The Fish Tank
An overview for the new freshwater hobbyist
Fish tanks are commonly made from acrylic, plastic, or glass. Plastic is generally the least desirable of the three as it will yellow over time and allows the least in-tank visibility. It is, however, the lightest of the three materials. Acrylic tanks are generally made from one piece and so have no seams to leak from; they are also stronger and lighter than glass and allow the best in-tank visibility, but scratch easily and are the most expensive. Glass is what has been traditionally used in the hobby: it is less expensive than acrylic and provides great visibility. Old glass tanks are subject to leaking from the seams sometimes, though they are easily re-sealed with silicone. It usually is a matter of personal preference when choosing between glass and acrylic and people have strong feelings about both.
Dechlorinator
All water companies add chlorine or chloramine to their water supply for sanitary purposes as it is highly toxic to many harmful organisms. These two substances also happen to be horribly toxic to aquatic life and must be removed because if any of either is present it will burn off a fish’s mucous membrane and damage their gills. Almost no fish lasts overnight with chlorine or chloramines in their water and those that do are permanently damaged and die either shortly afterward or the next time chlorine or chloramine is introduced into their tank/bowl. Certain brands of dechlorinator also serve to detoxify heavy metals that are also potentially deadly to aquatic animals and detoxify ammonia and nitrite in the event of a deadly spike in either. Dechlorinator should not be considered a replacement for a cycled tank.
Test Kits
Besides testing for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate to make sure that the levels present are fine* , it is necessary to test certain things called PH, GH, and KH. You don't need to know what these things are to test their levels but they are important to the fish. PH is the concentration of hydroxide ions, GH, which stands for general hardness, is the amount of dissolved minerals in the water (important because if the water is too hard oxygen does not pass through a fish's skin, among other things), and KH is the concentration of calcium ions (which keeps the PH stable and is important because sudden changes in PH cause fish to die). Many hardy species of fish can be acclimated to a variety of PHs and Ghs between 6.0 and 8.0, but more sensitive species cannot be, and KH is important to know simply because of PH stability. Again, if your PH changes drastically in a short period, most, if not all fish in your aquarium will die.
Test strips are not recommended as they tend to be wildly inaccurate.
*Where do the bacteria come from? The air, trace amounts in the water, etc. They're all over the place, but need time to build up into a colony big enough to handle converting ammonia to nitrite and nitrite to nitrate, which is much less toxic to fish than the preceding two. Where does the ammonia come from? Things decaying such as food and fish poop. You can never keep an aquarium clean enough to keep this from happening; the only way would be to clean it completely every 1-3 days! Please read up on cycling
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums...ad.php?t=81388 , one of the most important concepts in fish keeping.
Filter
There are three types of filtration: mechanical, chemical, and biological.
Biological: While beneficial bacteria grow on all aquarium surfaces the majority of it grows in your filter. This will naturally happen when you cycle your tank and is very, very important. Bacteria that live in your filter use air and, because of this, are known as aerobic bacteria. They are an essential (I cannot stress this enough) part of a healthy aquarium.
Chemical: Used for filtering out chemicals dangerous to your fish from the water, such as sulfur. There is a good article in the Equipment & DIY section on activated carbon, which is usually the chemical filtration in aquariums:
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums...ad.php?t=94711
Mechanical: This is used for trapping loose debris in the water which have the potential of decaying or clouding the water.
There are canister, hang-on-back, undergravel (not recommended as sole filtration), bio wheel, and sponge(not recommended as sole filtration) filtration systems commonly sold in stores. Choose the right one for your tank:
Canister: Siphons the water through a large amount of filtration material external to the aquarium. Generally more expensive, effective, and does not create a dripping sound. A must for messy fish.
Hang-on-back (HOB’s): The majority of aquariums use these. Water is sucked through a tube in the aquarium into a filtration chamber which usually contains a filter cartridge with carbon and some sort of biological filtration material (a variety of sponge). The beginning of the tube is called the intake. The water then trickles back into the aquarium through the discharge. They are much more inexpensive than canisters and fairly effective.
Biowheel: Essentially a HOB with a type of wheel attached, giving the bacteria more area to grow on and greater access to oxygen. Many people have had very good results with these, but others claim they are a nitrate factory(eg a place where detritus gets trapped, creating a nitrate spike).
Sponge: These do not provide chemical filtration. Water is pumped through a tube which is forced through a sponge, where bacteria grow. These are generally used in fry (baby) tanks to prevent them from being sucked up in an intake or for back-up filtration.
Undergravel: A powerhead pumps air into the gravel, which then cultivates aerobic filtration bacteria. UGs have become debated in recent years, so it is up to the reader to do research on them. Some people claim they are very effective. A new variety has come out called a Reverse Under-Gravel filter, or RUGF. These turn the entire substrate bed into a filtration system and are much more effective than undergravel filters.
