When we first began in the fish hobby we had no idea that there were so many things that we needed to know. Unlike many new fish hobbyists, we were VERY fortunate to stumble across a gentleman at our local fish store that was a virtual walking encyclopedia of fish knowledge. Had it not been for him we would have had many of the tragic results beginners usually experience. Thanks to his help and the patience he showed in taking the time to explain things to us over and over again we have been rewarded with years of fun and exciting fish keeping.

The following is a guide to to help all new fish hobbyists get started. I have broken it down into individual topics. I have tried to cover all topics as thoroughly as possible. If you have any additional questions, please feel free to drop me an e-mail. I will be adding to this section as new questions arise or if I remember something that I may have forgotten. It's been a while since I first started so I'm sure to forget a thing or two. I hope that my experiences in the various areas will save you the heart ache that many beginners experience.

There are many factors in choosing what size and type of tank to purchase. I will address each one individually.

Tanks range from the simple desktop set-up of 1 gallon to 200 gallons or more. I don't know of many beginners that started out with a 200 gallon tank. Instead most beginners opt for a smaller tank. We started out with a 30 gallon tank. I feel that a 30 gallon tank is the perfect size for a beginner if you have the room for it.

Price is a big factor on choosing what to buy. The larger the tank the more money is involved in the individual purchase of the tank. In addition, the larger the tank the more it will cost to outfit the tank. You will need a larger more expensive heater, filter, etc and you will have to purchase more gravel to cover the bottom of the tank. When choosing the size carefully consider what the equipment is going to cost as well. The additives necessary in your tank will also be more costly in the larger tank. A larger tank requires more additives because additives are based on the amount of gallons. IE: 1 teaspoon per 10 gallons of water. A 10 gallon tank would take 1 teaspoon whereas a 50 gallon tank would need 5 teaspoons.

The larger the tank, of course, the more fish you can put in it. If you are interested in larger fish that can grow to a foot or more then you would want to purchase a 50 gallon tank or larger. However, if you would like a lively tank with a lot of small colorful fish, then a 30 gallon tank would suit you perfectly.

There are two types of material that your aquarium can be made of: Glass or Acrylic. All of my tanks are glass. I prefer glass over Acrylic. Acrylic tanks scratch very easily. Though most of the scratches can be buffed out, some can not. This spoils your view of the fish. In addition, Acrylic tanks cost a considerable amount more money. The plus of an Acrylic tank is that they do NOT have seams in them. They will not leak. Glass tanks are put together by sheets of glass glued together. They are very reliable, but the potential is there for the seam to loosen and the tank to leak. My 150 gallon tank that is now almost 10 years old and it is just fine. Usually if a tank is going to leak it will start out slowly and not just burst open, spilling all of it contents all over your house.

I would strongly suggest deciding where you want to put your tank before going out to purchase it. Measure the area you wish to place your tank and buy a tank that will fit in that area. Figure in space on both sides of the tank so that you can get to both sides of it. This will aid greatly in the process of setting up, cleaning, maintaining, etc. Tanks come in sizes of long and tall. You can get a tank that will be low and long or one that is tall and short and still have the same amount of gallons. If you are limited on space then a short and tall tank would be best. However, one thing to consider in a tall tank is how tall you are. I'm only 5' 2" and when the tank is sitting on a stand, it is very hard for me to reach all sides of it to clean it. So if you are not a tall person you may want to forego a tall tank.

The weight of a tank is an important consideration as well. My 150 gallon tank weighed 350 pounds without anything in it. Water weighs approximately 8.5 pounds per gallon. Add that to the weight of your fish, gravel and other accessories and your tank can weigh quite a bit. Need I say that my 150 gallon tank weighs well over 1500 pounds fully stocked. If you live in an upstairs apartment or plan on placing your aquarium in an upstairs room I would consider the weight before purchasing a very large tank. Many apartment complexes do not allow aquariums in their upstairs apartments.

Be sure that the tank is going to be put in a place where your floor will support the weight. To determine the weight of the water in any size tank: Multiply Width x Height x Length. Then divide that result by 231 to get total gallons. One gallon of water weighs 8.5 lbs. Multiply the number of gallons your tank is by 8.5 to get the weight of the water. Then add the weight of the empty tank plus any rock and gravel you plan to use.

