Baby steps in setting up the tank

[BondStreet]

How's it goin? OK, I am the dude who was lookin for advice in setting up my 75 gallon aquarium and now it has finally arrived and I am stoked(excited).

So far, I have:

-rinsed the gravel(once) and put it in the tank
-filled the tank with water.

My question is, what steps should I follow next? Is there a better protocol than another? I have all the water treatment chemicals, the test kits, the filter, pump, and all the other trimmings, but I just want to do this right and now get too ahead of myself.

Also, assuming that I set it up and have it running this weekend, what would be the reasonable day for me to add community fish like angels, mollies, etc?

THEN(sorry for all the questions), is it safe to add a couple of fish here and there if the tank has NOT COMPLETELY cycled? I hear of the horrors of having a slightly chemically imbalanced tank and I think it would be impossible to ever have fish in the tank!

Thanks for your advice!

Read the announcement at the top of this forum, the Nitrogen Cycle in Aquariums. Very good reading, and tells you how to do most everything through the cycling process.

A lot of people here have cycled their tanks with zebra dannios, they are very tough, hardy, peaceful, and get through the cycle well. For a 75 gallon, I'd probably get 6-8 of them. They swim around really fast all the time too, which I find to be a nice contrast to my slowpoke fish (angels and such, added weeks later).

My personal opinion is to go sloooow when adding fish, even after the cycle is complete. First few weeks/months are when most diseases or chemical problems rear their ugly heads. the less fish to possibly kill, the better.

Also my personal opinion, if chemistry goes awry, use water changes as your main defense. I find trying to rely on Ph altering products, or amonnia/nitrite/nitrate reducing products does more harm than good in the long run. Many people have opinions other than this, but it's what I do, and I have more success than failure.

Now, sooner or later we (or at least me) would like to see a detailed list of your equipment, basically everything, so we can give pointers on what to watch out for.

Look in our book review section (link on front page) make sure you pick up a decent reference book. Very important to have one hand when starting up.

No. 1 tip!

Be Patient!