9/11/20

Getting Started: Basic equipment

This is a list of basic equipment, some essential, some optional, for successful freshwater fish keeping.

1. Aquarium. This is the most obvious piece of equipment, yet improper selection of an aquarium for the fish you want to keep is one of the leading causes of fish deaths. It may seem counter-intuitive, but the smaller the tank, the more work you will have to do to keep your fish alive. Fish produce a lot of waste, as does any living thing. This waste is, of course, harmful to fish if it becomes concentrated. The solution to pollution is dilution, so the more water you have in your tank the easier it is to keep your fish healthy. Remember that any fish you choose naturally lives in bodies of water with many times more gallons of water per fish than you can hope to provide. Imagine being forced to live in a broom closet with no plumbing that is MAYBE cleaned out every other week, and that is what it is like for a fish to be kept in a bowl or tank of only a gallon or two.
So what size of tank should you get? The largest one you can afford and have room for. If you can afford a 300 gallon tank with all the equipment, and have the room for it, get it. You will find it easier than you can imagine filling it with fish. If you only have enough room/money for a 10 gallon tank, consider saving up for something larger, but you can still keep small healthy tropical fish. Remember that shape can be more important than size when it comes to choosing a tank. The tall “tower” or hexagon tanks look neat, but are not the best choice. They have very little surface area, which hinders gas exchange. Also, fish usually enjoy swimming back and forth, not up and down. A tank less than 2 feet across may have as many gallons of water as one three feet long, but it will not provide enough swimming room. This, like a small tank, increases a fish’s stress Finally, consider all THREE dimensions of the tank when deciding what type of fish you want to keep. A 55 gallon tank may be plenty tall and plenty long for say a 14 inch fish, but what about the distance front to back? The common ones are only 13 inches or so. No matter how many gallons it holds, if a fish can touch its nose and tail to opposite panes of glass in your aquarium at the same time, the tank is too small.

2. Aquarium Stand. You of course need some place to put your aquarium. The best thing for this is a stand built for the aquarium type you have. Water is heavy; it weighs over 8 pounds per gallon, plus the gravel, decorations and equipment, as well as the weight of the glass itself. A 10 gallon tank can easily exceed 100 pounds when fully set up. Suppose you have a 30 gallon tank on a book shelf. You set it up and the book case seems to be holding the 300 pounds without a problem. That is, until you bump the end of the book case and the entire unit folds under the weight. Even though a shelf can support hundreds of pounds of pressure straight up and down, that doesn’t mean the unit is designed to withstand the torsion force caused by a relatively slight lateral pressure. A stand made for that specific amount of weight (or more) is your best choice. Remember that a glass tank stand must support the tank all around the bottom edges, and an acrylic tank needs to be supported along the entire bottom surface.

3. Power filter. For whatever fish you get, yes, you need a power filtration unit. While some fish like less water movement than others, you are usually safe getting a filter rated for at LEAST as many gallons as your tank holds. The three general types of filters are canister filters, under gravel filters and external box-type filters. There are other varieties but these are the three most common general types. Under gravel filters are essentially that, the water is sucked down through a large intake network hidden under your gravel and circulated. Canister filters are generally the most expensive type, but also are some of the best filters available, with more options to customize your filter media than most other systems. External filters consist of an intake tube, a filter-media box on the back of your tank, and a small ramp for filtered water to return to the tank. Any filter will work well with your aquarium as long as it circulates the water and provides the three stages of filtration; mechanical filtration (removing particulate matter from the water by straining it through various things), chemical filtration (activated carbon that removes many potentially harmful chemicals is the most common) and biological filtration (the bacteria colonies that break down the nitrogenous wastes produced by your living fish and organic matter decaying). More information on biological filtration is provided in the nitrogen cycle section.

4. Heater and thermometer. A heater is important not just to keep tropical fish tanks at the correct temperature, but also to keep tropical and goldfish tanks at a steady temperature. Too-warm or too-cold water can stress fish less (within reason) than rapid temperature changes. You NEED a thermometer to monitor water temperature, and you are better off with a heater no matter what fish you keep.

5. Tank canopy (lid) and light. The only fish that won’t jump is a dead fish, and if you don’t have a lid on your tank, fish that do jump will soon be dead fish. You need some sort of canopy to keep your fish in the tank. These can be the type with a built-in light, the nice glass hinged type, or even a piece of scrap screen. I would not recommend anything metal though, as rusting metal can severely degrade your water quality if it gets into your tank. A light is not absolutely necessary if you don’t have live plants in your tank, but having one is more natural for the fish, as it simulates daylight and nighttime. Needless to say, your fish also look much better with the proper lighting.

