Aquarium Care

Sit back and enjoy your new aquarium

Aquariums can be beautiful and fun additions to any home. The easiest way to start having an aquarium in your house is to choose a freshwater aquarium. These are easier to manage and you have a greater chance of success than if you tackle a saltwater aquarium.  Even so, there is a lot to buy and many things to think about before you can have fish swim around your tank.

You need to select a tank size and make sure it fits into the space you have allotted. You need to select a tank size of at least ten gallons as mistakes are less likely to be lethal if there is more water to work with. Fish tanks are heavy. A full 20 gallon fish tank is over 200 pounds.  Make sure you have a good supporting system for your fish tank so it doesn’t collapse.

Choose a tank with a larger surface area, such as an oblong tank. Fish do better with a larger surface area. Glass tanks are better for beginners so choose one of those as opposed to an acrylic fish tank. Most tanks come with standard measurements which can be used to select the tank for you.

Your initial purchase checklist should include the following:

• A suitably sized aquarium, possibly 20 gallon-sized
• A stand or surface for your aquarium
• A hood or lid for your aquarium
• An aquarium light
• A heater that heats the size of the aquarium you are buying (check with the staff at the pet store if you have any doubts about the heater size and wattage).
• An aquarium thermometer
• Substrate for the bottom of the aquarium
• A fish net
• Something to condition the water
• A filter for the aquarium

You should get enough substrate to fill the bottom of the tank to a level of about two inches.  In general, a pound of substrate should be purchased for every gallon of water in the tank. This means you should buy about 20 pounds of substrate for a 20 gallon tank. The filter should be adequate to filter out the junk in the tank. A filter should be able to filter about 100-150 gallons per hour.

Once you’ve rinsed out the aquarium, you’ll need to fill it with water. Place the aquarium exactly where you want to keep it. Buy a bottle of aquarium water conditioner. Buy two buckets that you only use for the aquarium. Fill the tank with washed substrate to a depth of 2-3 inches. Put a clean plate on top of the gravel (this keeps the gravel from splashing up). Let the cold water in the tap run for a few minutes to clear the lines of excessive minerals and then fill the bucket up to three-fourths full. Pour the water from the bucket onto the plate until the water is halfway up the tank. Then add your plants and decorations. Put in the heater and the filter but don’t plug them in until the tank is full.

Next, fill the tank with water using the other bucket. You can remove the plate when the tank is halfway filled with water. Start the filter and the heater and run for a minimum of twenty four hours before adding fish.

You’ll want to consider adding an EcoBio-Stone or other EcoBio-Block product, depending on the size of your tank and your particular needs. These are porous volcanic and cement rocks which slowly release necessary trace minerals and calcium in to the water. They contain beneficial nutrients and helpful bacteria that create the proper ecosystem for your aquarium helping you minimize your maintenance time and reduce the need to change the water in your tank.  Nitrifying bacteria are established in your tank and the tank is cycled more quickly. The water stays clear and odor is kept to a minimum. EcoBio-Block products last for up to 1.5 or 2 years and require no maintenance.

If all goes well, you’ll have a healthy, happy aquarium system that will last for years with a minimum of interference by you. All you have to do is sit back and enjoy your new aquarium.

Well balanced aquarium

The hardest time to keep a balanced aquarium is when the aquarium is first being started. You add water – usually from the tank – and you condition the water as best you can but still, you sometimes lose fish in the beginning.  What is the best way to balance your aquarium?

The nitrogen cycle is an important aspect of your fish tank. It’s also called the nitrification cycle. It actually turns dangerous ammonia into nitrite and finally into nitrate, which is much safer for the fish. Ammonia is given off as part of the waste products of the fish and fish food, and is relatively toxic to the fish. Nitrifying bacteria come from the air and go into the water, starting the nitrifying cycle and help dangerous ammonia levels to go down.

A quick and easy way to balance your tank and keep it clear is to use one of the EcoBio-Block products which contain nitrifying bacteria. These multiply in the blocks and then spread into the water and attach to various things in the tank. The bacteria will then break down and reduce ammonia and nitrite levels. For example, you can start a tank with ammonia levels of 0.75 and small nitrite level of 0.1. Within a few weeks of using the EcoBio Block product, you can normally achieve ammonia, and nitrite levels of zero. The nitrogen system of the aquarium is properly balanced by the bacteria in the block and you lose much fewer fish because you don’t have an unhealthy system.

You need to balance the pH of your aquarium as well. Some can be a bit alkaline, meaning that the pH is too high or it can be acid, which means the pH is too low. Check the pH of your system using a pH test strip and then consider whether or not you need to change the pH.  Most fish can tolerate a pH of between 5.5 and 8.0 and if it is an established system with healthy fish, you may not want to make drastic pH changes in your system. If you need to lower the pH, you can try adding a piece of driftwood to your tank or add peat to your filtration system. You can raise the pH by adding coral or a seashell. Such gradual changes aren’t likely to hurt the fish but will help the fish gradually adjust to the pH changes.

All tanks eventually get some algae and some is beneficial. Too much algae, however, makes your tank unsightly and you need to prevent this as much as you can. Begin by keeping direct sunlight away from your tank. This holds true for the lighting in the tank, which should be on for no more than 12 hours per day. Make sure you go through frequent water changes so that the nutrient levels are diminished in the tank. Use algae eating fish, such as mollies, suckermouth catfish or Siamese Algae Eaters. All of these will keep your algae levels down in the aquarium.

It takes a lot of maintenance to keep your tank well-balanced. You can use a product like EcoBio-Stone to help keep that balance with a lot less maintenance. Such blocks last at least two years and will keep your fish tank healthy for a long time to come.