Aquarium Care

Planted tank

While many novice aquarium hobbyists decorate their tanks with sunken pirate ships and other novelty items, these decorations eventually grow old. If you are looking for some attractive, natural-looking décor for your home aquarium what you need is a few live aquarium plants. Not only are live plants beautiful in the aquarium, they are also very beneficial for your fish and for your aquarium as a whole.

Types of Live Aquarium Plants

Live aquarium plants can be divided into three general categories: ferns and mosses, rosettes, and stem plants. Ferns and mosses are those plants which do not flower and propagate by producing spores. This category includes plants like java ferns, crystalwort and willow moss. The rosette category includes flowering aquarium plants which are often used ornamentally in ponds as well as the home aquarium. Some popular specimens in this category are Amazon swords, vallisneria and water lilies.

Stem plants are the largest category of aquarium plants and they are also some of the most popular. Some of the most commonly used stem plants include hornwort, cabomba and anacharis. Plants in this category often grow quickly and can be easily propagated by taking cuttings and rooting them in substrate. Some stem plants are also very hardy, able to thrive in a variety of aquarium environments including brackish tanks.

Floating Aquarium Plants

As an alternative to these three categories, live aquarium plants can also be divided by their rooting requirements. While most aquarium plants need to be potted or rooted in substrate, some plants must be allowed to float on the surface of the water. These plants provide a complementary look to rooted plants in your aquarium while also increasing the oxygen content in your tank and providing a place for small fish and newly-hatched fry to hide.

Some of the most popular floating aquarium plants include hornwort, a slow-growing plant, and anacharis, a plant that grows very quickly. Water sprite, duckweed and azolla are frequently used in goldfish ponds because they provide a healthy food source for fish as well as attractive decoration. Many floating plants can thrive when rooted in substrate but floating free on the water’s surface allows for the maximum level of growth and spread.

In the home aquarium, live plants can be very beneficial. Not only do they help to filter out toxins and produce oxygen – they also suppress algae growth and provide your tank with a beautiful and natural décor scheme. In order to maximize the effectiveness of your live aquarium plants, pot one or two in an EcoBio-Planter. These planters are made from natural zeolite and crushed stone which makes them a simple yet attractive item to add to your tank. EcoBio products are infused with beneficial bacteria which immediately start working to nitrify tank water, making it cleaner, clearer and healthier for your fish. EcoBio-Planter has the additional attraction of being great for your plant’s life as well.

If you are serious about starting a planted tank you will first need to decide what type of plants you want to cultivate and what is needed in order for them to thrive. Aquarium plants require fluorescent lighting and periodic feeding in order to achieve their maximum growth. If you care for your plants properly they will repay you by helping to keep your tank clean and clear, creating an ideal environment in which your fish will be able to thrive.

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Goldfish need your proper care

Many people have had a goldfish or two in their lives, only for the small fish to die for no apparent reason. The main problem is that there are a lot of misconceptions going around about how to care for these fish. People who think they are doing it right are actually doing everything wrong. Learning how to care for your goldfish tank now will ensure all your fish a long and healthy life.

Goldfish are a cold-water species, so it is true that they don’t need, and actually do better, without a heater. This is about the only piece of conventional advice concerning the keeping of these fish that is true. Some things you need to know are: a bowl is a horrible way to keep them, they absolutely do need a filter, and they will not stay as small as the aquarium they are placed in (they will just die instead, due to lack of enough water and too much waste).

A proper aquarium for goldfish is at least 10 gallons. And even at this size, only three to four fish can be kept. They will quickly outgrow this aquarium, but some people solve this problem by trading in their large fish for new smaller ones every few months at the pet store. Since larger fish are worth more money than smaller ones, many pet stores are happy to do this. No fish bigger than 3 inches should be kept in a 10 gallon aquarium.

An adult goldfish is between 6 and 12 inches long, depending on the type. It needs at least 10-20 gallons of water per fish. Strong filtration is necessary in order to keep them healthy, as these fish produce a lot of waste. Regular water changes of 10-30% every week or two are necessary. You can also consider using the EcoBio-Block which uses beneficial bacteria to purify water, to help keep the water clear and the fish healthy. The biggest benefit to this product is that you are able to keep a consistently high level of beneficial bacteria in your tank as they live and multiply in the block.