6. Air pump/air stone. Whether this is required or not depends a lot on what type of fish you have, what type of filter you have and what size/shape of tank. If you have live plants in your tank, they provide more oxygen to your tank water than any bubbler. Even if your filter provides adequate oxygenation, you still may want a bubbler for aesthetic reasons. Some fish also enjoy swimming through the bubbles. The choice of air pump and the choice of air stones/bubbling decorations is up to you, but the more small bubbles produced, the more it oxygenates the water. Note, however, that if you use any type of CO2 injection system to nourish your plants, the aerator will remove the CO2 and render it useless.

7. Gravel Vacuum siphon tube. This is a must if you have any type of substrate such as sand or gravel. Some type of siphon, such as an old length of hose, is necessary even if you have a bear bottom tank. The gravel vacuum sucks the decaying food and fish waste from where it gets trapped in the gravel. This should be done during any partial water change.

8. Bucket for water changes. This is obvious, but what is not as obvious is that the bucket must not be used for anything but changing the water from your fish tank, taking the water out and/or adding new. If the bucket has been used for chemicals such as cleansers or other things that don’t belong in an aquarium, get another bucket or you risk poisoning your fish.

9. Water Dechlorinator. This is necessary for anyone who gets their water from a treated source. If your water comes from an untreated well, you do not need to dechlorinate it, but everyone else should keep some dechlorinator handy. Even if you age your water in a bucket to dechlorinate it for your water changes (this works for chlorine only, NOT chloramines, confirm which your water provider uses), you should have a dechlorinator handy for emergency water changes.

10. Test Kits. Test kits are essential when first setting up your tank and throughout the cycling process. They are also useful to have on hand if you have established tanks and there is a problem. If your fish begin to get sick, the first thing you will be asked by anyone you seek advice from is what your ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH etc. levels are. Having your own test kits is more convenient, and in the long run less expensive, than having the fish store always test your water for you.
There are of course dozens of chemicals they make test kits for. So what types of test kits do you need, or will be useful at least? More information is in a later section, but the essential ones are pH (acidity/basicity), nitrite (NO2), nitrate (NO3) and ammonia/ammonium (NH3 and NH4). General hardness, known as calcium hardness, and carbonate hardness (GH and KH respectively) you need to determine before you choose fish, but these levels will remain relatively constant, so you can safely rely on pet store testing if you are not trying to alter these levels. Most of the other test kits do not provide any information that is vital to a beginning aquarist. Chlorine is the only other chemical you need to be concerned with, but if you properly dechlorinate your water you do not need to test for it. One final note, you are usually better off using liquid reagent test kits than the quick “dip stick” kits, as the dip sticks are often more expensive and less accurate (though easier to use) than the liquid reagent kits.

11. Aquarium Salt. Some species of fish, such as cory cats, do not tolerate more than a trace of salt in their water. Others, such as goldfish or livebearers, thrive in a lightly salted tank. Salt is also a very effective treatment, both to prevent and cure diseases like Ich. It is often much less stressful to treat fish with salt than other medications as well. If you use salt, use an aquarium salt that is listed for use in freshwater tanks; do not use a marine aquarium mix as those can contain minerals harmful to your fish. Anywhere from a tiny pinch to a ¼ - ½ teaspoon per gallon can be added, depending on species of fish. To treat wounds and disease, a level of 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons up to one teaspoon per gallon is recommended. Remember that when maintaining a salt level, water added to make up for evaporation should NOT have any salt. Salt does not evaporate, so the only way your tank can lose salt is when you remove water in partial water changes.

12. Glass scrubber/scraper. Snails work just as well or even better to keep your aquarium glass clean, as do some fish, but you may not want either of these. To clean your glass of algae then you need one of the scrubby pads on a long handle to remove unwanted buildup on glass. Remember to never use any cleanser in the tank.

13. Gravel/substrate. Gravel is not essential, but it makes the tank look much better. Depending on whether you want real plants, and what kinds, you may want a lot of gravel or just enough to cover the bottom of the tank. If you are not planning on a planted tank, use just enough gravel to cover the bottom. This makes it much easier to keep the gravel clean during partial water changes. The choice of gravel is mostly a question of personal taste and style, though crushed coral/limestone is best if you want to increase (slowly) your general and carbonate hardness.

14. Decorations. Some fish NEED decorations and caves to hide in. Other fish simply do much better if they have things to swim in/around/under/through. An aquarium should have decorations to make it more interesting for the fish as well as its owner, but what you put in is entirely up to you. Just remember that things like limestone rocks and real driftwood seep chemicals that will change the water chemistry of your tank.

This list is far from comprehensive, but is plenty for a beginning aquarist to get started. Note I did NOT include food here, as you should have your tank and all the necessary beginning equipment before you choose what type of fish you want to keep, and the type of food you buy relies on the type of fish you purchase.

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