This article goes much more into depth about the types of filtration and filtration systems. A recommended read:
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/fo...ad.php?t=94937
A very useful article on filtration material:
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/fo...ad.php?t=88677
Here is an article on filter maintenance, which is very important:
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums...d.php?t=108685
Heater
Most tropical fish prefer a water temperature between 76-82 degrees. Different species have different requirements. A good rule of thumb for picking out a heater is to double the gallons of your tank to determine the wattage needed. In some cooler ambient temps (for instance tanks housed in a basement) two heaters or a higer wattage may be necessary. Take caution as a bigger heater is not always better. Inexpensive and oversized heaters may overheat your tank causing fatality.
Lighting/hood
Many fish jump straight out of the aquarium so a cover is a important. If you're not going to grow live plants you can use an incandescent bulb (standard bulb used in house holds) in your fixture if you monitor how much heat it puts out. If you're going to grow plants you need fluorescent or sodium halide/metal alkalide bulbs (the latter is generally not used by beginners and is expensive!). Most people start out with low light plants. To learn more, visit here:
http://www.aquabotanic.com/begin.htm
As you learn more about fish keeping, you will learn more about plant keeping.
Bucket
Purchase a new one and never use it for anything else. You will need this at some point!
Siphon:
Once the tank is set up, you will want to vacuum the gravel as part of your maintenance schedule. These also can make water changes much more convenient.
Net/Cup
A net provides an easy, inexpensive way to catch your fish using soft cloth that won‘t hurt them. However, fish with spines will destroy one, so it is recommended to catch them with a cup.
A Quarantine Tank
After getting all of your equipment, decorations, and plants, it’s better to have a small, equipped tank to isolate newcomers than to risk breaking down your tank, potentially throwing decorations and live plants out, and starting from the beginning. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy and bare-bottom is recommended. New fish can get your established stock sick. Think of it this way-if the new fish is sick and makes others sick, you’ll need the quarantine anyway. Often an extra filter or extra filter media is kept on the display tank for use on the qt as necessary. Small decorations like terra cotta pots can be helpful for shy fish in qt and are inexpensive enough to discard after treatment. It is generally recommended to quarantine new arrivals for a month of health and to quarantine sick fish, depending on the disease.
NEVER USE SOAP OR CHEMICALS ON YOUR EQUIPMENT. It leaves residue that is toxic to aquatic life.
Ask around and use tags to find out the brands and types of filters people recommend, and check out the “scam” tag. Don’t hesitate to ask any questions. None of this is as complicated as it seems at first! And welcome to the fish keeping hobby!
An overview for the new freshwater hobbyist
Fish tanks are commonly made from acrylic, plastic, or glass. Plastic is generally the least desirable of the three as it will yellow over time and allows the least in-tank visibility. It is, however, the lightest of the three materials. Acrylic tanks are generally made from one piece and so have no seams to leak from; they are also stronger and lighter than glass and allow the best in-tank visibility, but scratch easily and are the most expensive. Glass is what has been traditionally used in the hobby: it is less expensive than acrylic and provides great visibility. Old glass tanks are subject to leaking from the seams sometimes, though they are easily re-sealed with silicone. It usually is a matter of personal preference when choosing between glass and acrylic and people have strong feelings about both.
Dechlorinator
All water companies add chlorine or chloramine to their water supply for sanitary purposes as it is highly toxic to many harmful organisms. These two substances also happen to be horribly toxic to aquatic life and must be removed because if any of either is present it will burn off a fish’s mucous membrane and damage their gills. Almost no fish lasts overnight with chlorine or chloramines in their water and those that do are permanently damaged and die either shortly afterward or the next time chlorine or chloramine is introduced into their tank/bowl. Certain brands of dechlorinator also serve to detoxify heavy metals that are also potentially deadly to aquatic animals and detoxify ammonia and nitrite in the event of a deadly spike in either. Dechlorinator should not be considered a replacement for a cycled tank.
Test Kits
Besides testing for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate to make sure that the levels present are fine* , it is necessary to test certain things called PH, GH, and KH. You don't need to know what these things are to test their levels but they are important to the fish. PH is the concentration of hydroxide ions, GH, which stands for general hardness, is the amount of dissolved minerals in the water (important because if the water is too hard oxygen does not pass through a fish's skin, among other things), and KH is the concentration of calcium ions (which keeps the PH stable and is important because sudden changes in PH cause fish to die). Many hardy species of fish can be acclimated to a variety of PHs and Ghs between 6.0 and 8.0, but more sensitive species cannot be, and KH is important to know simply because of PH stability. Again, if your PH changes drastically in a short period, most, if not all fish in your aquarium will die.
Test strips are not recommended as they tend to be wildly inaccurate.
*Where do the bacteria come from? The air, trace amounts in the water, etc. They're all over the place, but need time to build up into a colony big enough to handle converting ammonia to nitrite and nitrite to nitrate, which is much less toxic to fish than the preceding two. Where does the ammonia come from? Things decaying such as food and fish poop. You can never keep an aquarium clean enough to keep this from happening; the only way would be to clean it completely every 1-3 days! Please read up on cycling
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums...ad.php?t=81388 , one of the most important concepts in fish keeping.
