Aquarium Set Up & Care

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Emillie's World

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Aquarium Set Up & Care

Welcome to one of the most interesting and satisfying hobbies there is.
Maintaining a lively and healthy aquarium is a challenge. One with
many rewards. A well decorated aquarium is a delight for everyone.
It becomes the main interest in any room. Recent research has indicated
a definite link between watching an aquarium and the reduction
of stress levels. Which means, yes it is a proven fact that watching
an aquarium can reduce your Blood Pressure. Now lets get you
set up & going and bring that blood pressure down!

TANK SIZE THE WATER NITROGEN CYCLE TEMPERATURE

FILTRATION & AERATION HEATING & LIGHTING LIVE PLANTS

MAINTENANCE VACATIONS

Choosing the proper SIZE aquarium

Generally speaking, larger size aquariums are easier to maintain and the
initial time invested in setting up the aquarium is well worth the effort.
Besides allowing for a larger selection of fishes, a larger aquarium
is more forgiving when mistakes are made. There is a greater water
volume to dilute pollutants, helping to keep them
below critical concentrations and gives a greater
time for them to be removed by natural processes.In general you want to match the aquarium to the size and
number of fishes to be keptin it.
Unfortunately, the beginner keeps adding more fishes to his
original setup at random,frequently without realizing the degree
of crowding he is creating. A good general rule for stocking the aquarium
is 1 inch of fish per gallon of fresh water.
That means that in a bare 10 gallon aquarium 10 inches of
fish can live comfortably. (four 1" fish and two 3"
fish are equal to 10" of total fish.)
But do remember that the fish you bring home from
the pet store are going to grow. With the upgrading
of filtration equipment, regular water changes and
good knowledge of your aquarium this rule of thumb
may easily be doubled.

Overcrowding an aquarium is one of the most frequent causes of failure to the hobby. A
number of factors account for this. The most obvious ones are a shortage of oxygen and
the presence of excess carbon dioxide in the water. Under long term crowded conditions excess
nitrogenous compounds (ammonia, nitrates, and nitrites) also build up in the water and will
have a deadly effect on the fishes. Live PLANTS help to clear this excess nitrogen to a
considerable extent, since they are able to utilize nitrates, the end product of the NITROGEN CYCLE
but even the plants will suffer when the concentration becomes to great. Plants can
add their own set of problems to an aquarium. An additional factor is the transmission of
DISEASES from one fish to another. Most significant fish diseases are infections of various
types, and their spread in the aquarium can be extremely rapid under crowded conditions.
You must realize the huge difference between a small confined body of water such as an
aquarium and the fish's natural situation in a lake, stream or river. The confinement alone
stresses the fishes, but crowded conditions make things much worse, often leading to the
decrease in vitality and eventually the health of the fishes.

10 and 20 gallon aquariums

This is the usual size for community tanks. They are large enough for a variety of compatible
fish such as mixed live bearers or small characins. This is also the smallest size tank suitable
for medium sized cichlids, but the individual fish temperament must be considered.
20 gallon and Larger aquariums
Almost any variety of tropical fish available can be kept in these larger tanks, but even here one must constantly guard against the tendency to overcrowd the aquarium.
The shape of the aquarium depends on the purposes for which it is intended. Tall, narrow ones with a large front glass face are excellent for show, but will
accommodate fewer fishes because of the limited surface area available for oxygen and carbon dioxide transfer.
Flatter, shallower tanks are best for raising fry and small fish, since they have abundant air surface and swimming
room. The standard size aquarium are good for general purposes. They are
also cheaper than the odd ball shapes. A note on hexagon tanks, my mom's first, was a pretty tank, but when
sitting across our large family room, you could see doubles of the fish swimming around.

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The Water

Water is the single most important ingredient in an aquarium. If it is polluted, or toxic,
success is rare. Never use a bucket that has had soap or detergent in it. Plastic retains
traces of soap which can pollute the water. The largest killer in new aquariums is
toxic water. Most municipal water supplies are treated with chemicals to make it safe for
human consumption. The most common chemical added is chlorine. It is deadly to fish
and must be removed if fish are to survive. Chloramine is sometimes used instead of
chlorine, this is even more difficult to remove. Your pet store will know what the water is
treated with, and can recommend the proper treatment and dosage for your area.

