Getting Started with Freshwater Aquarium
In this article you will find a few thing you should consider before setting up new freshwater aquarium. It should help you to avoid common mistakes and prevent further problems. Setup a fish tank with these few basic hints and you might expect beautiful aquarium with healthy fishes and prosperous aquarium plants.
Fish tank
Before you buy any fish tank, decide it's future location. It shouldn't be at windows with direct sunshine. Fishes loose their bright colours and you will fight with enourmous production of algae. When choosing the right place for aquarium, consider also the size of filter, lighting and cords. The size of your fish tank should be according to chosen place and your budget as big as possible. It's much easier to keep stable conditions in bigger aquariums. Small aquariums need much more maintenance than big ones. Another advantage is the possibility to keep more fishes. Height of aquarium shoudn't be more than 50cm. The light will get easier to the ground and also the manipulation with aquarium decoration will be much easier for you. Weight of the tank should be approximately the same as height. Open surface area is then big enough, which is important for good aeartion of fishtank.
Aquarium equipment
Let's choose appropriate aquarium equipment now. The most important is the right aquarium filter. Filters mechanically clean water and remove toxic wastes. Aquarium filters also aerate the tank. Choose filter designed for the size of your tank. It isn't good when it aerates the water too much, because too much oxegen isn't good for keeping aquarium plants. Optimal is external or internal bilogical filtration provided by sponge filters, canister filters or standard power filters.
Good aquarium lighting is important mainly for plants. Aquarium plants can't prosper without enough light at least for 10-12 hours a day. The best for aquariums is fluorescent tube with bigger part of red from light spectrum. 0,5 W/litre is considered to be enough intensity for aquarium.
The right temperature of water depends on fish species in our aquarium. Values are between 20 and 33 C. Optimal temperature for most species is 24 C. Aquarium heater will help us to keep the right temperature. Heater isn't always necessary equipment, if the room with aquarium is warm enough. Warm-requiring fihes loose their bright colors in cold water and they move abnormally in the fishtank. It's recommended to increase temperature when fishes are sick. Higher temperature is also necessary for breeding.
Next thing you will need to buy is aquarium substrate. It should be darker, not white. Gradation is between 1 and 4 mm, so it provides enough space for bacterias. Aquarium substrate shoudn't contain calcite ingedients, which would increase water hardness too much. You should have enough substrate to cover the ground of aquarium with layer, which is 10 cm in the back and 5 cm in front.
Now you can buy aquarium decoration like roots and stones. It depends on your taste. It's also good to buy some aquarium wallpaper. It works like decoration and also hides cords behind fish tank.
Aquarium plants and fishes
In any fish tank aquarium plants shoudn't be missing. They produce oxygen for fishes and prevent generation of algae. Beside this it's the most beautiful decoration in aquarium. When buying plants, choose some easier species firstly. They don't demand too much light and are a lot easier to keep. Find charateristics of aquarium plants in some book for aquarists before you buy any.
When buying fishes for your new aquarium, find out conditions required by chosen species and make sure you can provide them. Find out the size of grown fish and use it when counting optimal number of fishes in your tank. The number of fishes is around 1 inch of lenght per 1 gallon. You should also buy fish species which are compatible. Some species might be agressive and attack the peaceful ones. Tetras or guppies are usually recommended for beginners.
Aquarium maintenance
Don't worry, aquarium doesn't require too much of your attention when everything is done right. You will need to feed fishes about twice a day. Give them as much as they are able to eat. Nothing should fall down in aquarium substrate.
We should clean biological filter, when we see it has lost much of his power. You can clean it approximately every 2 months. Don't clean it very often because you would remove all bacterias, which are essence of biological filtration.
You should add fertilizer for plants regularly. CO2 is also important if you want to have planted aquarium. More about aquarium plants will be published in another article.
Once a week change about one fifth of water in aquarium. That will reduce the amount of toxic compounds, which are not removed by filtration. You can fill this small amount of water with tap water without any adjustment. While changing water, remove fish excrements from aquarium ground and algae from walls.
Scissor off old and yellow leaves of plants. Scissor plants growing to the top of aquarium. Reduce floating plants so there is still enough light in the fish tank.
