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Start a tank

Build a steady start: choose the tank, establish the filter and understand the routine before adding fish.

A good place to start

  1. Choosing Your First Aquarium: Why Bigger Is Easier
  2. How to Cycle a New Aquarium: The Nitrogen Cycle, Done Properly
  3. Aquarium Water Changes: How Much, How Often, and How

Explore the guides

Getting Started

Sand for Shell-Dwellers: What to Use and How Deep

Shell-dwelling cichlids live in the sand, so the substrate is not decoration, it is their habitat. Here is the grain size that works, the colour that does not stress them, how deep to go, whether the sand will shift your pH, and the cheap bags I actually buy for my hard-water shellie tanks.

Getting Started

Setting Up a Shell-Dweller Tank: A Nano Tanganyikan Done Right

Shell-dwellers are the one tank hard, alkaline tap water was made for. Here is how I set up a nano Tanganyikan colony from scratch, the footprint that matters more than litres, the sand and shells they need, and the water chemistry that lets them breed without a fight.

Equipment

Do You Need an Air Pump in a Freshwater Aquarium?

Most freshwater tanks do not need a separate air pump if the filter breaks the surface, because gas exchange happens at the surface, not from the bubbles. Here is when you genuinely do need one, the gasping warning sign you cannot ignore, and what I actually run on warm hard-water Rift tanks.

Getting Started

How Long Should Aquarium Lights Be On? A Photoperiod Guide

Most tanks do best with the light on for six to eight hours a day, on a timer, and no more. Here is why fish barely need light at all, how long planted tanks actually want it, why leaving the light on longer grows algae instead of better fish, and the simple schedule I run on my own hard-water tanks.

Getting Started

Setting Up a Lake Malawi Mbuna Tank on Hard Water

Mbuna are the colourful, territorial rock cichlids of Lake Malawi, and hard alkaline tap water is exactly what they want. Here is how I set up a mbuna tank: the water and rockwork they need, why you overstock instead of understock, feeding to avoid bloat, choosing species that will not hybridise, and the honest trade-offs of a busy, boisterous tank.

Getting Started

Setting Up a Lake Tanganyika Tank on Hard Tap Water

Lake Tanganyika is one of the hardest, most alkaline bodies of water fish live in, which makes it a rare gift for anyone stuck with rock-hard tap. Here is how I set up a Tanganyikan tank from empty glass: sand, rock, shells, water and how to arrange the stocking so nobody kills anybody.

Getting Started

Sand or Gravel? Choosing Your Aquarium Substrate

A practical guide to picking aquarium substrate: gravel versus sand, what suits which fish, how substrate affects your water chemistry, and how much you actually need.

Getting Started

How Many Neon Tetras in a 10 Gallon Tank?

A 10 gallon (roughly 40 litre) tank comfortably holds a shoal of six to eight neon tetras, and no other fish. Why the honest number is lower than shops suggest, and what limits it.

Getting Started

How Many Fish Can I Keep in My Tank?

The old inch-per-gallon rule leads people badly astray. A practical way to think about stocking based on adult size, body mass, surface area, filtration and how much maintenance you are willing to do, with an honest steer towards fish that suit hard water.

Getting Started

The Best Beginner Aquarium Fish

The hardy, forgiving freshwater fish that give a new fishkeeper the best possible start, with an honest steer towards the livebearers and other species that thrive in hard alkaline tap water rather than fighting against it.

Getting Started

How to Cycle a New Aquarium: The Nitrogen Cycle, Done Properly

Cycling a tank before adding fish is the biggest difference between a smooth start and dead fish within a fortnight. What the nitrogen cycle is, how to do a fishless cycle, how long it really takes, and the mistakes that wreck it.

Maintenance

Aquarium Water Changes: How Much, How Often, and How

Why water changes matter, how much and how often for your stocking, and how to do them properly: dechlorinate, temperature-match, siphon the substrate, and never rinse filter media in tap water.