Filtration in an aquarium is partially mechanical (large pieces of waste are trapped) but also partly biological. This is where good (beneficial) bacteria are used to turn the fish waste into a nontoxic byproduct. Here again, you will find EcoBio-Block useful as it also jump-starts the process by quickly introducing these bacteria instead of having to wait for them to naturally flourish.

Overfeeding is one of the most common causes of fish death in home aquariums. Your fish should be fed a flake food that is specially formulated for goldfish (not tropical fish) and only fed what they can eat in one or two minutes, once a day. Excess amounts of food will dirty the water, or the fish will eat it and get fat. Fat fish do not live as long as healthier, leaner ones.

There are no conventional aquarium fish that can share living space with goldfish without compromising the health of at least one of the species, so these fish should be maintained only with their own kind. Fancy types of various varieties can be kept together, but should be kept separately from the faster, stronger standard type that can out-compete them for food and bully the weaker fish.

Given the proper aquarium setup, this is a hardy species of fish. If you maintain your tank with regular water changes, feed properly, and find new homes for fish that have outgrown any smaller tanks that you keep them in, your pets might live up to their maximum lifespan of 20 years.

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Nature aquarium started as an upgrade from an ordinary aquarium making hobby to an art. It is where an aquarium that was originally intended for fancy fish was aquascaped with real live underwater plants. In ordinary aquarium, the emphasis of the hobby is the fish, while the emphasis of nature aquarium is the habitat and aquascape of the aquarium.

This art was popularized by a renowned Japanese photographer Takashi Amano. His specialty is naturistic photography which gave birth to his new art, nature aquarium. It’s like giving real life to all his photos and putting it inside the glass. His photography brought him to different parts of the world, and his nature aquarium became popular worldwide.

The aquarium that we are talking about is not an ordinary aquarium. Its main idea is about creating a miniature ecosystem inside the glass under a controlled environment, where fishes, bacteria, invertebrates, aquatic plants, and all other aquatic living organisms can live together as if they are living in the open wild.

There are several kinds of aquatic plants that you can plant inside the aquarium depending on your preferences and artistic imagination. “HC” or otherwise known as Hemianthus callitricodes can be a perfect choice for carpeting while Ludwigia Arcuata is a perfect choice for giving a purple color background for your aquarium. Dwarf Hairgrass is a good choice for creating a mountain like view. Again, it is all up to your own artistic imagination.

For the fishes, please note that since it is a miniature ecosystem, it is not really advisable to have huge fishes like Arowana or Oscar. It’s not what we are trying to achieve here. It is best to have small fishes such as Guppy and Tetra. If you can have some other colorful small fish, the better. But please, no Gold Fishes alright?

Also try to consider some invertebrates such as small shrimps and snails. They eat algae and some other harmful bacteria inside the nature aquarium. They can help maintain the balance of the ecosystem inside the tank.

Algae can also destroy the beauty of your aquarium that is why it needs to be controlled. But don’t bother yourself to totally eliminate it. Else, you will have an imbalance ecosystem, and you won’t have some food for your invertebrates. Just note that the goal here is to have a well balance ecosystem.

An alternative to invertebrates is a fish called “Siamese algae eater”. It is one of the best fish algae eater out there. But it is recommended to only have 1 Siamese for every 20 gallon tank.

Lastly, you also need to take care of the CO2 and oxygen, lighting, filtration, and substrate systems of your aquarium. These things are essentially important in growing the plants inside the aquarium. A mediocre quality of these tools won’t do any good to your plants.

Takashi’s hobby has become a business later on when he founded the Aqua Design Amano. He started this company that design high quality equipments for nature aquariums. Though they are quite expensive, the quality of these equipments are just so amazing and perfectly fit for your desired aquarium. It definitely one of the highest quality brand out there specifically designed for nature aquariums.

Bince is a nature lover. To learn more about nature aquarium, you can visit our site www.natureaquariums.org.

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Once you have purchased your fish, you need to supply them with the proper food that will keep them healthy and happy. It doesn’t always have to be a big bag of fish flakes. Your fish also need good nourishment that will give them an active life, enhance their growth and stimulate breeding. Their diet should also give them a more efficient immune system against sickness.

