Stage one – initial setup:

The tank:

Frist thing first really is a tank. Obviously.

I looked around and found some 10L tanks on eBay that seemed reasonable and not too expensive, and (most importantly) of a size I could place in our small apartment – I had a space that it could go nicely with easy access and view (why get a tank if you have to hide it somewhere you can hardly see the fish – that’d be silly). The one I bought was $30 free shipping (and arrived well packaged and safe and sound despite being pure glass etc.)

It is a glass tank – you don’t want plastic … over a time period plastic can and will leach into the water. Fine for a drinking bottle of water that’s not really gonna do that in its time frame but not for a fish tank. Glass is an amazingly non-reactive material (that’s why we use it so much) so it won’t leach or perish or anything. You probably already knew that.

The substrate:

“Substrate” is just a fancy word for the ground at the bottom of your tank. Per the “Father Fish” method you want dirt of one inch thickness topped with sand of two inches. There are many reasons for this – watch the videos for details. There are also variations of advice in the videos – as they are done at different times and different contexts or emphasis. Here is what I got from them and did.

Dirt:

While initial videos just mentioned grabbing some soil out of your home garden or back lawn or something, later videos suggested a mix of types to give it some more substance and to help it last longer.

Content:

Peat moss (which is not moss at all – it is dirt! Go figure!)
Potting soil
Actual dirt from your garden, ground, nearby source

Sort I bought a small bag of peat moss and a small bag of potting soil (the potting soil came in variations for different usages and had various slow release nutritional aspects etc. – I just choose the one that seemed maybe the most suitable … I don’t think it really matters.

For this 10L tank I used:

2 cups of peat moss
1 cup of potting soil
1 cup of actual dirt

Seeing as the peat and potting came in kg bags even at the smallest I could get, I have plenty left for a number of later tanks! But it all only cost me about $20 and $10 of that was postage … so yea, nice and cheap.

Preparation:

Put all 4 cups of soil into a bowl or buck and pour in quarter a cup of water and stir. The water will all be soaked up in the soil. Add another quarter cup of water or so and mix that in. Continue with this until you have a nice mud pie … you don’t want any excess water but you don’t want any dry soil either. Its very very reminiscent of mixing flour and ingredients for a cake! In fact I mixed mine in a baking bowl – just don’t be tempted to lick the bowl when you are done(!) and make sure you give it as good wash before you use the bowl again to bake an actual cake or whatever!

Usage:

Put the mix into your tank and smooth it down so it is even throughout. My mix was the exact right quantity for about 1″ thickness – different size tanks or even different shapes may of course have different requirements … don’t fuss to much – just mix up some mud and make sure you have a decent thickness (you don’t want to go much more or less than one inch but you don’t need to be perfect or anything … eyeball it, you’ll see when its about right.

Sand:

Next you need sand.

Content:

I bought some sand on eBay that was local river sand. There are many choices and supply options. It doesn’t seem to really matter. I got river sand as it seem appropriate and the sold it in small quantities. It cost about $10 for 2kg plus another $10 in postage. You can probably find cheaper options but I was happy with this.

Note that it is lucky I got the 2kg option as it *only just* was enough to give me about 2″ coverage above the dirt – I poured in every grain of it! So you may want to get a bit more the 2kg.

Usage:

And that’s all you do, just gently pour it on top of you dirt mud-pie like pouring icing on top of a cake (I don’t even bake – where are all these cake metaphors coming from! Lol). Even it out so it is reasonably flat and same thickness across the whole tank and you are done – don’t get too fussy, you’ll move a bit when you are adding rocks and plants and stuff later – so again like the mud, just eyeball it … you’ll see and get it right.

Water:

Yep, water. Who’d have seen that coming! Lol.

Content:

The “Father Fish” videos are quite interesting about the water. Basically just use local (tap) water. You are (most likely) buying your fish locally so your water will most likely be same as the water the pet shop has. There are all sorts of things about Ph levels and chemicals in the water and everything but unless you water is not fit for human consumption or something its likely fine and the main advice is just let you fish get used to it.

Change of water type rather than what the actual water type is seems to be the big issue – so just use local water and stick with it and then the fish wont get a shock of different water every time you do something/ clean the tank/ add new water etc.

Usage:

Father Fish suggests put a plate or bowl on the surface of the sand substrate and pour your water – gently! – into that. The idea is to cause a little disturbance of the sand and underlying dirt at all. If you are like me you’ll rush at one point and stir up a bit of sand – just stop and go calmer and all will be fine.

Inanimate items:

For aesthetics and to add some variation to experience for your fish you can add in your inanimate (not alive) items if you wish. I for instance found a great little dead branch like a piece of drift wood and two excellent rocks – a flat one like a plate and a more boulder like one with a flat bottom that’d sit on the plate rock nicely. They look good, and give the fish something to dart around and even hide under in the space formed between the two rocks (place is another surface for little plants and things to grow on or whatever).

I make sure to get rocks. Not plastic. Not man-made brick. Actual real world natural rock. You don’t have to but for the “natural” setup and look I think this is best. Or no rock at all if you wish.

The end:

That’s all for this section of my blog – for more info see the upcoming additional ones:

Stage two – adding plants (live) and plant matter (dead)
Stage three – adding oxygen and adding fish