How to start off an aquarium hobby

So here are some tips to get you started off on the right foot. It may not be a complete guide but it will at least help in the long run as it helped me when I started out.

1)      You would need at least 2 aquariums at any point in time.

Ø  Main Display aquarium

Ø  Quarantine aquarium

For the main display aquarium you should buy the at least something bigger than 40 gallon and up to 55 gallon. These are decent sizes for the main display aquarium. The reason I went with these dimensions are because

·      You are starting this hobby to watch the fish grow and enjoy how they move in the tank.   So give them the space they would need.

·     You would want more fish at least 15 to 20 in your tank. If you buy a small 20 Gallon   aquarium you would be able to accommodate only 5 to 6 fish.

·        They say 1inch per gallon. So the 1 inch should be calculated based on mature size of the   fish and not when it’s really small. This is a very safe calculation.

·      You could add more but then you need more filtration in your tank. For example, your   filter should be able to cycle the tank water at least 3 times in an hour. But if you can     cycle them more than 6 to 8 times in an hour then you could add couple more fish into   the tank.

·        You may start off with 2 or 3 gold fish in a 5 gallon or 10 gallon tank but soon they will     outgrow the tank. So choose wisely. Stores do not buy back fish.

For the quarantine aquarium get a decent 20 gallon aquarium. This should be sufficient. The reason you need a quarantine aquarium is for 3 reasons

·     When you buy fish from the fish store, you do not know what infection or disease they   carry. So you need to quarantine time for at least 3 weeks before moving them to the   main tank. You do not want the fishes in your main tank to get affected and end up   losing more livestock.

·        Let’s face it, even in the main display aquarium there could be some sort of infections that can crop up. You would need to keep a watch out and move the infected fish out as quickly as possible to the quarantine tank.

·      Say you had only a main display and you had live plants in that aquarium. If you were to add medication to it, then you risk killing all the beneficial bacteria and also losing the plants as most plants don’t do well with medication used to cure the fish illness.

So don’t start off on the wrong foot. Make sure you have plans for 2 aquariums for the reasons listed out. It will help in the long run

2)      Cost involved in building these 2 aquariums.

Everyone underestimates the cost involved in setting up an aquarium. You would buy a tank based on a 1$ per gallon deal, but soon you will realize that the accessory cost would mount up. Let me list out the items you would need to start a 55 gallon aquarium.

Ø   Tank. Prices can range from 55$ - 400$ depending on the type of tank. There are 2 types of tank that you can get. There are pros and cons to both. Described later on.

Ø  Heater based on aquarium size

Ø  Filter based on aquarium size, either canister or hang on the back. Everyone says that the filter is where the beneficial bacteria reside, but I tend to disagree and more bacteria resides in the gravel etc.. within the tank..

Ø  Python No Spill Clean and Fill Aquarium Maintenance System. This will save a lot of water spills and time performing water changes.

Ø  For cleaning glass or acrylic: Use an old credit card to scrape of algae ;-).

Ø  API Water tester: Buy the API kit. This will save a lot of time and headache in figuring out what parameters are going wrong or right within the tank and take necessary action.

Ø  Chemical removers: If you are going to use tap water, you would need to remove the Chlorine, Chloramine and other harmful chemicals. Use Seachem Prime for the same. Buy from amazon it’s has always been cheaper there.

Ø  Plant Additives: it’s a closed environment, you may need to add additives once in a while to make sure the plants are getting the necessary nutrition they need. Seachem Flourish Excel or Advance should be good..

Ø  Medicines: Always have Seachem Paraguard handy to treat fish with any illness or disease. Make sure to keep them separated for at least 3 to 4 weeks before re-introducing them back into the main tank.

Ø  Lights: If you are planning to do a live planted tank, then select good lighting. 6500K or 10000K Beamswork LED lighting should be good. Select based on aquarium size. Minimum 8 hours a day or lighting

Ø  Aeration tubes, stones and pumps: Air stones. 1 or 2 depending on the size of the tank. Possibly get the air stones which generate the smaller bubbles. The bubbles are not what increase the oxygen in the water, the disturbance which the bubbles cause at the surface cause better oxygenation to take place.

