Fish Tank Water

Fish Tank Water - Chemicals in your Aquarium

You’ve seen all those chemicals at the Pet Store, and you’ve wondered if you’ll need one bottle of each of them. And then you wondered if you still want to get into this aquarium hobby after all. Well, here’s the good news, most of that stuff is unnecessary, even worthless. Don’t get me wrong, you’ll occasionally need some of these products, but there is only one of these chemicals that you’ll always use, so let’s start there.

The tap water that you are using to fill your tank, it contains chlorine. It’s harmless to people, deadly to fish, so you’ll need to remove it. Now, don’t panic, you won’t need one of those kits that Grissom uses on CSI. Indeed, a single bottle of dechlorinating liquid is cheap and lasts for months. Just make sure that you read the label because some of the products are concentrated differently, so some of them require fewer drops per gallon of water.

The chlorine in your tap water actually dissipates fairly quickly, completely breaking down in about 24 hours. So in a pinch, you could just fill your bucket and let it stand for a day before using the water, but with the cost of dechlorinating products so low, it hardly seems worthwhile. Just remember, if you chose to use the “let stand” method, make sure you place your water in a location where it will not be contaminated.

You should also invest in a bottle of test strips. These strips, after being dipped into water, will show you a variety of information about your water. Your Ph level, water hardness, ammonia level, nitrates, and nitrites can all be tested using the most common dip strips. That’s a lot of information; in fact, it is more than you’ll actually need.

The truth is that most commonly sold aquarium fish will do just fine in any normal Ph range or water hardness level. Don’t worry if your fish type comes from Peru where it lives in soft acidic water because the fish you bought was probably born and raised in a fish farm in Florida. Then it was packaged up in a big bag of water and sent to your pet store where it was dumped into the local tap water. Most fish are NOT that picky, but they do need clean water, and that’s where the test strips come in handy.

When your fish eats, it produces waste. This waste then breaks down into ammonia, which in turn changes to nitrites, and then into nitrates. Like chlorine, these chemicals can damage and even kill your fish. So you need to remove them if they rise to a high level. The test strips will tell you if your levels are too high, and if they are, your answer is fairly simple—it’s time for a water change.

Once your tank has been established for a few months, you will not have to test it as often because your tank will develop beneficial bacteria that help break down these chemicals more quickly. For the first few months though, you should probably check your tank once per week or so, making sure you have time to do a water change if it should prove necessary.

And that’s basically it. Oh, there are chemicals that will lower your Ph, or raise it, medications for sick or injured fish, chemicals to destroy algae, expensive aquarium salts, and all manner of other niche products that you really do not need. These products are available to keep the fish store in business. Most people and their fish NEVER need these products, so unless you have a sick fish, just stick to the basics. You’ll save some money and avoid driving yourself crazy.
…Read more >>

Fish Aquariums

Fish Aquariums - Fish and Aggression

Your tank has turned into a war zone. Fish with missing scales and tattered fins are hiding in the top corner of your tank, and there are three others that you have not seen in several days. What happened? My friend, you have an aggression problem. Never fear, you have come to the right place for information on how to solve this problem. You can win the battle; just follow these few easy steps.

First things first, sit down in front of your tank and watch what is going on very closely. Get yourself a cold beverage and have a seat. Spend some time with your fish, I mean isn’t this is why you bought them?

Do not get in too big of a hurry to “rescue” your abused fishes. The most important thing you can do right now is to determine which fish(s) are the aggressors, and which are the victims. Before you can fix the problem, you have to understand it. Is there one fish destroying everything else in the tank? Is it the reverse; is there one fish that every other fish in the tank is attacking? Is there a pair of cichlids… guarding a specific rock… covered with eggs? You’ve got to figure it out.

If you have one fish that is getting slaughtered by everything else, then the solution is a simple one; move that fish to another tank, preferably a hospital tank, and treat him for his injuries. You do have a hospital tank don’t you? Every fish owner should have a spare tank set aside to treat and/or quarantine fish. It doesn’t have to be large, and you don’t even have to keep water in it most of the time, but have a hospital tank ready for emergencies, not to mention the fact that you should isolate all new fish for a couple of weeks before adding them to your established tank.

Spawning fish are another challenge. When cichlids spawn, they’ll claim a vast percentage of your tank for their own use, and they’ll tag-team the other fish when they try to enter “their” now personal mating area. A mated pair of cichlids is a fearsome thing to behold, since they now fight as a team and a pair of cichlids is perfectly capable of driving off a fish twice their own size and killing anything smaller. If this is what is going on in your tank, you’ve got a couple of options. You can remove the other fish; remove the eggs; or install a divider within your tank. Doing nothing and hoping for the best rarely works, spawning cichlids have no pity.

If your problem is specific to one aggressive fish, you have a few options that might work. First off, include more “stuff” in your tank. Piles of rocks, sunken ships, plants, almost anything will work. The idea is to create sight-line breaks for the fish, because with fish, “out of sight” really does mean “out of mind”. One aggressive fish terrorizing the others (in the absence of eggs) almost always means that the fish has claimed the entire tank as his own, and the best way to stop this is to box the fish in a bit. Oh sure, he’ll still swim around and boss the others around, but not as often, and not as violently if the others have a place to hide.

Another possibility is to actually add more fish to your tank. Now, you have to be careful to not overstock your tank, but more fish in your tank actually means more targets for the aggressive fish, and this means that each fish will take less damage as the bully won’t be able to focus on just one target.

