Aquariums: I want to reactivate my old aquarium – correctly this time

Get 2 kinds of aqua soil to layer onto each other, and get some live plants to grow inside the soil with a rock or a piece of driftwood since you have a smaller size tank.

I’m not sure about the old filter, but you could take the top off and have a open tank with a new filter with plants growing from the top of it. You can find a fish store to give you recommendations.

I would let the new filter cycle and keep it running for a week or 2 before putting any fish inside of it to get the good bacteria.

I don’t know how many gallons or liters that tank is in order to recommend any fish, but you want to make an ecosystem in your tank like shrimp, snails, or algae eating fish as a clean up crew and some main fish that you like.

Water changes should happen once a week but if you have enough live plants inside or a big tank sometimes you don’t have to do it as often.

Fish keeping 101!

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To start off, cycling. There a a lot of technical knowhow behind it, but in practice it’s very easy.

Two main methods for a fishless cycle (done for an average of 4-6 weeks prior to adding fish);
1. Dose the tank to 2ppm bottled ammonia
2. Add portions of fish food to the tank, which decays into ammonia to get the tank to 2ppm ammonia

The aim is to keep the tank at 2ppm ammonia until the nitrite spike. This spike usually occurs after 2-3 weeks.

You’ll need a test kit capable of testing ammonia levels to do this accurately. I’d recommend API liquid master test kit, it’s a good balance of affordable and accurate. If you get test strips, remember that the ammonia tests are usually sold separately.

The technicalities behind it all comes down to nitrifying bacteria. These beneficial bacteria take roughly a month to grow in your filter, and eat ammonia. They cause this process to happen;

Ammonia (toxic fish waste) -> nitrite (moderately toxic) -> nitrate (harmless plant food)

Never replace the filter sponge, or you’ll crash your cycle by getting rid of the bulk of the nitrifying bacteria. Just gently swish it in old tank water once every few months.

Once you can dose the tank to 2ppm ammonia, wait 24 hours, and get readings of zero ammonia and zero nitrite, your tank is ready for fish!

There are ways to speed up the cycle by a couple of weeks, such as adding a bottle of good quality bottled bacteria at the start of the fishless cycle, or by adding a chunk of someone else’s mature filter sponge to your filter.

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The main equipment for a tank is a filter, a heater, and a source of aeration.

For 10 gallons or less, a sponge filter is usually the best choice. It’s easy to maintain and very safe for small fish.

For decor, silk and silicone fake plants work fine. Fish do love live plants, but most fish won’t be fussed as long as the plants are soft and safe. Avoid plastic fake plants; the plastic feels soft to us, but it’s harsh enough to cause stress to fish and can sometimes cause injuries.

Aquariums are generally measured in US liquid gallons by hobbyists, though litres is also often used. The footprint also affects which fish you can stock, meaning whether there’s enough horizontal swimming space for them.

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A fully cycled tank with fish in it will only need a 20% water change once a week.

To do a 20% water change;
1. Use a gravel vacuum to suck 20% of the water from the gravel into a bucket, removing the gunk from the gravel with the dirty water
2. Tip the dirty water down the loo, or use it to water your plants
3. Refill the bucket with tap water of a similar temperature to your tank water
4. Add a proportional amount of water conditioner
5. Swish it around and leave to stand for 3-5 minutes
6. Use the conditioned water to refill the tank

Water conditioner neutralises chlorine and heavy metals. Once the chlorine and heavy metals have been removed, the water won’t need to be conditioned again. There’s no need to dose your tank with conditioner unless you’ve accidentally added chlorinated water to it.

The gravel vacuum works on sand as well as gravel, but it’s a touch trickier with sand in my opinion.

Heavily planted and more mature tanks need less water changes. To begin with though, it’s best to do weekly water changes to keep the tank healthy.

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The next thing is stocking the tank! Stocking means adding livestock such as fish and invertebrates.

In general, there are what I’d call schooling fish, social fish, and solitary fish. Schooling fish need to be in groups of six to ten of their own species to be fully happy. Social fish usually need to be in groups of at least five of their own species, with some leeway. Solitary fish can be the only fish of their species in the tank, and sometimes HAVE to be the only fish in the tank full stop.

A lot of what fish you put in your tank depends on the tank size and how many live plants are in it, as well as which filter you use. I recommend playing around with the website AqAdvisor, it’s a good way to get an idea of what size tank you need for which fish. The minimum recommended tank size for stocking a single small solitary fish (such as a long finned male betta fish) is 5 gallons.

It’s also worth googling terms such as “best fish for 10 gallon tank”, “top fish for 20 gallon tank”, “[fish species] care sheet”, “[fish species] tank size”, “[fish species] group size”, etc.

Always read at least half a dozen care sheets on any species prior to buying it. Some fish have specific care requirements, such as corys who need fine sand to be fully happy, plecos who need real driftwood, and hillstream loaches who need fast moving water.

Look for local fish stores if possible, and never fully trust a fish store employee. They rarely get good training on aquariums and are often told to give misleading or outright faulty info. Always triple check anything a fish store employee tells you by googling it afterwards.