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Beginners Guide to The Aquarium Hobby Part 3: How to Set-up an Aquarium Step by Step! — Transcript

by Prime Time Aquatics · 2,785 words · 438 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00hello everyone this is jason from
0:01primetime aquatics in this video we have
0:04part three of our beginner series in
0:07this part we're going to be talking
0:08about how to set up an aquarium and i
0:10thought who better
0:11to help us out with this than joanna say
0:14hello hi
0:15if you've been around the channel at all
0:17you will know
0:18that joanna is the one where any tank
0:21that looks good in the fish room
0:22you've had a hand in it and any tank
0:24that looks not good in the fish room is
0:26probably because
0:27i did it so we are going to take you
0:30step
0:30by step how to set up a fish tank this
0:33happens to be a 10 gallon but the rules
0:35the
0:35the principles apply no matter what size
0:38tank you have
0:39if you haven't seen the first two parts
0:41of this beginner series
0:42highly recommend check them out
0:44especially part two
0:45where we do a comprehensive list of
0:48everything you need
0:50to set up an aquarium in this part we're
0:52going to be using those
0:53pieces and parts to make this look
0:56awesome
0:56appreciate you being here so i guess the
0:59first thing to consider
1:01is the tank itself two things you want
1:04to do before we get into any setup and
1:05that is if it's a larger tank and you
1:07have a fish tank stand get that stand
1:09level
1:10make sure the tank is on the stand where
1:13you want it
1:14in your room if it is a tank that's
1:16going to be on a desktop just make sure
1:18again that everything is level
1:19and basically you're going to put the
1:21tank where you want to set it up
1:22so for our demonstration purposes we
1:25want
1:26this tank right in the middle of our
1:28fish room yes it's going to be a good
1:30spot
1:31i i really think it is now second thing
1:34before you do anything to the tank
1:37you're going to want to make sure that
1:38it's clean
1:39couple things you can use glass cleaner
1:42on the outside of the tank so step one
1:46just give the tank a little bit of a
1:48cleaning outside of the glass
1:50that's never coming to contact with
1:51living things you can use glass
1:54cleaner and paper towels inside the tank
1:58you want to use stuff that's not going
1:59to be dangerous for your fish so really
2:01no
2:02hardcore cleaning agents usually just
2:05some water and paper towel just to kind
2:07of wipe down the sides and the bottom
2:09and you're going to be good to go next
2:12thing
2:12you'll notice that this tank has already
2:14got a background attached
2:17normally that's the first thing i do
2:19with a fish tank is i will attach a
2:20background that is not necessary as we
2:22talked about in the last part
2:24of the beginner series but if you want
2:26to attach a background now's the time if
2:29it's
2:29paper or you want to do like a
2:30store-bought background just simply
2:32using scotch tape along the sides of the
2:34tank
2:35the top frame the bottom frame is more
2:37than enough again not necessary
2:38but that's pretty much where we're at at
2:40this point okay so joanna's getting
2:42ready to
2:43show us some of the next parts but one
2:45of the things that i like to do first
2:46is whatever light that you're going to
2:48use for your tank go ahead and get that
2:50attached
2:51this one just happens to be an aqueon
2:54led
2:55that attaches to the back just like this
2:57and the reason for that is we want to be
2:59able to see what we're doing inside the
3:01tank and so therefore
3:03light goes on and now we're ready to do
3:05the rest of the stuff in the tank
3:08so we got the tank clean we now have a
3:11light
3:11all right so the next thing you want to
3:12do is you want to start thinking about
3:14your filtration whether that's a sponge
3:15filter or a hang on the back
3:17and just place it on the tank now this
3:19happens to be the aqua top fours of 5 to
3:2115 that we mentioned in the last video
3:23again
3:24if you want more information about the
3:25equipment that we're adding to this tank
3:27check out that part 2.
