Buying guides
Choosing Your First Aquarium Setup
What to buy, what to skip, and why the biggest tank you can fit is usually the easiest to keep.
Bigger is more forgiving
Water parameters shift fastest in small volumes. A 100 litre tank is genuinely more stable and more beginner-friendly than a 20 litre nano, despite being sold as the more advanced option.
The essential list
- Tank and a stand rated for the full filled weight
- Filter with generous biological media capacity
- Heater with a separate thermometer for tropical species
- Liquid test kit for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH
- Dechlorinator, gravel vacuum and two dedicated buckets
- Lighting suited to whether you keep live plants
What you can skip at the start
Chemical additives promising instant cycling, pH adjusters, UV sterilisers and automatic feeders are rarely needed and often mask problems rather than solving them.
Stock last, and stock slowly
Cycle the tank before buying fish, research the adult size and social needs of every species, and add a few animals at a time over weeks. Most beginner failures are stocking failures, not equipment failures.