Recipe for an Easy 20-gallon Aquarium

Recipe: 20 Gallon Aquarium

Trip 1: Tank, Equipment, Decorations, and Plants

From an Aquarium Shop or Pet Store

20-gallon long aquarium (30 inches long x 12 inches deep x 12 inches high)

Aquarium stand or a piece of solid furniture capable of supporting the full base of the tank and a weight of 200 pounds

1 glass or plastic aquarium cover/hood

1 fluorescent aquarium light strip (single or double bulb - one bulb is fine)

1 small appliance timer (optional)

1 Penguin Biowheel 150 filter

Replacement filter pads

1 small fish net

1 aquarium thermometer

1 100-watt submersible heater (optional, required for cold climates or cool rooms)

1 bottle of tap water conditioner (my favorites are Amquel or Kent Fresh/Marine Ammonia Detox)

20 pounds of aquarium gravel

1 medium-size gravel siphon

1 medium piece of driftwood

1 small piece of driftwood

6 or 7 artificial silk background plants

1 package of plant fertilizer tabs

3 Anubias nana

4 Java ferns

From a Walmart/Target/etc

It is important to buy these items new. They should never be used for anything except caring for the fish tank.

1 sturdy bucket (Walmart sometimes has buckets for $1-2 in the car cleaning supplies)

1 regular size drinking cup (a coffee cup or plastic cup - something easy to hold on to)

1 dish scrub brush with nylon bristles

1 small crate, bin, or box that fits under the aquarium stand and can hold aquarium supplies

Assembly

Place the aquarium stand along a wall.
Avoid high-traffic areas like entries, halls, and so on. Bodies, book bags, and balls can knock over or break small aquariums. 20 gallons of water makes a real mess.
Verify the aquarium and stand are level.
On carpet floors, bring the aquarium stand out far enough from the wall that the back of the stand is not on the carpet tacks.
Fit the filter on the back of the tank.
Do not plug the filter in.

Verify there is enough room behind the tank for the filter. There should be a small gap (half an inch or so) between the filter and the wall. Adjust the aquarium position if necessary.
Remove the filter.
The filter will be in the way for some of the next few steps.
Use a large colander or seive to rinse the gravel.
If possible, do this outside so you don't get gravel in your sink drains. If you must do it indoors, use a sink with a regular drain (not a garbage disposal) and partially close the drain using a mesh insert, thin dish towel, or a loose drain plug. The goal is to keep any gravel that escapes the colander/seive from from going down the drain and causing problems.

It's easiest to rinse the gravel in small batches. Fill the colander about half full, rinse thoroughly under running water, let it drip for a moment, and then dump the gravel into your new bucket.
Gently pour the gravel into the aquarium.
Put in the first section of gravel a handful at a time, and then pour the rest of the gravel in on top of that. Use your hands to spread it evenly over the bottom of the aquarium.

