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.

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Research has shown that watching fish swim in an aquarium reduces stress and blood pressure. Beginning a brand new aquarium requires some understanding of the process. If done without any understanding, many fish put into a new fish tank may die of new tank syndrome. This article will show you exactly how to start a new aquarium and reduce the frustration of new tank syndrome.

The first step is deciding on the size tank you would like to purchase. There are tanks with capacities of just a few gallons to tanks with over 50 gallons. When you purchase your tank, be sure to also buy a sturdy stand. You can figure the weight of a filled tank by multiplying the total tank gallons by 10. If your tank holds 40 gallons of water, it would weigh 400 pounds filled.

After choosing the tank, other supplies you will need include a filter, air pump, hood, gravel, heater, ammonia, nitrite and pH test kits and water conditioner. You will also need an algae scraper, gravel siphon and decoration. Plan to purchase between one and 1.5 pounds of gravel per gallon of water. Hold off on buying the fish for now. If you have added an EcoBio-Stone, it will need some time to build up an adequate amount of beneficial bacteria before adding fish; otherwise, your fish could succumb to new tank syndrome. New tank syndrome, a condition where fish die a short time after being introduced to a new tank, is caused by high nitrite and ammonia levels. If fish are put into a new aquarium, there may not be enough beneficial bacteria to keep the nitrite and ammonia levels at a safe level.

Once you have your supplies, if you have purchased an EcoBio-Stone, be sure to place it in chlorine-free water and let it soak overnight. While it is soaking, it is time to start putting your aquarium together. Your first step is rinsing the tank and gravel thoroughly. Do not use soap or any other kind of detergent. This will kill the fish. Next, set up the filter and the heater according to the manufacturer’s directions.

Now add the gravel, decorations and attach the air pump to any decorations that require it. Follow this with water. Make sure you add a water conditioner to remove any harmful chemicals, such as chlorine, from the water. A water conditioner will keep the pH level at 7.0, which is what most fish thrive in. Set the heater to a level that will keep the water between 76-78 degrees Fahrenheit. After soaking the stone, add it to your tank. Now it is time to cycle your aquarium.

To avoid new tank syndrome, you must cycle your aquarium. Cycling your aquarium refers to the process of letting the aquarium build up enough good bacteria to support fish. On its own it takes about 35 days to build up enough good bacteria to keep ammonia and nitrite levels in check. Using EcoBio-Stone, your tank will have colonies of good bacteria built quite quickly. One block lasts about two years and will keep your tank water clear and bacteria levels at the correct amount.

Now is the time to buy just two or three fish. Before releasing the fish into the aquarium, set the plastic bag you carried them home in into the tank. This allows the fish to adjust to the water temperature. Wait 10 minutes. Gently release the fish and throw the water in the bag away as it will have fish waste in it.

Each week you should check the pH levels, nitrite and ammonia levels. The latter two should be zero. Each month change 20% of the water (remember to add water conditioner), clean the gravel using the siphon. Add new activated carbon to the filter and wash the filter itself. If you take the time to learn how to start a new aquarium, you will avoid new tank syndrome and enjoy your new fish tank for years to come.

An EcoBio-Stone is a must when you prepare to start a new aquarium. It helps to provide attractive equipment and healthy environment for the inhabitants.

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Through the reading of this article, I hope you can obtain some helpful information about how to start a new aquarium. You are also likely to learn, through the process, that is is quite an incredible undertaking to get the ball rolling on a project like this. So the best thing for you to do is to plan for the process, and that can begin by understanding the most important aspects and sorting through them now rather than later.

You will find out when you are looking to set up an aquarium in your home or office, that there are a lot of different options and looks that you can achieve through the process. So the question then becomes what you want your aquarium to look like and what type of aquatic life you intend to support. This will help you understand what direction you need to go in getting started.

So, as was said you have to determine what kind of life you hope to support through the aquarium’s use. There are two main types of creatures: freshwater and saltwater. You cannot usually mix the two because you cannot have both fresh and saltwater in the same aquarium. These animals cannot survive outside their required elements. This will affect what other creatures you can choose for your aquarium.

Along with the same decision making process, when you have decided what type of creature you are looking to support, you have to actually choose among several varieties. This is another big decision because you cannot allow certain creatures to be with other creatures because they cannot co-exist. Certain creatures fight with one another, and there is nothing you will be able to do about this. So it really pays to do the research about which specimens exist best together.

The size of the aquarium is another big decision that you have to make. While this might seem trivial in the bigger picture, this will play a very large role in what you end up having in the water. For instance, if you are wanting to get an aquarium based on one fish, you have to get the size aquarium that best suits that particular species, which might require a larger or smaller tank than you might have otherwise considered.

The set up of the actual aquarium should not prove to be very difficult. Usually it comes pre-assembled with simple instructions concerning the working parts of the unit itself. It is important to follow these instructions, however, because instructions such as running the filter for a minimum of 24 hours before housing animals is important to their survival. You do want them to survive, right?

You might also benefit from the purchase of a product like Eco Bio-Block, which will not only improve the quality of life for the inhabitants of your aquarium, but will also keep this habitat cleaner and clearer for you and for the fish. So it is more of a win-win situation on both sides of the coin. A small investment in a product like this, could keep your aquarium much nicer for up to 2 years.

So now, you should have a better idea about the process of starting a new aquarium. While it might be a rather large undertaking, if you plan it all out in advance, you will find that the whole thing can run a lot smoother.

Do you like fish and would like to start an aquarium. Find out the correct aquarium care tips that will have your tank flourishing. Use the EcoBio-Block to help out. Find out more online today!

