Choose the right aquarium: Do you want your aquarium to be mainly a decoration or a pastime for the children, or are you actually looking for a real hobby, which you plan to spend time with? If your intentions are to become absorbed in the hobby, you may choose practically any type of aquarium - fully according to your own wishes and the size of your wallet. If not, your first aquarium tank should be somewhere between 100 and 300 litres (25 to 80 US gallons). A smaller tank will have too many limitations and be too unstable for the inexperienced aquarist. A larger tank can involve too much labour in connection with cleaning, water changes, and necessary adjustments of the water quality. Whether the aquarium has frames or not, is built into a nice cabinet stand, or has to be placed on top of a table or cupboard, is primarily an esthetical issue that is of only minor relevance for the function (but see next item, on lighting).

Correct lighting: Far too many of the standard aquarium sets that are sold today have too limited lighting. For the fishes, it holds only limited importance, but the majority of aquarists will also want to have beautiful, vigorous plant growth in their aquarium. Traditional light bulbs (incandescent lamps) will hardly ever give satisfactory light, so stay away from mignon bulb light fittings. One fluorescent tube alone, will also give far too little light for most plants, while two tubes in the full length of the aquarium may be more or less acceptable. If you really want excellent plant growth, however, you need more light: 3-5 fluorescent tubes in the full length of the tank, or special fittings with mercury vapour lamps or metal halide lamps. The last-mentioned might even be an absolute requirement on very tall aquaria (50-60 cm / 20-24 inches or more).

Adequate filtration: Far too many aquarists try to save money on their filter purchase. Aquarium dealers lead the novice into temptation with cheap complete packages with minimal internal filters that clean the water through small synthetic cartridge sponges only. The less experience the aquarist has, the more likely it is that the aquarium will be put on grave trials involving overloads of organic fouling. If the filter is too small or to inefficient to handle this, more often than not it will result in blurred, unclear water, and sick - often also dying - fishes. Avoid this, all the way from the start, and buy a decent external filter that can be mounted with filter media according to your specific needs! Normally, the novice will have particularly much need for filter media that efficiently handle biological filtration.

Thermostat controlled heater and thermometer: All our common aquarium fishes are tropical, and need temperatures in the area of some 22-28 degrees Centigrade (72-82 degrees Fahrenheit). In order to get the correct temperature in the aquarium you will have to invest in an immersion heater with a good, accurate thermostat. The wattage of the heater is calculated from the minimum temperature in the room where the aquarium will be set up, and the size of the tank. Ask your aquarium dealer to help you to work out what your needs are. A thermometer is important in order to keep an eye on the correct function of the thermostat.

Decoration material: Every aquarium needs some kind of bottom substratum. Usually one uses gravel with a grain size of app. 2-4 mm (.08-.16 inches). It is recommendable to buy this in the aquarium shop, in order to avoid unforeseen trouble. Preferable you should select a dark colour shade. Allow an average bottom layer thickness of 6 to 8 cm (2.5 to 3.2 inches) in order to give the plants good growth conditions. Other aquarium decorations can be e.g. driftwood and rocks. These as well should be bought at the aquarium dealer's in order to avoid problems such as poisoning etc.

Small utensils: You will soon need the following utensils, which you just as well can buy right away:
- siphon tube with substrate cleaner; for water changes and  debris removal
- algae scraper; the so-called "algae magnets" are popular
- plastic bucket; a specific "aquarium bucket" - never to be used with detergents!

Articles of consumption: You will also need some non-durable consumer goods. Your exact needs depend e.g. on the tap water quality where you live, and on what fish species you intend to keep. Generally speaking, however, you should expect that you will need at least the following:
- water conditioner; neutralises chloride and metal compounds
- plant fertiliser (special - for aquarium use only)
- fish food (types and assortment depends on what fishes you will keep)

Aquarium book: You should actually have bought this one first of all, even though we list it at the end. You can find a lot of aquarium information on the Internet (e.g. - with time - on 'Aquarium World'), but nothing beats a good book in providing assembled information in a surveyable manner. Aquarists MUST read!

© 1999, Aquarium World