One popular type of fish food is the dry fish food. This includes flakes, pellets, wafers, and granules. There are many different formulations of dry fish food to cater to different species of fish. They can be made from plant, animal or fish products. Most of them are fortified with vitamins and minerals for a more complete nutritional diet for your fish. Some are concocted for special purposes like intensifying the colors of the fish or making the scales shinier.

Larger fish, those bigger than an inch, require a more specialized diet. The carnivores or omnivores will prefer meat in their diet. One very popular meat food is bloodworms. Bloodworms are red mosquito larvae that can be purchased frozen from aquarium supply stores. They are considered the more nutritious alternative to flakes and pellets. They look like small ice cubes when packaged and you just drop these cubes in the aquarium water when it’s feeding time.

Other fresh or frozen foods for your fish are brine shrimps or krill. Not only are brine shrimps nourishing, they also somehow bring out the colors of tropical fish. A small crustacean, called the Daphnia, or water flea is also another option for the carnivores. They may be delicious to fish but they are not really full of nutrients.

Earthworms or other worms are also popular food for some larger fish. They are high in protein but will not give your fish a balanced diet. Like the Daphnia, they should not be the only food source of your fish. To many larger predatory fish, feeder fish or any small fish are the best food, although they don’t usually go for community fish in an aquarium.

There should be a rotation of some or all of these foods in feeding your fish not just to give them balanced nutrition but also to provide variety in their diet. They are likely to get tired of the same food day after day just like any person. You also have the option of supplementing the dried pellets or flakes diet with live or frozen food.

Herbivores, unlike carnivores, will be happier snacking throughout the day rather than eating at a regular schedule. Fresh plants in aquarium tanks are good sources of food for them, and they can also eat any algae that are present in the aquarium.

You can also supplement your fish’s food supply with vegetables like blanched spinach leaves, slices of zucchini and cucumber, and peas directly to the tank. Let this vegetable matter float for an hour or two, and then remove them from the tank. Some dried foods, particularly algae wafers, also make a good choice for herbivores.

Feeding the right food to your fish is not really difficult. You just have to make a little research to find out the preferences and nutritional needs of your fish. Different species will have different needs. Make the necessary adjustments to the kind and amount of food you feed them as they grow. Remember to give them variety and a balance diet and your fish will thrive and live a full healthy, perky and happy life.

Leonard Boyler has been keeping fish for more than two decades. His favorite products make aquarium care and maintenance very easy from start up to clarifying cloudy aquarium water. To learn more about how you can keep your water clear and have healthy fish, please visit ONEdersave.com.

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Aquarium cleaning is a monthly task that must be done weather or not you want to do it. If you do it right the process can be very easy or difficult. The size of your tank can depend on how long it takes to clean. If you have a very big tank, and the tank is established then you may not want to vacuum out all of the debris it is good for the fishes growth and development. If you have a smaller tank the tank will take longer to be established and you may want to vacuum out all the debris.

When cleaning a tank, changing the filters is the first step. If you have a bio filter, or power filter changing the filters is a breeze. A under gravel filter is another story. You must remove all the plants, decor and accessories. Then you must pull it out from under the gravel to clean.

Once the filters are cleaned, replace them with new ones. If you have an underground filter do not replace it back in the tank yet. If you have an established tank then leave the plants and decor, even if they have algae on them. If you do not have an established tank or smaller tank (ten gallon or smaller) then wash off all the plants and decor. If you have real plants do not wash them.

After the accessories, decor and plants have been washed do not place them back in the tank yet. The next step is to siphon the tank. Siphon no more than one third of the water out of the tank. Siphoning the tank is just like vacuuming the tanks. Be careful not to vacuum up any small fish. If there is still debris at the bottom of the tank fill it with water and re siphon until all debris is gone. If you have an established tank then only siphon out some of the debris and leave a little in the gravel.

When replacing the water only use soft water so the fish do not die of shock. Soft water is water without minerals. Tap water or filtered water is considered soft water. After the water has been replaced remember to not fill the tank too high because, the plants, decor and filters have to still be added.

Replace the under gravel filter if you have one. Also consider in investing a power filter, this will make your life a lot easier. Then replace the plants and decor. You’re all done, and now your tank is clean. Remember that cleaning a tank can be traumatizing for the fish, so they might be timid for a while after the clean.

Roshan Goodman gives cool info on fish tank and advice on aquarium related things.

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