Placing the tank.

They should never be located close to any door or windows to reduce a chill on the tank (the chill is not so important on the cold water species), it also helps to reduce stress of the doors/windows banging close to the tank. They should be placed off the ground but be placed on a soft material like polystyrene and the whole aquarium should be placed on a solid surface and not slated, to reduce stress on the bottom of the aquarium.

Placing filter, heater, and décor in the tank.

There are three types of filters, mechanical, biological, and chemical, the most common filter is the mechanical, which is where the water is put through a filter media to remove waste particles, power filters, external filters, under gravel filters.

Biological filters use bacteria to convert harmful waste products in to less harmful waste products, "wet and dry" filters, and trickle filter (some mechanical filters can also work as biological). These filters can be affected by chemical treatments, which reduce the biological level of the filter

Chemical filters is basically just a chemical that U place into the filter system and then it absorbs the harmful waste, the chemical then can be removed from the system. A few can be recharged to use again, activated carbon is most common as it absorbs most harmful chemicals but it also absorbs chemical treatments added to the water as a medical treatment.

When filling your tank, the first thing to remember is to add a de-chlorinater to the water to remove all chlorine from the tap water (chlorine is added to most countries to kill bacteria in the water supply, what’s good for us is not always good for your fish). It’s best to do this in a bucket to make sure the de-chlorinater has worked.

Place all your décor (sand/gravel, stones, rocks, bog wood, ceramic ornaments) in to the tank, remembering to disinfect your décor first (by soaking in boiling water for 5 minuets) to kill and nasty bugs that my be living on it. Then using something that floats like a small piece of polystyrene pore the water into the polystyrene to disperse the water without disturbing the décor.

Once the aquarium is full you can add some plants to it, but you should never add fish at first this is due to the fact of maturing a tank. Maturing a tank means allowing "beneficial bacteria" (good bacteria that break down harmful waste products in to less harmful waste) to grow in the tank and filter systems. If you were to add fish harmful waste products like ammonia would build up in the system and poison the fish quite quickly.

To understand the maturing process better go to "Are bacteria good for a tank?"

Once the tank is mature (after 30 days for fresh water and 90 days for marine) it safe to add fish to your tank. Add fish only in small numbers, just add 5-6 small fish or 1-2 larger fish, to allow the beneficial bacteria to grow slowly and not crash the maturing process. If to many fish are added then the ammonia will rise to quickly and poison the fish and then if not fixed it would then kill them.

When going to your local fish shop firstly ask friends who have kept fish and ask where they get their fish and who happy they are. When at the shop there is something’s you can check like

If you are happy with the fish you selected then always ask if it will live happily with your other fish. The fish should be captured it should be done with causing as little stress as possible, using 2 nets can help, a beer glass can also be used (usually in marines). Once the fish has been captured it should be placed in a plastic bag, if your traveling a long distance it may be possible to add oxygen to the bag to aid traveling, that depends on the shop. Next get the fish home as soon as possible.