Filter
There are three types of filtration: mechanical, chemical, and biological.
Biological: While beneficial bacteria grow on all aquarium surfaces the majority of it grows in your filter. This will naturally happen when you cycle your tank and is very, very important. Bacteria that live in your filter use air and, because of this, are known as aerobic bacteria. They are an essential (I cannot stress this enough) part of a healthy aquarium.
Chemical: Used for filtering out chemicals dangerous to your fish from the water, such as sulfur. There is a good article in the Equipment & DIY section on activated carbon, which is usually the chemical filtration in aquariums:
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums...ad.php?t=94711
Mechanical: This is used for trapping loose debris in the water which have the potential of decaying or clouding the water.
There are canister, hang-on-back, undergravel (not recommended as sole filtration), bio wheel, and sponge(not recommended as sole filtration) filtration systems commonly sold in stores. Choose the right one for your tank:
Canister: Siphons the water through a large amount of filtration material external to the aquarium. Generally more expensive, effective, and does not create a dripping sound. A must for messy fish.
Hang-on-back (HOB’s): The majority of aquariums use these. Water is sucked through a tube in the aquarium into a filtration chamber which usually contains a filter cartridge with carbon and some sort of biological filtration material (a variety of sponge). The beginning of the tube is called the intake. The water then trickles back into the aquarium through the discharge. They are much more inexpensive than canisters and fairly effective.
Biowheel: Essentially a HOB with a type of wheel attached, giving the bacteria more area to grow on and greater access to oxygen. Many people have had very good results with these, but others claim they are a nitrate factory(eg a place where detritus gets trapped, creating a nitrate spike).
Sponge: These do not provide chemical filtration. Water is pumped through a tube which is forced through a sponge, where bacteria grow. These are generally used in fry (baby) tanks to prevent them from being sucked up in an intake or for back-up filtration.
Undergravel: A powerhead pumps air into the gravel, which then cultivates aerobic filtration bacteria. UGs have become debated in recent years, so it is up to the reader to do research on them. Some people claim they are very effective. A new variety has come out called a Reverse Under-Gravel filter, or RUGF. These turn the entire substrate bed into a filtration system and are much more effective than undergravel filters.
This article goes much more into depth about the types of filtration and filtration systems. A recommended read:
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/fo...ad.php?t=94937
A very useful article on filtration material:
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/fo...ad.php?t=88677
Here is an article on filter maintenance, which is very important:
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums...d.php?t=108685
Heater
Most tropical fish prefer a water temperature between 76-82 degrees. Different species have different requirements. A good rule of thumb for picking out a heater is to double the gallons of your tank to determine the wattage needed. In some cooler ambient temps (for instance tanks housed in a basement) two heaters or a higer wattage may be necessary. Take caution as a bigger heater is not always better. Inexpensive and oversized heaters may overheat your tank causing fatality.
Lighting/hood
Many fish jump straight out of the aquarium so a cover is a important. If you're not going to grow live plants you can use an incandescent bulb (standard bulb used in house holds) in your fixture if you monitor how much heat it puts out. If you're going to grow plants you need fluorescent or sodium halide/metal alkalide bulbs (the latter is generally not used by beginners and is expensive!). Most people start out with low light plants. To learn more, visit here:
http://www.aquabotanic.com/begin.htm
As you learn more about fish keeping, you will learn more about plant keeping.
Bucket
Purchase a new one and never use it for anything else. You will need this at some point!
Siphon:
Once the tank is set up, you will want to vacuum the gravel as part of your maintenance schedule. These also can make water changes much more convenient.
Net/Cup
A net provides an easy, inexpensive way to catch your fish using soft cloth that won‘t hurt them. However, fish with spines will destroy one, so it is recommended to catch them with a cup.
A Quarantine Tank
After getting all of your equipment, decorations, and plants, it’s better to have a small, equipped tank to isolate newcomers than to risk breaking down your tank, potentially throwing decorations and live plants out, and starting from the beginning. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy and bare-bottom is recommended. New fish can get your established stock sick. Think of it this way-if the new fish is sick and makes others sick, you’ll need the quarantine anyway. Often an extra filter or extra filter media is kept on the display tank for use on the qt as necessary. Small decorations like terra cotta pots can be helpful for shy fish in qt and are inexpensive enough to discard after treatment. It is generally recommended to quarantine new arrivals for a month of health and to quarantine sick fish, depending on the disease.
NEVER USE SOAP OR CHEMICALS ON YOUR EQUIPMENT. It leaves residue that is toxic to aquatic life.
Ask around and use tags to find out the brands and types of filters people recommend, and check out the “scam” tag. Don’t hesitate to ask any questions. None of this is as complicated as it seems at first! And welcome to the fish keeping hobby!
