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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You’ve probably seen live rock in all the most elegant saltwater aquariums you remember. They sell aquarium live rock in all the better aquarium supplies stores: pieces of undersea coral reef broken off through the natural action of the sea, picked up by divers for use in aquaria. Coral reefs are made of a very porous substance. The ocean’s underwater environment is filled with tiny creatures, crabs, crustaceans, algae and myriad other life forms that make their home in the little pores, nooks and crannies of these reefs. When a piece breaks off and is fished up by people for use in aquaria, these rocks come with all the life that fills their entire structure; hence the name, live rock.

The saltwater aquarium is a pretty popular option around homes these days; it wasn’t really an option up until a few years ago when aquarium live rock was not commonly available. What is it about live rock that helps though? The thing is, when you put a hunk of live rock into your aquarium, you give the thousands of organisms holed up within, a home in your tank as well; in return, they are happy to earn their keep by entering a symbiotic relationship with their tankmates, the fish.

Fish eat and breathe in the same water space they release their bodily waste in; someone’s got to clean up all the pollution in the water before it gets too thick for the fish. Of course you could always roll up your sleeves every couple of days and filter it all out with plenty of time and equipment. With aquarium live rock though, all you need to do is leave it to the organisms in the rock, the aerobic and anaerobic critters, to turn the bodily waste floating about in the water into harmless nitrogen that bubbles up to the surface and leaves.

The rule of thumb for the quantity of live rock you want for your saltwater aquarium is about a pound of rock for every gallon of water your aquarium holds. But you can’t just lie back and relax just yet; the aquarium live rock that you buy from your aquarium supplies store needed to make quite a trip to your home all the way from the bottom of the sea. The living organisms in there seem to not find the inside of a mail order store’s mailer box quite as hospitable to life as the bottom of their favorite sea. After the grueling trip making it to your aquarium, the rock will take a while to acclimatize to its new surroundings and grow the full complement of life forms it is capable of. In the meantime, you will need to check the nitrate levels in your water from time to time and use a protein skimmer to take up the slack until your live rock kicks in.

When aquarium live rock does kick in though, there is quite nothing like it: the fish love to play around it, the rocks grow beautiful colorful algae and plants, and the rock really lives, changing from day to day in the life it supports. There are several kinds of aquarium live rock you’ll get to choose from when you set forth to buy some. There are rocks from the Fiji Islands, there is Atlantic rock and there is aquaculture rock. The ones from the Pacific are real coral reef, but when you buy something of this kind you never know if environmentally friendly harvesting practices were used to get them. Aquaculture rock could be the best choice; they artificially place porous rock at the bottom of the sea a couple of years to get all the life forms to take to them, and then ship it to you. If you have a saltwater marine aquarium, you owe it to your fish to help them feel at home. They’ll be healthier and happier for your trouble.

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Aquarium canister filters are needed in order to maintain the balance and cleanliness of the aquarium. This type of canister filters may be used for either a freshwater or saltwater aquarium. Depending on the type of canister filter, it may contain media that may filter the water through mechanical, chemical, or biological means.

When you look at the built and functions of the canister filter, these are quite similar to that of the ?hang on? filters. However, the canister filters are designed to provide more mechanical filtration compared with that of other filters. These filters are best used for aquaria that have fish types that tend to be messy eaters. Unlike most filters that are hung on the tank, canister filters are usually placed below the tank. At times, you might also find them inside the tank. For this type, the term ?submersible filter? is used. Some aquarium owners also choose to attach a wet-dry wheel to the outflow of the canister filter, which leads to the improvement of the biological filtration.

Most canister filters are designed to filter larger amounts of water compared with conventional water filters. These are also easily customized that you can specify if you would like the canister filter to have a mechanical, chemical, and biological functions. You may also ask for a canister filter that has bio wheels, UV sterilizers, or a water chiller.

The most noteworthy disadvantage of having a canister filter is the need to clean it frequently. Because this functions mainly as a mechanical filter, the debris from the water can easily clog it up. If you decide to submerge the water filter, clean up will get even more tedious than if the filter is located outside the aquarium. Despite the trouble in cleaning the filter, you have to do this often to prevent the decaying and toxic waste from coming back into the aquarium’s water.

Once the water has been freed from the chemicals, it is allowed to pass through the bacteria bed, wherein the bacteria present in the bed change the nitrites into nitrates. This biological filtration is necessary in order to lessen the toxic effects of these chemicals.

Guide to proper choice of canister filters

1. Replacement parts are readily available

When shopping for a canister filter, you have to inquire if the store also carries replacement parts for the filter. Although the filter is durable and is guaranteed to last for a long time, there will be a time that you will have to change the parts of the canister filter as part of maintenance. It is best if you have spare o-rings, impellers, and rubber gaskets. You can?t be sure when you will need to replace them.

2. Are these the right ones for your aquarium type?

Just a short reminder: Although canister filters work with both freshwater and saltwater aquariums, there are some that work only with freshwater aquariums. Be sure to inform the seller if you will use it with a saltwater aquarium.

3. Ease of installation and use

At first, an aquarium expert can help you with installing the filters. However, after this, you are on your own. Choose a canister filter that is easy to maintain and replace, even by a non-technical person. There are lots of advantages in getting a canister filter for your aquarium. Just keep these simple tips in mind when getting one so that you maintain the balance in your aquarium?s ecosystem.

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