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Cloudy Aquarium

Many a new aquarium owner has panicked when their tank has taken on the appearance of what one such owner described to me as “a smoke filled room at a party.” In aquarium lexicon, we call such smoky appearance “cloudiness” because of its resemblance to the wispy clouds that sometimes appear in the sky. Everyone who keeps fish as a hobby wants their tank or tanks to be sparkling clean and clear at all times. Cloudy fish tanks look unsightly, and the water in these tanks can seriously harm the health of your fish. What causes these cloudy fish tanks, and what is the best way to get rid of the cloudiness?

The water clarity in a fish tank is generally affected by several factors, and the color of the water can often be a clue as to what is causing it to be cloudy. The water in a fish tank that has just been set up will often display a gray or white tint. This is called a “bacterial bloom” and it is very common in new tanks, for the nutrients and the bacteria in the water are imbalanced.

If your tank is so new that you have not added fish to it, dust from one or more of the decorations you added, or from the gravel or other substrate you placed at the bottom of the tank may be the cause of the cloudiness you see. Any item that goes into your fish tank must be made for that purpose, and you must rinse it well beforehand. When bacterial bloom appears in a fish tank that has already been established, your tank filter may not be working properly. You may be overfeeding your fish, or you may have too many fish in too small an aquarium.

A green cloudiness in your tank water means you are dealing with a sudden algae bloom. There are several reasons for an algae bloom some of which mimic the causes of a bacterial bloom. For example, when there is too much waste matter in your tank, be it left over food or the waste products from your fish, the bacteria from this waste converts into nitrates. As these nitrates grow in number, an algae bloom is imminent. Leaving the tank light on too many hours a day encourages the growth of green algae, and so does a high phosphate level in the tank water.

You may sometimes see a yellow color in your cloudy fish tanks. Decorative driftwood, decayed plant matter from aquarium plantings, fish waste, and dissolved organic carbons, often called DOC, can all be the cause of yellow cloudy water. Occasionally, you may also see a brown cloudiness in your tank water. This is caused from an overgrowth of brown algae. Brown algae can be caused by the tank not getting enough light, or from certain types of driftwood that have been placed in the tank.

By eliminating the causes of the different varieties of cloudy tank water, you can make caring for your aquarium much easier. Partial water changes of 10 to 20 percent of the water can help, as can making sure the filter on your tank is of the proper size. In order to remove the cloudiness from the water, and to make sure it does not come back, you need to see to it that your tank has a good supply of beneficial bacteria. This point confuses many newcomers to the aquarium hobby. They are so sure that bacteria are a bad thing that they balk when told it is needed in their tank! However, once they understand about good vs. bad bacteria, they are eager to know what they can do in order to maintain a colony of the good bacteria. Fortunately, there are some good solutions available. One of the best for cloudy water is the EcoBio-Block. When hobbyists learn of the advantages that go along with placing a product from EcoBio-Block in their aquarium, they agree that this is the easiest solution to the problem.

These products contain live beneficial bacteria, which multiply and make their way into the tank water every 30 minutes or so. They work in new set-ups as well as established aquariums to establish a nitrifying bacteria colony. This will take care of most cloudy water naturally, cuts down on the need for water changes and vacuuming the gravel or substrate, and will last for years. You could almost say that EcoBio-Block products are an aquarium owner’s best friend!

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People have owned home aquariums for centuries, and arguably, their fish and aquatic setups got along very well without aid from the modern contraptions you would find at any self-respecting aquarium supplies dealer today. These new devices available today, the aquariums chiller, the powerful lighting or the protein skimmer, were not just thought up by bright marketing departments to part you from that last dollar; these were made for the true aquarium enthusiast, one who tries to expand his aquarist’s horizons delving into areas of aquarium-building heretofore unexplored: raising saltwater coral reefs, or raising exotic fish from cooler climes.

Building a coral reef in your home is no easy matter; these reefs occur naturally close to the water surface out in the sea, and are accustomed to receiving the full benefit of a day’s sunshine. There is no way you could keep these at home illuminated with just a couple of florescent lighting fixtures. Successfully raising coral reefs and the life forms dependent on them requires that you invest in lighting technology that’s really out there- metal halides, Very High Output fluorescents and so on. These do solve your lighting issues raising corals and other tropical life, but not without raising a problem or two of their own. Intense light will always come with intense heat. In the ocean, the heat, as much of it as the sun is able to supply, is pretty much lost in the vast volumes of the ocean’s waters.

An aquarium tank has just so much water, and can be heated up a degree or three with just a few hours of intense artificial lighting. When you switch off the lights at night, the small body of water that the aquarium is, it can hold the heat for only a couple of hours before the temperature in the tank plunges. The temperature swings can be distressing to your aquarium’s inhabitants, for the discomfort they cause and also for the amount of oxygen that warm water will quickly lose. And here enters the aquarium chiller.

Aquarium chillers can be quite expensive, running into hundreds of dollars for a reliable unit. You might think that using a fan would cool your tank adequately: there is a little added wrinkle to the problem though. To have a fan constantly playing on the top of the water will certainly cool it a couple of degrees; the fan will also hasten evaporation. It won’t be easy to top up the water levels either. In some cases you will need to spring for a special reverse osmosis filterto easily do this all the time.

It’s not really difficult buying a chiller; you just measure your tank for volume, and you buy a unit in proportion to the size. If you don’t live in a particularly hot desert-like area, a midsize 30 gallon tank will require a 600 BTU aquarium chiller and a large tank will require as much as 4000 BTU. Think of an aquarium chiller as an air-conditioner for your aquatic friends. Aquarium chillers can often be quite noisy, and can turn out to be stress contributors themselves. Check out online forums for the best brands to buy, and the best feature-choices to make.

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