3:29so this filter perfectly adequate for a
3:3110 gallon tank
3:32it is a hang on back filter we're just
3:34going to get an idea about where we want
3:36it
3:36so this will be a pretty good location
3:39and we want to do that before we start
3:40putting the decorations in the tank and
3:42again
3:42super important at this point we really
3:44want our tank in
3:46the location that it's going to be in
3:47its final resting place before we start
3:49putting
3:50gravel or rocks or anything else in the
3:52tank all right so the next thing we want
3:54to do is now we can actually start
3:56putting
3:57the decorations and everything in the
3:58tank but the first thing we want to do
4:00is the substrate so whether you bought
4:02sand or gravel
4:03that's the next thing that's going to go
4:04now this is where the tanks can get a
4:06little bit heavier
4:07which is why we want it in the location
4:09that we're going to be keeping it in
4:10joanna's going to hand the gravel over
4:12because it's going to be easier for me
4:14to pour the gravel in so i'm gonna go
4:15ahead and pour some in
4:29all right so what we did there is i
4:30poured in roughly about
4:3210 pounds of gravel about half of this
4:3420 pound bag
4:35general rule of thumb is you need about
4:37a pound of substrate per
4:38gallon of fish tank so we've got that
4:41and the trick here
4:42is we're using black gravel you can use
4:45whatever color you want
4:47the darker it is the easier it's going
4:49to be to maintain for the most part we
4:51really like
4:51black substrates black sand black gravel
4:54sometimes we go with brown the white
4:56stuff
4:57white sand white gravel can be a little
4:59bit harder to maintain
5:00and so that's why we want the darker
5:01substrate but now that we've got the
5:02gravel in
5:03we can start doing the fun part and that
5:05is where do we want to put our
5:07decorations
5:08now one interesting little tip or trick
5:11when you are new to setting up a fish
5:13tank when it comes to the substrate
5:15it's nice to sometimes have more towards
5:17the back
5:19than the front and i really can't see
5:21what i'm doing here very well but you
5:23get the idea
5:24right and that way we can kind of slope
5:25it from front to back and it just gives
5:27it a little bit more of a dynamic
5:29feel next thing now we're going to do
5:32the aquascaping i'm going to let joanna
5:34come back here and try to aquascape this
5:36tank
5:36from behind the tank because it's going
5:38to be a little bit more difficult for
5:40her to do
5:41and you need to be able to see well i
5:43like to start
5:44with the actual decorations so your
5:47largest piece
5:48say it's a log or a
5:52house whatever it is so i've got this
5:54kind of
5:55fun structure here and you want to stick
5:58with
5:58everything that you're putting in here i
6:00would really only
6:02fill up maybe a third of the tank you
6:04want a lot of space for the fish to be
6:06able to swim around
6:07and for your eyes to rest
6:11[Music]
6:13i usually don't put anything smack in
6:15the middle of the
6:16tank usually off centered also keep in
6:19mind
6:20you're going to want to clean the glass
6:22on the inside
6:23so that means you're going to be using a
6:24siphon and you need room
6:26all around your decorations to get that
6:28siphon
6:30in and to scrape the glass so you never
6:33want to put anything
6:34right directly up against the glass now
6:37i'm going to put the heater in
6:39and i usually like to put it kind of
6:41close to the filter
6:43so we have all of the mechanics all kind
6:46of close together
6:47and then the warmer water also gets
6:50circulated better that way quick rule of
6:53thumb
6:53i like to get a variety of different
6:55plants from tall
6:57never as tall as the the
7:00actual tank itself you want some room
7:02above the plants but with fake plants
7:05you can always cut them just you know
7:08i get a variety of tall medium and small
7:12worst cases you have more than you need
7:14that you can always return
7:16then i place the tallest ones first
7:23and i also like to get multiples of the
7:25same kind of plant
7:26it gives a little bit of kind of
7:28cohesive look around the tank
7:32all right so joanna did a great job of
7:34aquascaping this and again the thing is
7:37decorate the tank how you want it this
7:39is just what we did
7:41if you want more color if you want
7:43different types of decorations just make
7:44sure they're fish
7:45safe and you should be in good shape now
7:48the next thing believe it or not is we
7:49need to fill this tank with water
7:51and again we're just making sure we we
7:53have the tank exactly where we want it
7:55so we're going to go ahead and fill this
7:56with water now there's a couple ways you
7:57can do this we happen to have in our
7:59fish room as you might imagine
8:00a system where we can bring a hose
8:02directly to the tank from the tap water
8:04and what we're trying to do here when we
8:06fill it
8:07is make sure the water is roughly right
8:10around
8:1176 to 78 degrees out of the tap
8:14one thing that we haven't done here that
8:16you would want to do
8:17is if you purchased a thermometer and if
8:20you took my advice in the fir in the
8:21second part of the beginner series
8:23that would be a thermometer with a
8:25suction cup or it would float you're
8:26going to put that in the tank
8:28as you begin to fill it and that's going
8:30to tell you the temperature of the water
8:32usually for us with the 76 to 78 when
8:35you get enough experience
8:36you can kind of give it a little bit of
8:38a field test and it will
8:40feel like 76 to 78 but as long as
8:43there's no fishing right now that's not
8:45the most important thing
8:46we just want to be roughly a little bit
8:48warmer than room temperature
