Before you buy an aquarium and fill it with fish, you need to find out what is involved in freshwater aquarium maintenance. One thing you cannot do with success is buy a group of fish, place them in your tank and then think that all you have to do is feed them. Aquariums are a lot of fun but they are not maintenance free. You need to do everything you can to keep your fish healthy and happy.
One of the things you can do to limit freshwater aquarium maintenance is to start out by equipping your aquarium with the best equipment and the right types of fish. For instance, a power filter is the answer to making your tank the most user-friendly. With one of these filters, you do not have to worry much about odors, cloudiness or water impurities. All you have to do is change the filter once a month and you are good to go.
A fish that can help you clean
When you fill your aquarium with fish, get a bottom dweller. These fish are more than worth their keep because they live on the bottom and keep the gravel and plants clean from any food that has fallen down there. They also keep the bottom of the tank algae-free. One of the best algae eaters and a real boon to freshwater aquarium maintenance is the plecostomus. This fish's name has lots of letters and is hard to pronounce but it is the easiest solution to algae problems. They come in all sizes.
Daily fish checkups
Each day you should check to make sure that there is no leftover food floating around tank. Only feed an amount of food that your fish can eat in three to five minutes. Feeding too much food will make the water in the tank cloudy. Also check to make sure that your water is clean, your heater is working (if you have fish that need one) and that the lights are going on and off when they are supposed to. The biggest thing is, of course, to make sure there are no sick fish in the tank.
Ideally, you need to have a small tank all ready to go for isolating sick fish. Not everyone does but it will make life a lot easier if you can manage to have one. A sick fish should be isolated until you can determine what is wrong with him or her and whether or not the illness is contagious. This is especially critical with an injury as a fish that is not well will often be mistreated by the other fish in the tank. If the fish does have a contagious disease, you will have to treat all the other fish as well.
Aquarium cleaning
Freshwater aquarium maintenance means changing the tank water every two weeks. While this is necessary, it is not always the thing people most love about having an aquarium. Luckily, you only need to take out about 20% of the water, not all of it. Around once a month you will want to do a more thorough cleaning, where you take out one-half of the water. This too is when that second tank is going to come in handy. If you have one, you can keep the water in it just right so that when you clean the primary tank, you can move all the fish into the backup tank.
Water is usually removed from the tank using a siphon and fish are moved from one tank to another with a net. If you have to clean your tank with the fish still in it, be very careful not to hurt any of the fish.
A two-week cleaning means using a sponge to scrub the inside and outside of the aquarium. Do not ever use soap. A small amount of salt applied to the sponge will clean the glass beautifully. Either rinse or change your filter. Check the hoses if you have an air filter in your tank, and use a gravel cleaning device to get the substrate clean. If you have a bottom dwelling fish, this will be much easier as he will already have done most of the job.
Tank refills
When you do your monthly cleaning, take out all of the structures and plants and clean them with water and salt as well. Check the pH of the water to make sure it is what it's supposed to be. The best way to fill your tank up again after a cleaning is to use distilled water and heat it up to the right temperature before adding it. Tap water should only be used in an emergency as it is never the best choice for your fish. It often contains chlorine and other organisms which can be deadly to fish.
The biggest thing to remember about freshwater aquarium maintenance is that you must never change all of the water at once. Only add a small amount of water to the pre-conditioned water in the tank--not more than 20% weekly or 50% when you clean the whole tank.
Fish are a wonderful hobby and you can spend endless hours engrossed in watching their movements and behavior. Make sure that you help them to be as healthy as possible by feeding the right types of food and performing regular freshwater aquarium maintenance.
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