Ø  Check Valves: If placing the air pump below the aquarium, this is a must to prevent an automatic siphon to be created when the pump is switched off or when power is lost. If not you are looking at water all over your floor.

Ø  Décor: You can take your time and decide what type of theme you would like to have. Don’t add any décor into the aquarium without testing it a week or two for PH changes, other chemicals that it may slowly leach into the water. Fish are sensitive to PH changes which decreases their immunity.

Ø  Fish: Try to get fish based on the following matching factors if planning for a community tanks

o   Behavior and how they co-exist with different varieties

o   PH levels they prefer

o   Top, mid and lower level fish

o   Temperature they prefer.

                 All the above have to match, if not it would be out of balance.

Ø  Gravel: Sand or rocks

Ø  Fish Food : Different types flakes, blood worms, shrimp pellets. Don't feed more than what fish can eat within 10 minutes nor should you feed them more than once a day. Resist the temptation to feed them when someone requests you too. More food is more waste, and more waste is more ammonia, nitrates etc. I either do once a day or alternate days.

Ø  Automatic fish food feeder : when planning for vacations. I use the Eheim Battery Operated Auto Fish Feeder and it seems to be doing a good job

Ø  Hand Towels:  Have a bunch of them always in hand. You would need them after you dip your hand in the tank and out.

Ø  A Cover or top for the tank, so that fish do not jump out. Trust me they do jump out. I have had two fishes jump out to date and luckily both are still alive as I saw them lying on the floor on time.

Try to estimate the cost of all this added together. The bigger the tank, the more of the above you would need.. You can buy some across time but 80% of it would be required on day one.

Aquarium Maintenance

You would need to spend some time at least 1/2 hour a week or once in 2 weeks in maintenance and upkeep of the aquarium, as its a closed environment.

1) Regular Water Changes: 20 to 30%. This is your friend. But don’t perform more than 30% water changes over a span of 3 or 4 days as you would be adding more chemicals into the tank and that could play a more detrimental role to the balance in the tank.

2) Test the water to make sure Ammonia, PH, & Nitrate parameters are proper. The sooner you take corrective action the better. If not there could be a PH collapse and everything collapses with that.

PH : 7.0

Ammonia : 0 ppm

Nitrites : 0 ppm

Nitrates : <20 p="" ppm="">

If you have more nitrates, then it would start forming brown algae or start affecting the fish. Nitrate poisoning is what its called. You can add a money plant or Pothos with their roots dipped in the water to suck the nitrates out of the tank.. but sometimes water changes are the only resolution.

Glass or Acrylic

Glass tanks are very heavy almost 5 to 10 times the weight of the acrylic. They are commonly available in rectangular shapes. The sides are stuck together with glue. Possibility of a crack forming is high if hit by a sharp object.  These are the cheapest, commonly available, and widely used tanks around. All pet stores or Local Fish Stores (LFS) carry them. Only the outer rims of the tank need to be supported by the table. The tanks are not flexible and rigid.Below is a Glass tank

Acrylic tanks are very light weight and 10x stronger than glass. They tend to get expensive. This is the material used in almost all public aquariums. Instead of being stuck together with glue, they are welded together with a product called Weld-on. The full base needs to supported by the table. After having both aquarium types, I have to say acrylic looks better but its just personal preference as it gives better color depth and originality. Below is an acrylic tank

This is an expensive hobby if you do not get the things right and have patience at the start. But if you do it right at the beginning it will cost very less to maintain it for years. The aquarium hobby is addictive, i.e. you would start off with 1 small tank and before you even realize what’s going on, you would have couple of tanks to maintain and more effort and cost.

 If you feel anything is not accurately portrayed, please feel free to comment and I will try to rectify the same. Also I am not advertising any product here.. It worked for me so I have added their pictures and references here..