A fish tank can be a beautiful asset to any room of your home. The vibrantly colored fish and the silent way they glide around in the water can make it the focal point of any room. Watching the fish swim while the filter quietly gurgles can be a very relaxing experience. However, if proper care is not taken of the fish and the tank itself, it can very quickly turn into an eyesore that still attracts the eye but now for all the wrong reasons. This article will give you some basic information about how to set up your first tank and some tips on tropical fish care.
So you have decided that you want a fish tank. Now what. You must decide on the size of the tank that you want and what to put in it. There are many choices of decoration and supplies available, but there are a few absolute necessities. They are the following: gravel, a filtration device, a heat source, and a light.
After you have purchased everything that you need to get started, it is time to set up the tank. Do this where you want the tank to stay because a tank full of water is very heavy and difficult to move. Turn on the filter and the heater and let it run for a few days before adding the fish. This will give you time to get the temperature just right and allow any chemicals that may be harmful to you fish to be filtered out.
Finally you are ready to add the fish. It is best to start with just a few fish initially. Place the bags the fish were brought home in directly into the tank and let them float there, unopened, for at least 15 minutes. This will allow the fish and water temperature in the bags to slowly adjust to the temperature of the tank. Now you can open the bags, release the fish, and look forward to hours of watching them swim gracefully around the tank.
Tags: absolute necessities, colored fish, first tank, fish tank, heat source, tropical fish care