CAUTION: Avoid pouring the gravel from a height onto a bare glass bottom. Tempered glass is strong, but sharp strikes do have a chance of chipping or cracking the glass.
Rinse the remaining decorations, including the driftwood and artificial plants.
After rinsing each item, put it in your bucket to carry to the aquarium. It'll save you some trips and save you some of the wet on your floor.
Attach the background plants to the back of the aquarium.
The bottoms of these plants should be thoroughly buried, so you can't see the base. If you have more than one type of background plant, group them so that you have a solid wall of each type.
Place the driftwood in the aquarium.
The large piece should start near one of the edges and jut into the tank, either parallel to the front or at a slight angle to the front. Put the highest end of the wood near the side of the tank.
Fill the aquarium about half full with cold tap water.
Use the bucket to carry the water from your sink. To avoid digging holes in the the gravel, pour the water slowly onto the large piece of driftwood.
Attach and set up the filter.
Follow the instructions that came with the filter, but don't start the filter at this point.
Attach the aquarium thermometer and heater.
CAUTION: Don't plug the heater in yet. Aquarium thermometers get very hot if they are not submerged, and the glass will break if a hot heater touches cold water.
Unpot and clean the live plants.
Live plants frequently come in pots with rock wool. Use scissors to carefully cut the plastic pot away from the wool. Peel the pot away, and then carefully tear away the wool. Remove as much of the wool as possible without damaging the roots of the plant. Be very gentle. Rinse the plant leaves and roots thoroughly under running water.
Some live plants come without pots. Rinse these thoroughly under running water.
Remove any dead leaves from the plants.
Plant the cryptocoryne wendtii along the center back of the aquarium.
Place a fertilizer tab in the bottom of the hole before planting the crypt.
Be gentle with the cryptocorynes - they break fairly easily. The cryptocoryne roots should be completely buried in the gravel, but not very deep.
Plant the anubias nana in the front right corner of the tank.
Anubias don't need to be "planted", just weighted down so they don't float away. Leave most of the "roots" (actually, rhizomes) exposed.
Plant the java ferns along the left edge of the tank, front and back.
Java ferns don't need to be planted, just weighted down so they don't float away. Leave most of the "roots" (actually, rhizomes) exposed.
Fill the aquarium to near the top with cold tap water.
Leave a little bit of a gap to allow the water level to rise a bit if you need to reach into the tank. You'll want that extra bit tomorrow, too, when you add the fish.
Add water conditioner.
Follow the instructions on the bottle.
Water conditioner removes chlorine from the tap water, and some also help neutralize other types of chemicals that are harmless to humans but that can harm or stress the fish.
Place the aquarium hood/lid on the tank.
The cover will not fit very tightly at the back. You can improve the fit by using a strong knife or hacksaw to cut away parts of the back panel.
Place the fluorescent light strip on the tank.
Plug in the fluorescent light.
Plug the appliance timer into the power strip, and plug the fluorescent light into the appliance timer. Set the timer to turn the light on for about 10 hours each day.
Start the filter.
Most filters will start better if you use a cup to pour water from the aquarium into the filter box. They'll grind and sound just awful until the water starts flowing properly. Don't worry - the filter isn't in its death throes - it just needs water. Keep adding water to the filter box until it quiets down. It should run nearly silently once it gets going.
The biowheel should be turning. Sometimes it's a bit irregular, but not to worry. It just needs to be turning.
Set and plug in the heater.
Use the instructions that came with the heater for information about setting the temperature.
Admire your handiwork.
With the lights on and everything in place, now is a good time to make any adjustments to the plants and decorations.
Rest.
Leave the tank to run overnight. Make sure all the equipment is working and that the tank doesn't leak.

Trip 2: Fish

1 container of tropical fish flake food

3 Swordtails

Adding Fish

Float the bag in the aquarium for about 10-15 minutes.
Carefully remove the rubber band holding the bag shut.
You may need to use scissors to cut the rubber band. If you need to, you can cut off the top of the bag.

The bag will deflate - don't let it tip over.
Use your new cup to scoop water from the aquarium into the bag. Add two cups full of water to the bag.
Let the bag float for another 10 minutes.
Repeat steps 3 and 4 a couple more times.
Use the fish net to move the fish from the bag to the aquarium.
Be gentle - you don't want to hurt the fish. Make sure the fish is well down into the net before you lift it clear of the bag. Some fish will wiggle and squirm and try to jump, so be ready to pinch the net shut above the fish.
Note: On the rare occasion that a fish does manage to escape during transfer, he can be rescued from the floor quite successfully. Pick the fish up with your fingers, as gently as you can, and plop him into a cup full of aquarium water. Let him swim a bit to rinse himself off, and then pour the water through the net and into the bag - the fish will be caught in the net.
When putting the fish into the aquarium, put the net well down into the water and then gently and slowly wave it to help open up the net and let the fish escape.
Turn off the aquarium light for two or three hours.
It's hard to turn off the light when you really want to watch your fish swimming in their new home, but it's best for the fish. Transporting fish and moving them from aquarium to bag to aquarium is traumatic for the fish. Turning off the light lets the fish hide and recover from their ordeal. After a few hours, the fish are typically recovered enough that they will swim around happily.

Feeding the Fish

The few fish in this tank don't need much food. I feed mine once a day, usually in the evening when I get home from work.

Take a small pinch of flake food and crumble it onto the top of the water. The first day, the fish may be a little slow finding the food. Don't keep adding more. After a day or two, the fish will have figured it out and they'll be right there waiting for the food.

