is a virtue! Especially with cycling the new tank - otherwise you end up causing your fish unneeded stress and might end up killing them accidentally. I find biding the time easier when I get to test my tank's water and keep a log of the changes as I see them.

#5. Don't worry about pH. Fish can adapt to a broad range of pH, and the pH out of most people's sink faucets is good enough. Messing with the pH is a surefire way to mess up your tank, especially with phosphate buffers.

#6. Do partial water changes correctly! Procedure for water changes: 1. Siphon out water and vacuum gravel (unless you have live plants, in which case don't touch the gravel). 2. Wash any new filter media in the old tank water before adding to the filter. 3. Dechlorinate the new tap water, use the feeling in your hands to approximate the same temperature (accurate to within a few degrees). 4. Siphon new water into the tank. Only change 25%-50% of the water each time, and I would suggest once weekly.

Any more stuff, I'm sure others will fill you in on as you go!

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Officially fishless until after the move....tune in later for details!

Excellent advise and well written.

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Do fish get thirsty?
How to fishless cycle your aquarium http://www.aquariumforum.com/f66/fis...cle-15036.html

Information on API FW test kit http://www.aquariumforum.com/f2/api-...ion-15347.html

Thanks everyone. I already have the filter, heater and light. I think I will get the hang of this

The planning ahead part is essential. If you have an idea of what you'd like to do with your tank before you set it up you will be much better off and can avoid many potential headaches (what type of fish, if you want plants or not, if you want tropical or moderate climate creatures, etc). Also try not to be cheap, but be frugal. Don't waste money on things you don't need but don't buy something because it's the cheapest, it's probably the cheapest for a reason. Having a good, durable, heater and filter are very important and easy to overlook. Having a backup aquarium (for instance a 10G) that has a heater set to the same temp as your main tank and also has water from the same source as your aquarium is a great idea for emergencies and quarantines, etc.

I'd also advise having a tank with at least a few live plants and an air stone or two. They're a big benefit to both the health and aesthetic value of the tank.

I could write on for ages but gtm did a good job. I disagree with some of the post though. Adding pure ammonia every day is a better alternative than letting food or other organic matter decompose in the tank. Decomposing matter releases ammonia but also releases other things and dirties the tank up. Buy a jug of ammonia without additives/surfactants (I used Great Value from Wal-Mart which isn't pure ammonia but I read was safe) and dose a couple mLs. Wait a while and test the ammonia levels. If it's within the 2-8 ppm range or so, you're good to go..just keep it at that level and bacteria will begin colonizing in a week or two. Also the debate as to the effectiveness of bacteria boosters is ongoing and I would avoid using them as I believe they are a waste of money. The bacteria you need can't live at room temperature by itself in a bottle, it needs to be refrigerated. Bio-Spira is the one that showed good results but only when properly refrigerated (as in, from nearly the moment it was bottled up until you put it in your aquarium). Still, because of the impracticality, rarely were these bottles effective. The company that bought out Bio-Spira claims to have modified it so that it doesn't have to be refrigerated, but I'm not sold...and I'd be leery of buying a bottle of bacteria off the shelf, in all likelihood you're just dumping dead bacteria into your tank.

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30G planted aquarium with Aquaclear 50 and two Aquaclear 20s. 7 Cherry Barbs, 12 Cardinal Tetras, 1 Albino Bristlenose Pleco, 1 Golden Honey Gourami, and a handful of Ghost Shrimp.

Start the tank with lotsa live plants and a mix of fast growers (anacharis/vals) and slower growers (potted, swords).

I also use 1" peat moss, 1" play sand, and then 1" pc select (or gravel) for a substrate layered from bottom to top (peat bottom layer).

The idea is to balance and stablize the system right from the start with plants. Then add fish slowly and don't add food for the first week after adding a few fish.

(look up beaslbob builds here)


my .02

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fw leiden since 1979, fo salt since 1979, mixed reef 55g 2002-2009. Strong emphasis on the tank taking care of itself. Balanced with plant life, no water changes, tap water, no filters in FW. Only dosing calcium, alk, mag in marine reef tanks. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/my-...ods-26410.html
recent tanks (till 2009) 7 years- 10g FW leiden 7 yrs, 55g mixed reef 7, 2 yrs, 20g FW leiden, 10 g fw leiden , 29g mixed reef, current tank 55g leiden

gtm hit it right on the head. I'd do a lot of plants in the tank. It looks nicer and more natural.
FYI, if you decide to get plants from stores, be sure they dont have black beard algae on them, it will spread and its a pain to get rid of.

Agree with most all of the above, especially the ammonia cycle start but only because that has worked well for me.

Regarding the plants, I have two planted and three non-planted. The reason is that one of my tanks is a 60g tall, which makes getting 120-180 watts of light to the deep bottom is hard and can be a hard balance between plants growth and aglae blooms.

I like a more "show tank" look and just don't have time to work that hard (for me) to manage it, nor the desire to spend the bucks on HO (high output) lighting right now.

However, on my 10g, it's easy to put two 13w cfl's on the standard hood, put the thing on a timer and away we go. I have to trim back my plants every month or so and have very minor algae issues in that tank. In my other 10g, same lights but on 14 hours a day, I have a nice algae growth on the sides, very healthy plants and about 50 Mollie fry growing like weeds. They like to nibble the algae and it's good for them. It's all about the purpose of the tank.

As said before, try to know where you are going before hand. That can be hard as you often find that idea changes as you move into the hobby. That ususally means more tanks, filters, etc. but don't let that worry you right now. (Sure, kid, just a few hit's of this stuff won't hurt you! Come, just try it!) lol.

BTW, I recommend the 25% or more weekly water changes (wc's) 40 years ago, the whole idea was to get a "balanced" aquarium and therefore no need to change water or "clean" your tanks. There are a few on this forum who can manage that with plants, light, etc. for for the great majority of us, weekly 25% (I do more like 50% weekly) makes for a much more healthy ecosystem.

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60g tall, all artificial plants, Rainbow tank; 55g for African Cichlids. 20g long for fry; 20g hex, 2 black Angels at my desk; 10g planted, with 50 Molly fry; 10 gal, 2x 13w cfl lightning, planted; 2g hex for "Buddy the Betta"; Wanting a 200g +, MTS getting bad.