Green Water

Occasionally, the water might become green. This greenness is caused by the multiplication
of algae and although it is a nuisance as it limits visibility, it does not cause a danger to the
fish or plants. The remedy is simple. Switch off your lights for a few days and thereafter
reduce lighting until clean water balance is maintained. Provided your plants are healthy,
it is a problem you will rarely experience. Algae growth on the glass can easily be removed
by scraping with a razor blade. Brown algae is caused from artificial light. Green algae is caused
from both natural and artificial light.

Evaporation

All tanks lose water steadily through evaporation, and this loss should be replaced regularly
before it becomes too severe.

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Temperature

Fish are known to be cold blooded and require temperatures in the natural range found in
their native habitats. In tropical areas the water temperature varies only by a narrow margin from
day to day, possibly only 1 or 2 degrees. Fast temperature changes over short durations weaken
fish rapidly. This allows parasites and infections to spread. The enzymes used to digest food
are also normally restricted to tight temperature ranges. The importance of steady
temperature over time cannot be stressed enough. Tropical fish aquariums should range between
75-82 degrees F. Specific temperature preferences for a species can be found in literature
about the fish or from your local pet store. See my TROPICAL FISH page. The use of a thermometer
is vital. Thermometers provide easy reference to be sure that the heater is operating correctly.
If the heater raises the temperature too high, oxygen will be driven out of the water and the fish will
suffocate. A drop in temperature causes fish to become weakened, thus leaving them vulnerable
for parasites and illnesses.

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Nitrogen Cycle

Fish as they live and breath, create ammonia and send it into the water. Rotting food,
fish wastes and decaying plant and animal matter also add to the ammonia production.
In natural situations, the surface area of water body is so large that ammonia naturally
dissipates to the atmosphere or is so diluted that it can never reach dangerous concentrations.

In the sterile environment of the new aquarium, there is no "invisible community"
established. The surface are is so limited that ammonia will tend to concentrate
rather than dissipate into the air. Normally it takes quite a bit of time to compose the
"invisible filter" that must remove ammonia from the aquarium to make the environment
live able for fish. Any new aquarium requires a six week "run-in" period before it can properly
accommodate a full load of fish. In a new set up it is best to begin with a few hardy fish.
Fish excrete toxins which in turn are used as food by helpful bacteria. These "nitrifying"
bacteria take up to six weeks to establish an adequate population to perform as an "invisible filter".
Once the population is strong enough, all the toxins produced are used
before they can build up. Never add large numbers of fish at once. It is better to add
fish gradually. This allows the bacteria in the "invisible filter" time to balance the
population to the extra wastes produced by the new fish without permitting concentrations
to stress the fish. Overfeeding fish can also lead to this same problem.

When a new aquarium has fish added to it ammonia becomes part of the water solution,
it cannot be removed by normal mechanical filtration. Important bacterial strains use
ammonia and nitrite as a food source. The two most important strains of good bacteria
nitrosomonas and nitrobacter, attach anywhere in the aquarium where there is a hard
surface. Rocks, glass, gravel, filter panels and media. Since they are aerobic,
they require free access to oxygen and a good flow of water to make the food source available.

Nitrosomonas bacteria adsorb ammonia ions through the cell wall and reduce it to
energy plus nitrite. Ammonia is very toxic and can kill fish even in low concentrations.
Nitrite is also very toxic, but concentrations must be higher to kill. Generally it takes at
least ten days for the nitrosomonas population to expand to the numbers required
to remove the ammonia produced in the aquarium and to immediately reduce it to energy
plus nitrite. Once nitrosomonas has reduced ammonia to nitrite, nitrobacter adsorbs the nitrite
through its cell walls and turns it into energy plus nitrate. nitrobacter is inhibited when
there is ammonia in the water. This means that, in a new aquarium, ammonia builds up to a
peak and then falls to zero after at least ten days. Only after this has occurred can the
concentrations of nitrobacter begin to multiply to remove nitrite that has built up from ammonia
reduction by nitrosomonas. It takes at least twenty one days for the slower growing nitrobacter
to catch up with the nitrite production. The final product of the nitrogen cycle is nitrate.
If water is prevented from flowing and sufficient oxygen is not available, the result is termed
a dead spot. The aerobic bacteria die and anaerobic bacteria begin to flourish. These break
down nitrate as food, but the by products are ammonia and other very toxic gasses that are
deadly in an aquarium. Nitrate is a mild toxin that continues to concentrate unless removed
by regular water changes. High nitrate levels are believed to inhibit the growth of good bacteria
colonies. Standard water changes are highly recommended to reduce these nitrate concentrations.
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