Setting Up Your New Aquarium
Fish keeping can be a very rewarding hobby. Follow our easy step by step guide below to get started.
How to set up your Aquarium
Once you get your new aquarium home follow these steps when setting it up:
1.Location and Stand
Choose the place you are going to place it carefully; it needs to be:
- Out of direct sunlight
- In an area which won’t be too disturbed by people running past
- Near a power supply
- In a draught free, relatively consistent temperature area
Now place the tank onto its stand, making sure that there is a solid smooth contact to both surfaces
2.Adding Gravel and Installing the filter.
Rinse your gravel well in fresh water to remove any dust or dirt particles from the gravel - you want to rinse the gravel until the water coming off of it runs clear.
Place the gravel in your tank in a gradient sloping from lower at the front to higher at the back of your tank. Take into consideration placing any live plants into an area with a thicker layer of gravel.
Set up your filtering system (whether it is internal or external), but do not run it until the water has been added.
3.Add water, heat and ornaments
If you plan on keeping tropical fish, you should add your heater in at this stage but leave it unplugged (make sure the heater is never turned on while being exposed to air).
Ensure the heater is placed near the bottom of the aquarium and as horizontal as possible. It should not touch anything other than the suction cups with so it's not at risk of burning anything in the tank. Make sure it is also not resting against the gravel.
Place your ornaments where you think they may look good (rinse all of these in fresh running water)
Now add water – just cold tap water is fine.
Pour this in gently so you don’t create wells in your gravel.
4.Set up external filtration and lighting
Set up your external filtering system / air pump and internal filter as per the instructions in the product manual
Set up your lighting system
Now turn everything on and make sure that it is all working okay
5.Add water and bacterial agent
Add a water conditioner to de-chlorinate your water and add a beneficial bacterial agent.
Note: Your water may appear murky for the first couple of days until it settles.
Contact Us
Melbourne Tropical Fish
Factory 2/41-43 Sinclair Rd
Dandenong VIC 3175
(03) 9792 5513