What You Need To Know Before You Buy A 100 Gallon Fish Tank
November 25th, 2009 | 
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You Will Need To Know The Following Things Before You Rush Out And Buy Your 100 Gallon Fish Tank:
 What Kinds Of Fish?
 Is It Going To Be A Saltwater Or Freshwater Tank?
 What Types Of Heater Or Filter Do You Need?
 Accessories And Decorations?
 What Shape Tank
 Do You Need A Fish Tank Stand Or Cabinet?
 How Much Is It All Going To Cost?
All of the above questions need to be answered before you rush out and buy your 100 gallon fish tank. I will try to give you a rough idea as to what you need to know, however professional advice from your local store is the best advice I can give.
A 100 gallon fish tanks are a bit more expensive than smaller tanks but they give you lots more options when choosing which and how many fish you want to put in it. You will also need to decide on what shape tank and whether or not you want it made of glass or acrylic? Another factor to consider is that of where it will be positioned in your home and does it need a stand or cabinet to house it? Cabinets provide useful additional storage for homes where space is limited and a 100 gallon fish tank would need quite a large cabinet but would provide some extra much needed storage space.
Saltwater Or Freshwater?
The most important thing when choosing your fish is to first decide whether your 100 gallon fish tank is going to be a freshwater or saltwater fish tank. Freshwater tanks are cheaper and easier to maintain, while saltwater fish tanks need more attention to detail as you need to concentrate on the ph levels of the water and therefore have more expenses in buying the chemicals.
Which Fish?
Fish tanks are a blank canvas, void until you fill it with a variety of fish and decorations, and the larger the tank, the larger the canvas, so you can go out and buy more or bigger fish. The type of fish you put in your 100 gallon fish tank all depend on whether or not you have chosen a saltwater or freshwater tank? The best freshwater fish include catfish and Oscars whereas saltwater fish include a variety of puffer fish, lionfish, moray eels, and sea horses. Make sure you get advice on what types of fish, eels, anemones, etc that you put together as some fish do not get on with the others and cannot live in certain water.
Filter, Accessories, Cabinets Etc
The accessories that you will place in your 100 gallon fish tank are also going to depend on whether or not you want a freshwater or saltwater tank. Do you wish to place artificial or real plant-life in your tank? What types of decorations will be best for the species that you are placing in your aquarium? Filters and heating combinations also need to be addressed as well as biological and chemical factors. Advice is needed when you are embarking on a hobby of this size but it will provide you with a very relaxing pastime which will be the envy of your friends.
Sharon Price
http://www.articlesbase.com/pets-articles/what-you-need-to-know-before-you-buy-a-100-gallon-fish-tank-124576.html
Posted in Home Storage Cabinet
How long should I filter my 5 gallon tank before adding fish?
I know it says AT LEAST 24 hours but what would be best.
Btw,I’ll be adding a Betta(I have all the necessary parts to make and keep a happy one).
Yes,it’s a brand new tank.
I think we ALL would agree that 5 gallons is better than the horrible little cup. Am I right?
24 hours… is what is necessary if you want you could always filter if for a few days… but theres no need.
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For just a betta? You should wait at LEAST a week. For other fish, at least 2 weeks. Some people say that you can put the betta in right away, but this can cause large amounts of ammonia in the beginning which could cause fin rot, or even death.
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if everything is new you should wait in till after the water turns cloudy. then clear itself out. thats your bacbacteriatting up.
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24 hours is good for a betta.
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hi mate,
I’d first like to point out that everyone else has given you REALLY BAD information about cycling your tank – and all fish need a tank to be cycled before adding them, and the tank going cloudy is not a sign of the tank cycling, thats just the dust from the substrate or an algae bloom.
it takes longer then 24 hours to cycle a tank, it can take anywhere from 1 – 6 weeks to cycle a brand new tank.
what you want to do is get yourself a water test kit that can test Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate.
you also want to get a product called SafeStart by Tetra. this is a bottle of the bacteria that you want in your tank to jump-start the cycle. (it is also the best product on the market)
after 48 hours you want to test your tank to check if you have any ammonia and nitrite.. if you do then the tank is starting to cycle.
the tank will be cycled once you have the reading of…
Ammonia : 0
Nitrite : 0
Nitrate : 5-10
hope this helps you out
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At least a week to 5 weeks if it is a new tank.
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For any tank, no matter what size/what you’re putting in it, you should cycle it for a month or so until nitrate and ammonia both read 0.
5 gallons is also far too small for a betta- they need 10 gallons minimum to be happy and healthy.
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well about 24 hours and then the best thing to do is buy one of those feeder gold fish and put it in there for about 24 hours and if it lives ur fine it sounds cruel but id rather have a 25 cent fish die rather than a 10 dollar fish
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i have 3 large fish tanks
If you want to have a good start and not chance your bettas health, you need to cycle the tank first. This can take 4 weeks or more, it doesn’t take much work, just time. You need to seed the tank with an ammonia source so bacteria have something to feed on. This can be pure ammonia, fish food, or you can do what I did and use a piece of a cocktail shrimp. Giving it a month allows the bacteria to establish so there will be no harmful ammonia or nitrite, and nitrate instead, which is safe up to a certain level. So get yourself a liquid freshwater test kit and test every couple of days.
Cordelious gave good advice.
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Well to make everybody else here happy, I would cycle it for 6 months. He would also be better off in a 55 gallon tank. No friends, just him.
The real answer, I have a 2 gallon tank that I do 100% water change every week. I use the safe tap water stuff and wait 5 minutes. A year later and my fish are happy, have tank mates, (tiny ones) and give me no problems. just make sure they have something to hide in as mine love to sleep in a Asian styled hut. I have two males one female, all in there own tank and doing great. Make sure to rinse your rocks, deco, and filter before you add them. You will see the dust that comes out of the rocks. Start heater and filter wait 1 hour, add fish. they are hardy fish.
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Sorry but 24 hours is far from enough time.
You need to cycle your tank for 3-6 weeks before adding fish. You will see some people say that you don’t need to do this with Bettas, but that is a myth. Don’t worry what others have said, a 5 gallon for 1 betta with a filter and heater is a great tank. Anything under 2.5 gallons is not so good and bowls are cruel.
There are a few methods you can use to Cycle a tank such as the Pure Ammonia method, Fish flake method and Raw fish/shrimp method. Which ever method you choose, you will have to test the tank water for Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate every 2-3 days to know where it is in the cycle. When the cycle is complete, there will be 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and probably high nitrates. At that point a large water change needs to be done to reduce the Nitrates to under 20ppm.
Check out the links.
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http://fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=81388
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=140843
Sorry ya asked?
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Bettas are a little more ‘forgiving’ than other fish. In the normal fish world, you would need to wait at least one week, or get some water from an existing tank to add. I think if you could go to your fish store and ask for about one gallon of water from one of their tanks, your fish will be happy. This will add some of the beneficial bacteria to the tank. For a betta, it is not really the filtration that will be of importance at first, but the good bacteria. A five gallon tank is a good size. Actually, though, you will find the rather slow-moving betta to sometimes difficult to find in what may actually seem like a pretty large tank. You may actually end up adding more smaller fish like Danios, Platys, guppies, a small Catfish, etc. But, not too many in a 5 gallon tank. Bettas are just really slow and deliberate. No aggressive fish with them, though.
Added note: Bettas need protein. They just love frozen brine shrimp, as long as you don’t feed so much that it goes under the gravel. They will live for awhile without high protein, and then deteriorate.
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