10 Easy Aquarium Set Up Steps

Once the tank has been cleaned up and is ready for some new livestock, one of the biggest and most often made mistakes at this stage of a newly cycled aquarium is that one tries to cram too much into the tank too quickly or all at once.

It is important for you to be patient and go slowly to prevent causing problems from overloading the system, which can be avoided by not only adding livestock to a new but even an established aquarium as described here.

Whether it is fish, corals, or invertebrates, you should only choose and add 1 or 2 of the animals from your species community list into the aquarium at any one time.

After your selection has been placed into the tank, you need to allow the aquarium's nitrifying bacteria base to adjust to the additional bio-load. This means you DO NOT add anything else at this point, and over a week's time you should test the aquarium water daily for any appearance of ammonia and possibly nitrite. Zero readings will show you when it is safe to add the next 1 or 2 pieces of livestock. Better yet, even when the test results are showing zero, wait another week or two before continuing on.