You will need the following items:

Fish tank

Stand

Glass Tops or lid

Light

Heater

Filter

Substrate (rock)

Decorations

Bubbler

You will want to rinse off everything before you set it up.

Add the heater to the fish tank but do not plug it in.  Rinse off the filter and cartridges and set it up on the tank but do not plug it in.  You can turn on the light if you would like to.

You will need to use stress coat when you fill up the tank to remove the chlorine from the water.

You will add water until the tank is full. 

You can then add water to the filter system and plug in the filter.  You can also plug in the heater.

You will not be able to add fish for at least 6 or 7 days.

Before you add your fish you will need to do a partial water change.

Put the fish tank in a good location away from heating and cooling vents.

Do not place the fish tank near windows where the water will heat up and cool down.

Make sure to rinse off the rock before you put the rock in the tank.  Always put the rock in before you add any of the water so that the rock doesn’t float.

Add enough rock to cover at least 3 inches along the entire bottom of the tank.