Starting a freshwater aquarium for my son.. crash course?

Well he’s 8, so I’m gonna be taking care of it

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any tips that y’all want to share

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Get a good test kit and cycle the tank before you add any fish.

Nitrogen cycle. How to cycle an aquarium.

Perform regular water changes. It’ll keep the tank healthy.

ETA: I guess I glossed over the part in your first paragraph where you said you’d start cycling the tank.

I bought this stuff called Dr. Tim’s ammonium chloride a long time ago. It came with pretty simple instructions and after the tank was cycled I had zero problems putting fish in.

Also, don’t add too many fish at once.

Check your state laws on keeping wildlife in your aquarium before posting it on a forum that greenjeans reads.

I had an aquarium with native fish a few years when I was a kid,I enjoyed it.Baby bream,bass,catfish,tiny crawfish and grass shrimp.Pumpkiseed bream are as pretty as any tropical fish but they were mean little suckers,would harass all the other fish.I would buy some water grass at the dime store,pretty sure it was hydrilla.Guess that was how it got started in lakes.

native freshwater fish are voracious predators. What that means is that they eat a lot, they make a huge mess and they are dicks to each other

40 gallons isn’t big enough for panfish, etc. I had a 110 gal tank with bream, bass and a striped gar that was cool as shite when it was clean and I was home every day but as soon as you leave for a weekend they’d either jumped out, massacred each other or destroyed the inside of the tank

so they are a lot of work, but like I said, really cool to watch

Start with a handful of goldfish to cycle the tank. Should take about a month or so. Get a water test kit and check it a couple times a week. Once your water test good feel free to add whatever. I'd definitely go with something from pet store rather than local pond. Lots of cool options though. Don't overcrowd it once you start adding fish. Pretty self sustaining after a while. Have a 55 gallon up and running for about 5 years now

Really cool, thanks for posting. That’s exactly what my son wants to do.. we fish all the time together, but he watches a few of those kids on YouTube that turn backyard pools into ponds, and that got him started on this idea

I figured what the hell.. not too expensive, the fish are free, and we’ll spend time together messing with this



My uncle had a 85 gallon salt water eco system when I was a kid. Talk about cool.. had everything in it that we could catch from the bayou… it was like an exhibit at an aquarium. You could watch that thing for hours


Think I’d have any issue with bass/perch in there at the same time? I’ve seen mixed reviews on the web. (Fishing freshwater almost all my life, I feel like I should know this )

I’ve also seen suggestions on getting some sort of bottom feeder to help keep the tank clean. Is that a decent idea?

I have the fluval filter that’s rated for a 70 gallon tank so I think I should be ok.. that filter sand looks cool, wish I would have thought of that. My son already picked out the gravel though so we are gonna roll with that

I had a few small perch and a catfish together and they didn’t bother each other. When we lost power after the storm I released them back into the pond. I wouldn’t put anything with the bass because it attacks everything including me when I clean the glass. I wanted a smaller bass like a fingerling but he caught this one and wanted to keep it and he’s done well so far. I had a sacalait at one time but it was very picky about what it would eat. I had the perch eating goldfish flakes with no problem. The bass destroys anything it can fit it’s mouth around.