Aquarium Care

It doesn’t readily occur to people that the aquatic creatures in ponds, lakes, rivers, what have you, live the same way that we do – on energy from the sun. It’s easy to look down into the gloomy half-dark world they inhabit and to feel that in an aquarium, they could not want anything more than to be kept in a dark corner all the time and be blinded with bright lights when guests need to see how the light bounces off their iridescent scales. As it turns out, fish and all the pretty plants in an aquarium don’t quite work that way.

The light from the sun and moon may not be quite so bright for them in their natural habitat, but it does exist, and if you see yourself running an aquarium full of bright happy and healthy fish, you do need to replicate for them in your aquarium lighting, the kind of light and darkness that they would have enjoyed in their natural habitat.

Aquarium lighting comes in all kinds intensities and technologies. There are the regular fluorescent strips, the compact fluorescent lamps, metal halide lamps and light emitting diodes – every kind of lighting technology there is, as you can see. If what you have on your hands is an aquarium with freshwater fish, these can survive very well on low-intensity fluorescent lighting. Fish actually like fluorescent lighting much better than incandescent bulbs. Fluorescent lights run cooler, and the light they put out is closer in appearance to daylight. If you’ve been kind to your little finny friends, you’ll have a few little plants colorfully waving around your tank looking for a little light for their photosynthesis.

Plants can’t do with the mild lighting that fish can get by on; they will need brighter aquarium lighting, typically around 5 Watts of fluorescent light for every gallon of water your tank holds. Plants actually use the light they receive for energy; if you have a saltwater aquarium, the algae on the live rock you’ll have used, will appreciate much better lighting too. The key word here is “full spectrum lighting”; these life forms need to receive light on all the wavelengths or colors that the sunlight would let them have. Regular fluorescent lighting will work fine, but actinic light will work even better for plants and algae.

But there can be too much of a good thing too when it comes to lighting. The fish have wake- and sleep-cycles just like us; the idea is then to give them as much darkness as they would have in nature. About 12 hours of darkness would not be a bad idea. Using aquarium lighting of too high an intensity or leaving it turned on for too long can be harmful for the environment in the tank; nuisance algae tend to feel encouraged and tend to take over your tank if there is too much lighting too. A good way to go about it would be to buy an aquarium light timer. The fish will have a steady day- and night-cycle they can count on and you can be sure that you will never forget to make the sun come up or go down for the fish. You wouldn’t want to pull a Truman Show climax-like scene on your fish now would you?

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If you have had an aquarium at home for at least some time, you must have surely been faced with the problem of algae. Unfortunately, all fish owners will have to deal with it sooner or later. Algae can be divided into four major groups – blue green, brown, red-brush, and green.

Green algae is the type that many people are familiar with and lives within any aquarium that gets an abundance of light. The two more frequently seen green algae within fish tanks are the hair algae and hard “green dot algae”. Hair algae are long thin strings of algae which are simply cleaned from the tank, and the green-dot algae looks like green dots of algae attached to the side of the aquarium and it is very hard plus time consuming to get rid of.

It is common for brown algae to show up in a fish tank which has just been started and it typically shows up in the initial two weeks. If it shows up in established tanks it means that the owner of the aquarium has to check the nitrate as well as phosphate degrees in the tank. Brown algae is abnormal because it lives in aquariums which don’t get a lot of light, therefore the aquarium owner needs to clean the entire tank and increase the lighting. It’s not uncommon for brown algae to vanish when the conditions of the tank stabilize.

Red-brush algae is not a good news, as it is very hard to remove it manually. In most cases, the cause behind its appearance lies in a high water PH.

If you have something that looks like a slime in your tank, it indicates the appearance of blue-green algae, which actually is a cynobacteria. This is not only going to be dangerous for the plants in your aquarium, but is also likely to cause harm to the fish.

Among the easiest methods to reduce the volume of algae within the tank is to lower your lighting utilizing the smallest wattage you can. Keeping your aquarium lights on for less then nine hours a day will limit the amount of time algae has for photosynthesis.

Utilize distilled water as you clean the saltwater aquarium or swap out the water because altering your water every two to three weeks will limit the amount of time algae may thrive within the tank. As you swap out the water ensure you vacuum the rocks and keep utilization of additives as low as possible, changing the pre-filter pad every week. Stock the tank full of algae consuming fish. With saltwater aquariums that would be – Hard Star Fish, Yellow Tang Fish, Blennies, Turbo Snails, Angel Fish, and small Hermit Crabs.

Using an algae magnet when cleaning your tank can also prove to be very helpful. If you make use of it during each cleaning, your aquarium has a high chance of remaining algae free. For the extra stubborn spots you will probably have to resort to using a razor blade. Fortunately, if you do manage to apply all of the above tips, chances are you will not have to worry about algae ever again.

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