When commissioning an aquarium, the items purchased in the second step are installed. First of all, you should thoroughly wash all the purchased items.
Then put the aquarium in the place you have already chosen.

Then, if available, you should install the filter including the heater. If there are no filter materials in the filter yet, you should put them in at this point.

Now that you have installed most of the technology, the next step is to install the lighting, if it is not already installed in the aquarium.

The following steps make it very difficult to move the aquarium later, so make sure the tank is in its final position now.

Next, add the substrate to the aquarium. If a nutrient substrate has been purchased, first add it to the tank and spread it out. If such a substrate is not available, you can directly start to distribute the gravel/sand/…. To make the aquarium look deeper, it is recommended to let the substrate rise to the back.

In the next setup step, stones and roots are added to the aquarium (if available). These can be added as desired. With roots you should keep in mind that they can float up, especially in the beginning. To prevent this, you can either weigh them down or water them beforehand to make them sink.

Before you start to insert the plants, you should fill a few cm (about 10) of water into the tank.
Now that you have distributed the substrate, brought in roots and stones and filled in a little water, you should turn your attention to the plants. In order not to introduce unwanted inhabitants such as small snails, you can either wash the plants exactly or water them in a container for a few days. Also, before planting, you must remove everything that does not belong to the plant, for example, rock wool from the roots. The easiest way to plant is to take the plant at the lowest part with tweezers and press it into the ground. Then gently pull the plant so that the roots spread.

The last step should be to fill up with water until the filter can suck enough water.

Basically, you are now done with the setup. Now you start with the commissioning. You start by putting the filter into operation. To do this, simply plug it into the socket.

When the filter is running smoothly, the next step is to plug in the heater and set the desired temperature.

After that, you install the timer and set the correct times. Then you connect the light to it and put these devices into operation.

Now fill the aquarium completely with water and put the thermometer into the tank.

In the first few hours after commissioning, it is essential to check an external filter to see if any water collects unintentionally. This is a sign that a seal is broken or has been incorrectly installed. There may also be a problem with a hose connection.