hey what's up youtube mike from mass air mass aquariums excuse my voice little horse uh this evening i was uh recently sick i'm a little bit better hope you can deal with it if not i'll cut the video um i had a friend come over tonight who's setting up his son's first aquarium he's very excited about it and i realized i haven't done a whole lot of videos on you know setting up your first aquarium uh you know not your planted aquarium or your reef tank or your saltwater aquarium but you know for true beginners or you know your kids you want to set up your very first aquarium um what are some basics some guidelines to go by uh and that's what i want to outline in this video real quick so this is for the beginner um all you die hards out there that uh watch mass aquariums here's your uh chance to shut it down because i'm sure you know all this info but this is for all the beginners out there uh people that are starting up their first aquarium that need just really want to know the basics and this video goes out to ben the gardener um shout out to ben i hope you enjoy the video and i can't wait to see your new aquarium so let's start first off you need to think about tank size um what kind of tank are you prepared to take care of for a first timer i would recommend anywhere from a 10 gallon to a 29 gallon 20 long is a 20 gallon long is a great beginner aquarium also 29 gallon standard size is also a really good beginner aquarium now why those tank sizes they're not too small that you can get into a lot of problems with but they're big enough that you can experiment with some fish you can start off with some small fish like some neons or some guppies and if you really wanted to you could put um a few larger species medium-sized species in a 29 gallon that won't get too big and will school together now after you've picked out your tank you're going to want to pick out uh what kind of substrate you want i always start from tank top sorry tank bottom to top with uh how i choose it so what kind of substrates do you want do you want now for everybody out there substrate is um your bottom your gravel your sand uh whatever you like on bottom you can put green purple pink blue all sorts of different colors on bottom you can put brown and gray that looks like a river you can put black like i have here you can put glass marbles on the bottom if you want the most important thing about starting your new aquarium is what's pleasing to your eye not what everybody else likes but what do you like to have what do you like to look at so next you want to pick out your substrate after that you want to go with some equipment now what are the most important things you need for your fish tank you want to get a heater you want to get a filter and you want to get some lights now a lot of pet stores the big petcos and the petsmarts they'll sell you a whole kit which i believe is a great great thing to start off with they'll sell you a kit that comes with the tank your heater your top your lighter your filter all that stuff but if you're gonna just go standard and buy your own stuff let's start off with the heater i think a 10 gallon tank would be good with 50 watt uh heater anything above i like to go a little bit higher than normal so if you look up online this tank recommends a 150 watt heater i'll go with our 200 watt heater i like to go higher it uh it's better for your electric bill and it the heater tends to work less to keep your tank where it needs to be especially if you live in some colder climates like the northeast like i do in massachusetts now for your filter there is all types of filters out there from canister filters from inline in tank filters to sponge filters where you're running an air pump my favorite beginner filter which i still use right now in a lot of my tanks is a good old-fashioned hang on the back filter it's very easy to set up it's very easy to maintain it's very easy to replace parts my favorite hang on the back filters are aqua clear filters now for 10 gallon tanks you can run aquaclear 20s for 20 gallon tanks you can run octal care 20s or aqua aquaclear excuse me 50 gallons per hour um it's really all up to you but an aqua clear hang on the back is perfect for your beginner uh aquarium now lighting like i said kits come with lights but um what type of light do you need for the tank tanks really the light is for you to view the tank so the best case scenario would be for you to buy a purchase a cheap led light or buy a canopy that fits your tank that comes with t5 or t8 bulbs that are very easily replaceable on your tank comes with an on off switch right on the canopy and it lights your tank up really nice so next decorations what do you want to put in the tank are you want to go right off the bat with live plants or do you want to put a giant crushed helicopter or a marine guy that bubbles up when the air stone is on do you want to put fake plants do you want to have some rock in there some driftwood this is all up to your personal experience experience personal preference whatever you really want to do in your tank is all up to up to you whatever you really love to do is up to you if you love to have um you know matchbox cars in your tank throw some xbox cars in there whatever you want to look at is perfectly fine it's what is appealing to your eye so now you have your tank your heater your filter your substrate your decorations your light maybe you have a top what do you need to do next you need to fill it up with water and you need to add a dechlorinator which will take the chlorine out of your tap water then plug everything in and let it sit folks this is the worst part about getting your first aquarium yes you have to let your tank sit for a while you have to let it go through the nitrogen cycle now i'm not going to get into this right now there's another video i have if you want to look up nitrogen cycle there's millions of videos out there if you want to look up the nitrogen cycle but basically in a in a quick short note you need beneficial bacteria built up in your tank so when you have fish and they have waste like their poop and their pee it's taken care of by live bacteria in the tank so it doesn't harm your fish this takes time to add to your tank it's all going to be housed in your filter where it will build up in your substrate or your carpet your floor will where it will build up and that'll take care of your fish waste so there is ways of doing this you can do a fishless cycle which is allowing your tank to just sit for three anywhere from three to six weeks you can slowly dose ammonia to your tank over the course of a couple weeks and that'll build up your beneficial bacteria or you can do a fish cycle which is put some really hardy fish like some platies in your tank which will probably they won't die but they might suffer through the cycling of your tank so let your tank sit for four or five weeks let it run let it build up what needs to be and then you can slowly add some fish now a few beginner fish that i like are platies neon tetras guppies are really good um any type of cory cat usually will be great for beginners don't go by yourself uh really hardy huge fish sorry really non-hardy huge fish it's just not gonna work you're gonna struggle they might die you're gonna wonder why they're dying all the time and you're just not experienced to take care of those kind of fish so just start off really really small start off really simple and enjoy what kind of fish you have in your tank and then slowly get confidence and break off from that to some maybe more challenging fish maybe you want to break off from the fake plants and go to some more live plants and try to challenge yourself there where your whole lighting needs to change and maybe you need to have some additives to your tank but that's all for another video sorry my voice has been this this horse for this video i really wanted to get this out for my buddy ben who got his first tank today and i'm really excited to see what he's got to put in it so i hope you found this video informative uh any questions you have leave them down below i will be sure to answer all my comments and i hope you enjoyed this video i'm mike from mass and i'm out