8:49so we've got this thing filling if
8:51you're using buckets go ahead and fill
8:53your
8:54tank but we are going to need a water
8:55conditioner we use fritz complete
8:57it's a fantastic water conditioner again
8:59there are links for everything in the
9:01part two video
9:02the directions on this thing say a
9:04capful per 50 gallons so we've got about
9:06one one-fifth of that
9:08we're going to approximate it it doesn't
9:09have to be absolutely positively exact
9:12so we pour a little bit in here and then
9:15we just
9:16dump it in just like that and that will
9:19make sure that the chlorine the
9:20chloramines which can be dangerous to
9:22fish
9:22and your beneficial bacteria are
9:25neutralizing so we're going to go ahead
9:26and let this thing
9:27fill and then we'll talk about what's
9:29next okay so now that we've got the tank
9:32filled with water the next step is we
9:34have to turn on the rest of the
9:35electronics the heater
9:37and the hang on back filter before you
9:39plug the hang on back filter and it
9:40would be a really good idea just to
9:42check inside and make sure
9:44that there's nothing in there that needs
9:45to be assembled usually that just means
9:47the filter media
9:48might need to be unwrapped and placed in
9:50the filter so for this aqua top
9:52we have some filter floss with a carbon
9:54insert and the sponge
9:55it was already on rav4 so i slide this
9:58stuff
9:59in here like this the next thing we have
10:01to do
10:02is for some hang on back filters we have
10:05to fill up the back with water before we
10:07get it started and that's really
10:08important you can just take a little cup
10:10you can take that water directly from
10:11the the water that's already in the tank
10:13and just put some in the back
10:14or fill up the back from the tap just to
10:17get it started
10:19all right so we're going to go ahead
10:20we're going to plug in the rest of our
10:21electronics
10:22both the heater and the hang on back
10:25filter
10:27now one quick thing when it comes to
10:29safety with your electronics we want to
10:30make sure that
10:32our cords are off the floor we don't
10:35want them around
10:36water i highly recommend using a loop
10:38system so that
10:39any water gets on the cords and it
10:40starts to drip it doesn't go into the
10:42outlet itself
10:43that can be dangerous so the filter is
10:47doing its thing it might take a minute
10:49to suck in the water to get the suction
10:50that we need
10:51in order for it to start flowing but
10:54it's already starting to do that
10:56if it's making any noise or grinding
10:58noise a little bit more water in the
11:00back
11:00may alleviate that problem now when it
11:03comes to the heater
11:04we want to approximate so if the heater
11:06tells us that we are approximately at 76
11:09to 78 degrees
11:11that's great but like i mentioned in
11:12part two we are going to depend on the
11:15thermometer that we add to the tank
11:17to tell us the actual temperature and so
11:19that might take
11:20five or six hours to really make sure
11:22that we have a stable temperature
11:24if it you find out in a few hours oh
11:25it's close to 80 you can turn the heater
11:27down a little
11:28bit and then watch the temperature and
11:30make sure it's down between the 76 to 78
11:32degrees if it's not quite high enough
11:34turn it up a little bit but again i
11:35never use the temperature on the heater
11:38itself to tell me the temperature of the
11:40tank
11:40i'm going to use a thermometer to do
11:42that the last thing we're going to do is
11:44add the lid the lid is going to make
11:46sure that we're keeping the water in the
11:47tank
11:49and keeping our fish in the tank as well
11:51so it's going to cut down an evaporation
11:53and it's going to make sure our fish
11:54don't jump out the top and so at this
11:56point
11:57we have just set up a fish tank
12:01the next thing we want to do is add this
12:03this is one of the most
12:04important things that you can do as a
12:06new fish keeper and let's add this it's
12:07called fritzine seven
12:09it has live nitrifying bacteria and what
12:12that does
12:13is it's going to help us cycle our tank
12:16it's going to help
12:16avoid ammonia and nitrite spikes later
12:19on and that is the number one thing one
12:21of the number one things that can go
12:23wrong when somebody is first starting to
12:25keep fish
12:26so we're going to add this as directed
12:28this is another one where we don't have
12:30to be
12:30super exact we read the directions and
12:33put in the proper amount
12:35now you could in theory add fish
12:39as long as your water is dechlorinated
12:41as long as your tank temperature is
12:43appropriate for your fish
12:44once you add this we've done this a
12:46number of times we could add fish
12:48while adding this usually we only had
12:50one maybe two fish especially to a tank
12:52this size
12:53i recommend adding this and still give
12:56yourself a day or two
12:57weight and then you just add this as
12:59directed and it's going to help save you
13:01a lot of problems later on
13:03so we have set up our very first fish
13:06tank it wasn't that hard to do
13:08in the next video we're going to talk
13:10about how to add
13:11fish and if we do that properly we can
13:14have a much higher likelihood of success
13:16early on
13:17if you want to learn more about the
13:18nitrogen cycle i highly recommend check
13:20out this video in the upper right hand
13:22corner
13:23if you want more beginners videos check
13:26out the playlist in the lower right hand
13:27corner because that will also contain
13:29the first two parts of this series
13:31appreciate you being here and we'll see
13:33in the next one

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