Best tips for starting a new aquarium ?

Question

i have a ten gallon tank can u tell me wut fish how often to feed pretty much everything and im not looking to spend a tone of money

Answer 1

First to start you'll need a tank [duh], appropriate light, gravel (10 pounds for a 10g tank, and the plants you want (since you're only a beginner, i'd recommend just plastic plants and decor.) Also a 10 gallon filter (I recommend the tetra line), 10 gallon air pump, and air stone-for proper aeration and oxygen delivery to your future fish. befor e you put it in the tank make sure to rinse your gravel in a bucket thoroughly until you can put water in it without it getting cloudy. You'll also need to get Aquasafe (it's in a yellow bottle), and mix in 8 drops of it for every gallon of water you use from you're tap. Now you need to let it cycle a minimum of 3 weeks. I think it'd be good for you to get something called Cycle. It's available at most walmarts and petsmart (Just go by the directions on the box if you decide to use it.) It dramatically and rapidly matures your tank and reduces the time of the cycle, and also reduces stress on fish. Then you pick your fish. Remember the rule of thumb is 1 inch of fish per gallon, so for a 10g tank, 10 inches. Make sure you take into consideration when buying the fish the size it will be when it's full grown. You will need to pick one category of fish: peaceful, semi-peaceful, or aggressive (I recommend peaceful for beginners- hearty, simple and pleasing to the eye.) Also you'll need to decide whether you want goldfish or tropical fish. If you want tropical fish, you'll need a heater to keep the water warm. Go to you're pet store for more help in picking fish (don't let them give you more than you're limit though, some try to sell you more than you need) And don't get your fish all at once. Just a few at a time. Feeding? Just once a day, as much as they eat in a few minutes. If you have nothing else to do, it's alright to feed them twice a day, but don't overfeed! Once you're tank is setup you'll need to do regular water changes or 1 or 2 gallons once each week, and vacuum the gravel  (with a siphon) for dirt. This setup you're probably looking at around $100 after the fish and everything. I do have to warn you though it can get quite addictive.

Answer 2

start by cycling your tank. do this by setting up all the equipment in the tank, and everyday add a couple of fish flakes. the tank will cloud and then unclud, when this happens your tank is ready for fish. i recommend you get a school of seven or eight tetras until you learn the basics of fish care. they are hardy fish. or a scool of danios. feed them once or twice a day, the amount they will eat in a minute or two, then remove the rest of the food. feed them flakes, blood worms and brine shrimp. (these come live, frozen or freeze dried).  both of these breeds of fish are also pretty cheap.  make sure you get a filter and heater. an air pump isnt really necessary, but with it, your fish will be more active.  about once a week, remove 25% of the water, and replace with dechlorinated water. ALWAYS dechlorinate the water you use. and dont use bottled water or distilled water, as these are missing nutrients.

thats pretty much it....

Answer 3

First and foremost before you add any fish you need to cycle your tank. This is the process through which beneficial bacteria grow in your tank and consume the harmful substances like Ammonia and Nitrite produced by your fish's waste. Now is the perfect time to start this before you even know what kind of fish you want.  All you need now is your gravel, or other substrate (about 1-2 lbs per gallon) and a filter.  A 10 gallon power filter will be fine; you can find them at most pet shops if you don't already have one.  

Once you have these things just put your tank where you want it, fill it with water and put your filter on it.  You don't even need to put any chemicals in it to remove the chlorine because it will evaporate out within 24 hrs.

Basically cycling your tank without fish is better for your fish and quicker than if you use cheep fish to cycle your tank for you.  The idea behind cycling is an AMMONIA source for bacteria to eat and tun into Nitrite. Soon another bacteria will grow and eat the Nitrite and turn it into Nitrate, which is not very harmful to fish (relative to ammonia and nitrite).  You can cut out the middle man and just add the Ammonia yourself.

After a few weeks when your tank is cycled you can start to add your fish!

I can't go into all the detail here but you can easily ask another question about it and I will answer it, or you can look up "fishless cycling" on the internet.

I would go ahead and purchase a water test kit that tests for PH Ammonia Nitrite and Nitrate as well...trust me you will need it.

Good luck, send me a message if you want more help...

Answer 4

Don't do it. Aquariums are money pits. Believe me I know.

Answer 5

get kyathit danios

they are cool

Answer 6

Hello, first when you get your tank you have to cycle it. Which means making a good bed of bacteria in your filter. Then you have to buy your filter I recommend the tetra whisperer 2-10i at walmart for 10 dollars. Clean the tank first with water only, no soap! Add gravel like blue gravel colored gravel or naural. Add and airpump with an airstone to provide oxygen or you can get live plants such as java moss. Decor such as caves plants fake plants ect. Maintenece requires 25% water changes every week or 2 weeks with a gravel vacuum. You need an algae scraper if you have live plants I recommend sponge algae scrapers not from the kitchen, but from the petstore only. Lighting and hoods provide light and so water evaporation won't come out and also prevents from fish jumping out. Test kits! The most important things. I recommend getting an API aquarium freshwater master test kit and also get a water conditioner such as tetra aquasafe. Fishes. You can put mollies in there, bettas, dwarf puffer fish,platies, guppies. Heating use an aquarium heater and heat the water at 75F for tropical fishes. So the anual fish equipment total got me to 70-100 dollars US. Goodluck!!!  

Answer 7

dont overstock the tank one gallon per each inch of fish.

EXAMPLE!

if you want a 2in. fish get only 5

Answer 8

That is a tank size that lots of people start with and have good luck with. First off you need a filter rated for twice the tank size as they recommend. Manufacturers give the amount of water in a filter that does not have any cartridge in it to slow down the water flow. Once you put in a cartridge it will slow down the flow of water and as the cartridge gets dirty it will slow down even more.  Start with only one or two fish at a time so as to help "cycle the tank. Make sure that you check for ammonia and nitrite (most local fish stores will check them for you free of charge). do not add until the ammonia and nitrite are at zero. Make sure to keep checking while you have fish in there and if they get too high, you will need to do a partial water change with treated water. Do not feed too much, the size of the eyes is abut the size of the stomach or to put it another way, if it takes more than one or two minutes for the fish to eat, you are overfeeding. The food cans will say to feed three or more times a day so that they can sell more.  

Answer 9

Small community fish are good. Like guppies, mollies, and livebearers, Some neon tetra, tiger barbs, etc...

You should feed them about 2 times a day. One in the morning and one at night.

Main things you need for a fish tank is a filter, air pump, hood with light, and a heater if you're planning to keep tropical fish.

Thats basially it. All the other accessories could be bought later.

Answer 10

Aquariums by nature are expensive to keep and maintain, however a 10 gallon isn't too terrible but there will be ongoing costs to maintain it.

For a 10 gallon I would go with a hang on the back power filter that will cycle the tank around 10 times per hour, so for a 10 you want to look for one that does 100 gallons per hour, a light and cover for the tank, the tank itself, around 10 pounds of gravel, a heater if you keep tropical fish, etc.

As for feeding I feed most of my fish 2 times per day 6 days a week, they fast 1 day.

You will want to do regular partial water changes but never change the entire volume of water or filter media at once. There are bacteria that grow in the aquarium over time that will convert ammonia to nitrite and nitrite to nitrate.

You will also want test kits to test the water for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate to keep them at a healthy level.

Best bet is to get a book and read as much as you can on aquariums before getting one.