New Tank Syndrome

The following is a brief overview of what aquarists call "New Tank Syndrome" from my experience with setting up a new tank. Often a beginning aquarist when setting up their first tank will purchase all the desired fish they want for the tank right away. Then after the first couple of weeks many of those fish they bought will start dieing off. This causes lots of frustration and often the new aquarist is turned off of the hobby. Patience is the key to getting started. It takes about 6 to 8 weeks for the new aquarium to get a healthy biological filter established. To avoid new tank syndrome a good plan is to only get 2 or 3 hardy fish to start. Monitor the ammonia nitrite and nitrate levels till the ammonia and nitrites are staying at almost nothing. Then the new aquarium is ready for the addition of more fish.