Disease is another thing to consider when purchasing a tank. The larger the tank the better. If a fish gets sick or a parasite, the disease is going to spread much more rapidly in a 10 gallon tank than a 50 gallon tank. However, the cost of treatment will be much more expensive in the larger tank. So far I have not had any type of disease in my 150 gallon tank, but if I ever do it is going to cost a mint to treat the entire tank should that be necessary.

Watch your local paper or visit garage sales. This is a very good place to find a larger tank for really cheap. You can get real deals if you wait. Most of the time you can get the tank, stand and equipment for less than half of what it all would cost new. Be sure and have the person fill the tank with water before purchasing it. Wait around for 15 minutes or so to make sure that the tank does not leak. Another good thing to check when purchasing a used tank is to make sure that the sealant is still soft. Feel the inside of the tank where the edges come together. Makes sure that the seal is still soft and pliable. If it is hard and brittle you are taking a real chance on the tank leaking in the near future.

We totally lucked out when we purchased out 150 gallon tank. We could never have afforded that large of a tank if we had not found an ad in our local paper. A man was moving offices and had no time for his tank anymore. We purchased the 150 gallon tank, stand, 3 magnum filters, plants, fish, gravel, heater, etc, all for $450.00. We literally stole the tank. The tank alone sells for over $700. When talking to our friend at the fish store he said the whole set-up would have easily cost us over $1800 had we purchased it new. So... keep your eyes open. Who knows what you might find in the paper.

The stand that you place your tank on is very important. It should be very sturdy and able to withstand a lot of weight. The surface area of the stand has got to be as large as the bottom of your tank. Preferably larger by about 1/2" on all sides. Commercially built aquarium stands are usually the exact size of the tank. Do not place your aquarium on a TV. This can cause the tank to heat up too much and kill your fish. Also, when changing water there is a potential of damaging your TV. Whatever you place your stand on you will get water on the wood at some time or another. No matter how careful you are you always spill a little water or the fish will splash water outside of the tank when the lid is up.

All of my stands are covered with a piece of plastic carpet runner and a piece of carpet on top of that. The plastic carpet runner and the carpet extend down over the sides of the stand by about 2-3". This protects the wood finish of the stand. A friend of mine had a 15 gallon tank sitting on a window shelf for years. It wasn't until he moved last year and moved the tank that he discovered that water had totally destroyed the shelf. The wood was rotted. It's a wonder it did not cave in. If you purchase a 5 or 10 gallon tank, you can use a piece of Plastic Wrap on the stand.

Make sure that you set your tank on a level surface. If one corner sticks up higher than the other this will cause a twist in the tank which will eventually, if not immediately, break the seal and your tank will leak. Try to make the stand level. It is a real pain when filling the tank with water for it to not be level and tilted. We live in an old house which has settled and is terribly unlevel. We had to put spacers under our stands in order to level them. When we first started we did not realize this. We would fill the tank with water just to discover that the powerhead was not covered with water on one side whereas the other side of the tank was as full as we could get it. So it is very important that your tank is level in order for your equipment to function properly. Not to mention the fact that when looking at your tank it looks so much nicer when you don't see the water line on one end and nothing on th other.

Filter systems depend on a lot of things. The types of fish you will be housing, maintenance or the system, your budget and of course, personal preference. I will outline what I use and my experiences with them. This is my personal opinion. Other fish hobbyist may differ in theirs.

UNDERGRAVEL FILTERS: Every one of my aquariums has an Undergravel Filter (UGF) in it. I love these filters. They are easy on the pocketbook (to purchase and maintain) and they do an excellent job. I, personally, have had very little trouble with them. They keep my tanks crystal clear. If installed and maintained properly any fish owner should have excellent success with them. If you are housing particularly messy, heavy waste producing fish (Oscars or Goldfish) you will need additional filtering in order to keep your tank clean. For most fish, however, the UGF works wonderfully.

You will need an air pump to use the UGF without powerheads. They come in a variety of sizes. In the beginning we purchased one that was for a 30 gallon tank. We soon found out that it really was not powerful enough to get the job done properly. I would recommend getting one that is for a larger tank than you own. It will last longer in the long run and do a much better job. Each tube that comes up from you UGF plate will need an airstone. These are very inexpensive and easy to replace. They are not easily cleaned and though I have done it in an emergency, I would not recommend it. After a while they deteriorate and crumble so it is best to always replace them. If you opt to use powerheads instead of the tubes and airstones then you will not need to purchase a pump.