The solution that is obviously the most fun is getting yourself a bigger tank, maybe that 225 gallon monster that you’ve had your eye on, but that’s kind of a long term solution as we don’t generally advise running down and buying a new tank on the spur of the moment. So if all else fails, it’s time to remove fish. Most people try to remove the smallest and weakest fish, but this is probably the worst way to go about it. Your best bet is to remove the dominant fish to another tank. Yes, you might have to get rid of it. If it’s your prize fish, well, then you might have to get rid of everything else. Then again, maybe it’s just time to buy that second tank. You have room for two tanks… right?
…Read more >>

Fish Tanks

Fish Tanks - Substrate in your Fish tank

What the heck is “Substrate”, you ask? Well, basically your substrate is the material that you have on the bottom of your aquarium. You can have sand, gravel, small stones, or almost anything really. Half of the fun of owning fish is doing the interior decoration of your tank. Let your imagination run wild, but make sure that you use materials that are safe for your fish.

The most common substrate is gravel. You’ve seen those bags in your local pet store; they come in every color of the rainbow. You can also go to any hardware store and buy natural gravel if you are going for a less artificial look. Just make sure that you rinse whatever you use before you put it into your tank and remove any bits that are unusually sharp.

Gravel gives your tank a nice aesthetic appeal while also anchoring your plants and helping you develop the biological filter within your tank. It’s also the easiest substrate to clean when you are using your gravel vac during your water changes. Gravel is heavy enough to resist being siphoned out of the tank, but light enough to swirl around and release all waste that has become sediment. It is also fairly cheap, especially if you purchased a large bag from the hardware store.

Many hobbyists, especially cichlid owners, prefer to use sand. If you are keeping fish that sift sand looking for food, going with something finer than gravel is the ONLY way to go. Like gravel, you can find it in many different colors, although it is harder to find than gravel; most pet stores carry only white and black, and the black is quite expensive. Here too, you can find a cheaper alternative down at your local hardware store.

Most stores carry bags of sand marketed as “play-sand”. These sands are generally used to fill children’s sandboxes and as such, are safe and ready to go. They’ll require a great deal of pre-washing before you put them into your tank though, because of the dust that they contain, but they are attractive to use and quite cheap. Some larger stores may actually carry some colored sands, but they are harder to find and will probably require a special order. Avoid “silica” sands as they have sharp edges that can cut your fish.

Sand is more difficult to clean however, because of its light weight. You can’t plunge your gravel vac into the sand without sucking it up with your waste water. You have to be a lot more careful while siphoning, and periodically make time to stir the sand by hand to release trapped pockets of waste and biological matter. If you want easy to maintain, sand is not for you.

You can also buy bags of crushed shell or limestone. These are useful if you are putting together a marine tank or an African cichlid tank as they are made up of calcium carbonate and this tends to raise the water hardness and pH, which both of these types of fish will enjoy. This is obviously a poor choice for fish from soft water, low pH environments like many river fish from South and Central America.

Whatever substrate you chose, it will require occasional maintenance. Generally not much more than doing a quick stir and a little redecorating when your fish move it around, but your substrate will last just about forever, so pick one that you can live with.
…Read more >>

Aquarium Tank

Aquarium Tank - Tank Maintenance

You’ve bought your tank, you’ve added your fish, now what? Just feed them and forget it… right? Well no, not exactly. You are going to have to do routine maintenance to your aquarium, but never fear, it really doesn’t have to be a backbreaking chore.

First things first, and this one is key, NEVER and I mean never overfeed your fish. If you have added more food into the tank than your fish can eat in a minute or two, then you’ve overfed your fish. Two things can happen now, and they are both bad: one, your fish will eat all of the food that they’ve been fed, and then they will produce enormous waste, or two: the food will sit on the bottom of your tank, fouling the water and breaking down into dangerous chemicals that will kill your fish.

I know, I know… I said that this was going to be an article on tank maintenance. And it is, just stay with me for a minute! The number one factor in keeping your fish alive and your tank clean is not to foul the water in the first place. Yes, not overfeeding your fish is the world’s best way to keep your tank clean. You can thank me later.

If you’ve fed your fish properly, the next thing to consider is your fish load. Keep in mind that the more fish that you have in your tank, the more often it will need to be cleaned. Yes, you can minimize this chore by having proper filtration for your tank, but you will have to clean it on occasion, and you will have to have the right tools. Fortunately, they are quite cheap and easy to use. You’ll need a gravel vac, a bucket, and a glass brush.

Use your brush to clean any excess algae off of your glass before you go any further. Yes, it will make your tank even dirtier for a bit, but better now than later when you have a nice clean tank. You can also wash off any decorations that your plecostomus has missed… Umm, you do have a pleco in your tank don’t you? They help a lot!

Once you are through with the brush, you can get out your gravel vac. A gravel vac is a basically a self-starting siphoning hose connected to a clear plastic tube. Put it in your tank, move it up and down a couple of times, and the water from your tank will now begin to drain into your bucket. Put the mouth of the siphon over any particulate matter in the bottom of your tank and watch while the fish waste is carried away. If you are close to a window and on the first floor, you can water your plants at the same time. Gravel vacs come in many diameters, suitable for any tank from 5 gallons up to those 300-gallon monster tanks. You can also attach more line and run the dirty water into a nearby drain if you have one handy and you won’t even need the bucket.

Remove about 25% of the water and then replace it with clean water. Remember to use your dechlorinator! Add the chemical to each bucket of clean water, and not into your aquarium directly, or you’ll have to treat the entire tank rather than just the smaller bucket of water. Make sure that the water that you are adding is approximately the same temperature as the tank itself, so as not to shock the fish.

And finally, clean your filters, replacing any filters that are in poor shape. Then put the lid back on, and treat yourself to a cold beverage. You are done for the day. That wasn’t that hard now was it?
…Read more >>