Note: Don't store the fish food on top of the light. The heat and humidity on top of the fish tank can spoil the food (in some unusual cases) or reduce the nutritional value of the food.

Early Maintenance

During the first few weeks, maintenance is critical. You're growing the colonies of bacteria that will help decompose the fish waste, but it takes a little while to get to the point where everything is balanced.

The water may get cloudy during this time period. Do frequent little water changes until the cloudiness passes. You can also use an ammonia-neutralizer like Amquel or Kent Ammonia Detox to help keep your fish healthy.

At a minimum, do a small water change once a week.

Remove three full buckets of water from the aquarium (use your cup to scoop the water into the bucket - don't try to put the bucket in the tank).
Pour a little water conditioner into the bucket.
You don't need much - just a dollop.
Fill the bucket with water.
Gently pour the water into the aquarium.
Pour the water slowly onto the large piece of driftwood to avoid uprooting the plants or stirring up the gravel.
Repeat steps 2 through 4 until the aquarium is full all the way up to the top.

A Note About Driftwood

Some types of aquarium driftwood leach tannins into the water. The water turns dark, like tea. Frequent water changes will remove the dissolved tannins, but the wood may leach them for months, in decreasing amounts. Real wood is worth it, though. The wood will be beautiful for the life of the tank - not just until the paint chips off.

Trip 3: Algae Eater

When you start to see substantial amounts of algae in the tank (typically after a month or two), it's time to get an algae eater.

Pick one of the following:

1 bristlenose pleco
3 otocinclus catfish
a few ramshorn snails (sometimes these come "free" on live plants)

Add these to the tank the same way as the swordtails.

Lifetime Maintenance

Daily Observation

Every day when you're feeding the fish, take a moment to look for anything unusual or wrong.

The filter should be running.
The water should be neither too hot nor too cold.
The fish should be acting normal and healthy and should not be growing anything.
The water should be clear - not cloudy.

Note that some types of driftwood leach tannins into the water. These discolor the water (it gets dark - like tea) and affect the hardness of the water, but are not toxic to the fish. Over the first few months the amount of tannins leached out of the wood should decrease (only water changes will remove the color from the water), but there may be slight coloration even after a year or more (very faint - really only noticeable if you put the water in a white cup).

When you see dead leaves on the plants, take a second to pinch them off. (Keep a towel near the tank so you can quickly dry your hands after you've had them in the aquarium.)

Water Changes

This tank is very lightly stocked, and includes some live plants, so you have some room for error. You'll probably find that once the tank is well-established, you'll need to do a water change about once every month or two. (Don't leave it longer than two months.) Do this water change exactly like the partial water change (above), but remove about one third of the water in the aquarium.

Replacing the Filter Pad

When you do the water change, also replace the filter pad in your filter.

Cleaning the Glass

If your algae eaters aren't keeping up with the algae on the glass, use the clean dish brush to scrub the glass. Also use the brush to clean the underside of the cover once in a while. Hard water deposits and algae can collect on the underside of the cover and reduce the amount of light that's getting into the tank.

Cleaning the Gravel

Every three or four months, use the gravel siphon to clean out the gunk that accumulates in the gravel. Deep-clean areas that are not planted, and surface clean areas that are planted. Be careful around the plants - you don't want to damage the leaves, or the roots in the gravel.

You'll want to do the siphoning as part of your normal water change. To use the siphon:

Put a bucket on the floor.
Submerge the whole siphon (hose and all) in the aquarium and fill it up with water, getting all the bubbles out of the hose.
Keep the wide end of the siphon under water, and plug the other end of the hose with your thumb.
Put the end of the hose (with your thumb still blocking the water from escaping) into the bucket.
Make sure there are no fish near the wide end of the siphon, and that the siphon is pointed down at the gravel.
Remove your thumb from the end of the hose.
Water should start flowing down the hose and into the bucket - carrying tank grunge with it.
Use the siphon to dig into the gravel (shallow around the plants, all the way to the bottom in open areas) and suck out the grunge.
When the bucket is nearly full, lift the wide end of the siphon out of the water and let the hose empty into the bucket.
Repeat steps 2 through 8 until you've removed 1/3 to 1/2 of the water from the aquarium.
Refill the tank as usual for a water change (using the water conditioner).