One of the drawbacks of this type of filter is that the waste matter (food, feces, etc) tends to build-up underneath the filter. After a while sludge builds up under the filter plates and can eventually plug them up. Eventually the area underneath them gets full. An undergravel filter works by sucking water down under the filter and then back up through the tubes. Because of this, when the area underneath the UGF gets full, there is no where for the waste to go, but back up the tubes and out into your tank. This makes for quite a chore for cleaning. You have to move the gravel over to one side, clean the gunk out of the bottom, wash your plates and start your biological filter all over again. Without proper cleaning (see the cleaning section) you can have real problems.

When installing make sure that you fit the plates right up against each other. The filter will not work properly if this is not done. We had one tank that had a real problem with cloudy water even though we were doing everything right. Finally one day while talking about it we remembered that when we set the tank up we neglected to place the UGF plates right up against each other. We tore the tank apart and put it back together the proper way and never had another problem.

BIO-WHEELS: All of our tanks except for the 150 gallon, which houses the Oscars and various other Cichlids, have Penguin 300 Bio-Wheels in them. These are an excellent size for a 50-90 gallon tank. They keep the water circulating and the tank clean. Bio-Wheels are easy to set up. They come with excellent instructions. You can use two different types of filter media with these which adds to their appeal. I have a charcoal filter sleeve in each one and ammonia remover media in the baskets. They are more spendy than the UGF, but are well worth the money. I find that the combination of the UGF and the Bio-Wheel cuts down dramatically the amount of time spent on maintenance.

If you have messy or heavy waste producing fish, I would suggest using a Bio-Wheel along with a UGF. When we first started out my Goldfish tank only had a UGF in it. It wasn't long before we realized that this was not enough to keep it clean. It no has a Bio-Wheel, UGF and power heads. It takes all three to keep it crystal clear and free of waste material. Nothing looks worse when watching your fish swim around than seeing a bunch of stringy fecal matter floating around in the tank.

The instructions tell you to replace both the filters and the filtering agents on a monthly basis for them to be effective. This can get expensive. I personally don't replace my filters/agents as often as I probably should, however, I don't have any health problems by not doing so. I do rinse/spray the filter cartridges and the filtering media that I put in the baskets on a weekly basis to keep them in good filtering order. Cleaning them is time consuming, but cheaper and works just as well.

CANISTER FILTERS: Until we purchased our 150 gallon tank I had never had any experience with canister type filters. The tank came with 3 Magnum 350 Canister Filters. I must say I am VERY impressed with them. Having used only a Bio-Wheel, UGF and powerheads in the past with my Oscars and other Cichlids I had just come to figure I would have to live with a messy tank most of the time. However, once we set up the 150 gallon tank and moved the Cichlids in there we soon realized the value of a canister filter. The tank stayed crystal clear for weeks. We used to have to do weekly water changes to keep their tank clean. Now the tank stays clean with monthly water changes which we do to keep the ammonia and nitrates down mainly.

These filters are quite expensive. Had we not gotten them with the tank I highly doubt that we would have ever purchased them on our own. They run around $100 each. However, if you plan on having Cichlids, Oscars especially, I would highly recommend getting one. They are total pigs when they eat which messes up a tank real quickly. Oscars tend to put the food in their mouth, chomp down on it, and then spit out half of it through their gills. All this excess food floats around inside the tank making it very dirty and cloudy. With the Magnum hooked up to the tank there is no longer a problem with it.

Maintenance is one drawback to these filters. You have to disconnect and remove the entire filter system to clean it. The hoses that are attached to the filter start flaring on the ends after repeated removal requiring you to cut part of off so that it once again has a tight fit. If not reattached properly they can come off causing mass water spillage. There are several rubber washers on the connectors that require a coating of Vasoline to insure that they don't get dry and brittle which again could cause leaks. If the hoses are not cut properly you can damage the ends of your connectors by trying to force them on and bending the plastic on the ends.

There are valves that turn the water on and off. My boyfriend has made the mistake of trying to move the filter out from under the tank before turning off the water valves. Sometimes the connections would slip off from moving the filter and bending the hoses too far one way or the other. This resulted water, water everywhere. It is very important to turn the valves off before moving the system before cleaning.

Replacement parts are quite expensive as well. If you use a filter sleeve with charcoal you can clean that the same as I clean the filters in the Bio-Wheels and reuse it. However if you use the paper type filters you have to replace them each time. You can not clean them like you can the filters in the Bio-Wheels. The entire system is easy to clean out, but just make sure that all of your connections are very tight.

