If you have never had a fish tank, you are missing out on something that can add a splash of color and life to any room of your home. Luckily, setting up a freshwater tank is easy enough to do in most cases, but it does require some effort on your behalf to make sure it is a suitable environment for the fish you have chosen to live there.
Getting Started
The first part of setting up a tank is to get everything together. Decide on your tank size, the stand you want to use, the canopy or light that you want to use with it, gravel, the filter, and some decorations will put you ahead of the game. You can purchase a lot of these things in a kit if you chose the right tank. They may also come with a thermometer, which many people say that you should also have access to. If you have tropical fish, you may want to include a heater.
Once you have everything together, you will want to rinse the gravel with water before putting it into the tank. Fill the tank with water and add gravel to the bottom. Rinse and add the decorations and put the heater and filter into the tank. When adding decorations, you need to put a fair amount, but also leave enough room for the fish to swim around in.
After everything is set up, you will want to wait at least 24 hours for the tank to stabilize in temperature before adding the fish. You may also want to add something to the water if you have hard water.
Adding the Fish
When you first bring home the fish, you want to let them float in the bag that they arrive in for a while in the tank. This will allow the fish to acclimate to the water temperature in the tank. When you are ready to add the fish to the tank, you need to do so without putting the water from the pet store into it. Otherwise, you take a chance on introducing bacteria into your tank.
After Care
As long as you feed your fish, the tank will thrive, but you also need to make sure that you clean the tank regularly. An algae eater is a great way to keep the surface area clean, but you need to get below the gravel at times as well.