Shopping list

[kelby675]

Hello again everybody! I have quite an extensive shopping list put together already including filters, lights, decor, heaters, substrates, and others. My aim is to do things right this time. When i kept fish a few years ago there were things i did because thats what petsmart told me to do. Not knowing there were better ways. One of the things i did not know was that there were different treatments for things. I knew about ich cures but that was really it. What i want is for everybody to go back to when you were square 1, first fish tank ever. I want to know is what you know now that you wish youd known then. Different medications that maybe exist today but not back then (if it applies of course) or that you wish you had before you needed it. Lay it on me folks.

[Tony s]

Two things. First, the importance of the cycle. I learned everything from scratch. Didn’t know anything or anyone that could help. 
 

second. Patience. You can really screw things up by over reacting. Lots of things are fixed by natural causes. 

[kelby675]

Thank you! We're there any items that you wish you'd had?

[Tony s]

Spare sponge filters or air stones. In case you need to quarantine one. Or just isolate for a bit. Don’t need a spare aquarium with that. A clean plastic tub works. I used my wife’s cake box top for that.
Aquarium salt for illness. Meds on hand. Maracyn2 or kanaplex. And the know how to use them. water testing kit. Decent gravel vac.

Bigger tank. We started with 2 3g plastic tanks, upgraded to 2 10g. If we’d have known what we were doing, we’d have started with 20g’s