All in all, I rate the Magnum Canister Filters as an excellent product. However, due to the increases maintenance required and the expense, I opt not to use them on all of my tanks. I prefer to stay with the Bio-Wheels, UGF's, and powerheads.

POWERHEADS: All of our tanks, but the 30 gallon have powerheads in them. Originally we did not have them, but our friend at the store talked us into buying them. They make a tremendous difference in keeping the tank clean. In addition they keep the water agitated which increases the oxygen to your fish. They are much more powerful than the simple air tubes of the UGF. Be sure that when you buy a powerhead that you do not buy too powerful of a one. Check with the store owner on what size would best be suited for your size of tank. A tank larger than a 30 gallon tank, I feel should have a powerhead in it. You can get one very powerful one and put it on one side of the tank or get two less powerful ones and put them on both sides of the tank. That is what we have done. In order for you to get good circulation and maximum cleaning capabilities on the larger tanks, like our 80 gallon and 150 gallon, you really do need to have two powerheads in there. If you run 2 tubes and only one powerhead you will need to purchase a pump to run the other side.

I have no recommendation on brand. I have 4 different brands and they all pretty much seem the same. Since they are so powerful they will suck up a lot of waste and plug up after a bit, but you can take them apart for easy cleaning. They range in price but not by much. I've never had one go bad yet, so again, it is hard for me to recommend a certain brand to use. I would say, choose what fits in your budget for the size of tank that you own.

If you are going to have tropical fish that are not cold water fish, you will need a heater for your tank. Goldfish are cold water fish and much prefer loser temperatures. There are a few other fish out there like that, but most tropical freshwater fish do need a heated tank of 76-80 degrees so a heater will need to be purchased.

There are basically 2 kinds of heaters on the market. Submersible and non-Submersible hanging heaters. The non-Submersible hanging type you usually have to adjust the temperature to get it right, which is no easy chore to do. These types of heaters tend to fluctuate in temperature pretty badly. I personally don't care for them at all and have since replaced all of mine with the Submersible thermostatically controlled heaters. The heaters that are controlled by a thermostat rarely fluctuate in temperature more than 1 degree if that. They are extremely accurate. Do NOT place any fish in your tank until the temperature in your tank has been stable for at least 24 hours without fluctuation of more than 1 degree either way.

I have two different brands, Ebo-Jager and Acu-Therm. By far I prefer the Ebo-Jager over all. If you set your temperature for 76 degrees it will stay right there. The Acu-Therm's I had to play with the temperature setting a bit. What you see is not what you get. One tank is set at 84 degrees and stays at 76-78 degrees. The other tank is set at 72 degrees and stays at 76-78 degrees. The Ebo-Jager came factory pre-set and I never had to touch it once. The construction of the Ebo-Jager is by far superior as well. The glass is thicker and the cord is more of an industrial type strength cord than a regular cord from, say a lamp, or something.

The cost of heaters does vary on what you purchase. The more watts the more money. Submersible heaters are more money than non-Submersible ones. Thermostat controlled are more than non-thermostat controlled. And of course brand makes a difference as well. Ebo-Jager is one of the most expensive, though not by much. $2-5 depending on where you purchase it.  There is a new heater out on the market that came out about 8 months ago. It is electronically controlled and quite expensive. I have not yet had a chance to try one of these nor do I know of anyone that has. I plan on purchasing one when one of my other heaters goes out just to see how good it works. When I do, I will update the information on this page.

The rule of thumb for purchasing a heater for your tank is 5 watts per 10 gallons. I have 200 watt heaters in my 50 gallon tanks, a 200 watt heater in my 80 and a 250 watt heater in my 150. I find that it keeps them just fine. The heaters in the larger tanks do have to work harder to keep the tank warm, however with good water circulation this is not a problem. You would probably save money and your heater would last longer in the long run if you were to run 2 heaters in the larger tanks instead of one. Many people recommend this, but at the time we set up most of these tanks we did not have the money for 2 heaters and instead chose one large one. One good thing about running 2 heaters is in the event that one were to give out while you were gone on vacation or something, you would have a backup in there and you would not lose any fish. I would say that it is a matter of preference and budget on what you choose to buy. If you opt for only one heater, be sure and position it as close to the center of the tank as possible. That way the water will circulate all around it and keep your temperature steady.

In the next section I will address gravel, decorations, plants, driftwood, tank backing, cleaning, general and miscellaneous equipment. Please feel free to drop me a line  if you have any additional questions or would like to have anything explained further that I may have not made too clear.

PROCEED TO PART TWO