Running an aquarium or the right aquarium

The Right Aquarium

CHEMISTRY - definitely not.

If you recently took a great interest in aquaristics and decided to create a small piece of wildlife in your home and put your first aquarium - this article is for you.

In it, I tried to give some basic tips that you will need when starting your first aquarium.

  • 1) Do not buy a small aquarium at once, take at least 60-80 liters, if, of course, the house has a place under it. Large aquariums are more resistant to temperature and chemical changes. Recently, the current of nanoakvariums (aquariums up to 20 liters) is fashionable, but it is better, nevertheless, to start with an aquarium of a larger volume.
  • 2) Wash the filter elements of your filter only in aquarium water (not in the aquarium itself), for example in a bucket or basin, this will allow you to keep those bacteria colonies, which in turn help you in the fight against ammonia and nitrites. Tap water is capable of killing them, which for some time will disrupt the biological work of your filter.
  • 3) Do not forget and do not be lazy to change every week 20-25% of water, this will allow you to fight nitrates in your aquarium. And remember that it is not worth it, as 80% of people in our country thought, pour out all the water once a year and boil the ground, enough to replace 20-25% of the water with fresh, which will ensure a long and happy life of your aquarium.
  • 4) Do not overfeed the fish, it is very important. First, overfeeding harms the fish (here you can see people, overeating has not benefited anyone), and secondly, not eaten food begins to rot in the aquarium, which significantly spoils the quality of water.
  • 5) Always check the compatibility of the fish you buy. Agree, because no one saw in the zoo aviary with wolves, penguins and rabbits living together. In the aquarium is exactly the same.
  • 6) Do not release new fish from the package or bottle directly into the aquarium, first place this packet in water, in order to level the temperature, then after 50-100 ml add the water from the aquarium to the package, the bottle - this is done in order to align the parameters water. It is better to do this alignment within 20-30 minutes, not less.
  • 7) Before buying fish, inspect it very carefully for damage, opacities, sores and other abnormal conditions.
  • 8) Use a quarantine aquarium for newly arrived fish, this will help to keep the fish that you already have. The question is especially acute when the fish is not cheap, and in any case the fish eventually become full members of the family and it is necessary for us, the aquarists, to take care of their health. Therefore, just in case, keep a quarantine aquarium where you could watch a new fish for a couple of weeks about its health.
  • 9) Run the aquarium in series so as not to overload the filtration system. The filtration system as a human organism, if it is trained gradually, it will give a greater result than if immediately give a big load. Colonies of bacteria develop gradually with increasing stress, so do not immediately start all the fish that you yourself charted.
  • 10) Do not believe the rule of 1 cm of fish = 1 liter of water, who and when it came up, but this rule is not entirely correct.
  • 11) Do not get carried away with the use of chemicals, especially if you do not fully understand their effects and the consequences of their use.

It is worth remembering that the path to success in aquariums lies through the digging of new and new information through books, magazines, forums and aquarium portals that help to go to success in our hobby with you.