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For all intents and purposes, building your own tropical aquarium is not so different than building any other type of aquarium. While it will take a little more dedication and a little extra cash to make sure that everything is up and running smoothly, a tropical aquarium is simply a regular aquarium with salt water and tropical fish and plants. Finding the tropical fish, however, can be a challenging aspect of setting your tank up for the first time, as tropical fish are generally harder to find and may require that you order them online or visit your local fish specialty store. Unfortunately, due to relatively low demand for such tropical fish, many major pet retailers do not generally offer expensive fish at their stores, making it even more difficult to find the perfect fish for your table top tank.


When it comes to building your tropical aquarium, the first thing you will definitely want to do is to buy yourself a stand or a cabinet for your tank. Tropical aquariums are widely regarded as some of the most attractive fish tanks around thanks to the wide variety of plants and animals which can live in them, making them a great showpiece for your home. Make absolutely sure that your stand or cabinet is able to withstand the pressure of a several hundred pound fish tank before you add any plants or fish to the tank. You can test this by simply placing your tank atop the cabinet and then filling it to the brim with water.

After ensuring the cabinet is secure, begin filling your tropical aquarium with sand, clay or granite rocks. If you are adding plants, make this floor layer a bit thicker so the plants have places for their roots to grow and take hold. Next, you will want to thread the tubing for air down underneath the rock. You can then attach a statue or an air rock to the tube to allow for circulation of air through the water. This is not so necessary if you have a wet/dry filter that will allow for gas exchange during the filtration process. Once everything on the floor of the aquarium is in place, you can begin adding the water to the tank. Many experts recommend that you should first place some sort of jug or bowl on the bottom of the fish tank before you add in the water so you can pour your water right into the bowl and not accidentally mess with the rocks and gravel on the tank’s floor.

Once the tank has been filled most of the way with water, you can add in your electrical filters, gas exchangers and pumps. Once everything is in place, continue adding water until the electrics are within a safe operating zone. Be sure to test everything before you add in your plants and fish, as you would not want to risk killing your animals as result of an improperly functioning machine. You should also wait for at least a couple of weeks before you add any fish, as this will allow all of the important biological systems in the tank to stabilize and create a much healthier environment for your animals.

Building your own aquarium from scratch can be a time consuming project that you should not expect to be able to complete overnight. However, despite all of the work that must go into a project of this scale, you and your family can come together in this incredibly fun and educational experience. From constructing the cabinet which your aquarium will rest upon to building the glass or plastic enclosure itself, every step of the process will present you with unique challenges and countless options. Nevertheless, if you have the desire to ultimately have a wonderfully beautiful fish tank in your home, then building your own aquarium is a great way to achieve that goal.


The absolute first step to building any aquarium is to figure out how large you want it to be. This is totally dependent on personal preference, how skilled you are at maintaining an aquarium and how much money you are willing to spend on materials and supplies. For beginners, smaller is usually better although too small leads to problems with care and maintenance down the road. However, if you are not sure that having an aquarium in your home is for you then you may want to stay away from larger tanks. People who have had several aquariums in the past but simply outgrew them will want to have a large tank with plenty of space for all of the items they have amassed over the years.

After deciding on how large or small you want your tank to be, it will be time for one of the most important decisions during the course of your construction efforts. Do you want to build your tank from glass or acrylic? Each substance has its own pros and cons and everything should be taken into consideration before you begin construction. Glass, a quality material, must be thicker for larger tanks and can weigh significantly more – meaning you will have to either build or buy a more supportive stand or cabinet or resort to sticking the tank in the wall or on top of some surface built into your home. Alternatively, acrylic is far lighter in weight and does not need such a thick piece for a larger, heavier tank. However, acrylic scratches far more easily than glass, meaning that you may have to go through several trials and errors before you are able to produce a piece that you find suitable for your home built tank.

Once all of the basics have been decided upon, it will be time to finally construct your tank. It is a good idea to make sure that you have a place to put your tank before you begin construction, as you really do not want to leave such a fragile piece of equipment outside or in your garage for longer than you have to. If necessary, buy or build your own aquarium cabinet before you even purchase the supplies necessary for construction of the tank itself. Also, it is a good idea if you decide to use glass as your build material to have a professional cut all of the glass pieces before you even buy the sheets of glass. While this will cost more, glass is expensive anyway and the last thing you need is to accidentally break a pane while cutting it yourself.