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1.Cleaning

If you spot algae developing on any of your aquarium decorations or on the glass just scrape them, ( go to your shop of choice for special aquarium scrapers) remove the stones and rocks and scrub them. If you don’t act fast they can reproduce to the point that you won’t be able to simply scrape them.

2.Change water regularly

Make sure you do weekly water changes, 10% is a good amount to reduce your nutrients level.

3.Too much lighting

Make sure that the sunlight don’t operate on your tank as it can increase the algae population very very rapidly. Also make sure that your aquarium lighting is not too strong.

4.Overfeeding your fish

Don’t put too much fish food into the tank, basicaly if your fish can’t eat the amount you gave them in 2-3 minutes you are overfeeding them. By doing that you not only make your life harder ( more cleaning) but also you “feed” the algae which grows on excess nutrients.

5.Algae eating fish

You can also buy fish which base their diet on algae, they won’t eliminate your problem if you have a big overgrowth of them but can be helpful. Make sure that you match their water requirements with rest of your fish. Black Molly, Otocinclus and Plecos are a few of those algae eating fish species.

Stay tune for more great article about tropical fish tanks.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/pets-articles/5-tips-to-deal-with-algae-in-tropical-fish-tanks-3430801.html

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Filtration methods
The filtration process for all aquariums is usually broken down into three major processes: the biological, chemical and mechanical filtration, each with their own way and own realm of dirt and waste materials to be cleaned.

Biological filtration is the filtration process involving the use of beneficial bacteria to transform several substances in the water. These bacteria literally break down toxic substances commonly found in fish tanks, such as ammonia and nitrites, and transform them into less toxic substances such as nitrates.

Chemical filtration uses the aid of synthetic substances to work out some of the waste material found in water. The reaction of the waste material with the synthetic material allows it to be dissolved, and to be collected easily through the filter. Activated carbon is one of the common materials used for chemical filtration.

Mechanical filtration is a filtration process that involves the use of a filter media to trap solid waste particles in the water. The filter media can be of any material, as long as it can make the waste material stick to it. Regular maintenance of the filter media is required, and it should be replaced periodically.

Filter types
These filters usually involve one or more of the kinds of filtration processes, and it’s entirely up to the hobbyists fish tank specifications whether a certain filter would best suit his or her aquarium or not. Alternatively, you can check out your local hobby stores for freshwater aquarium filters and ask certain experts for advice, but here’s a starting list of filters:

Power filters are the most common in terms of popularity, mainly because they are cheap, usually available at most hobby stores, and relatively efficient. In addition, these kinds of filters are easy to install and use, and you don’t need to suffer much from their maintenance.Canister filters offer that filtration power that you probably can’t find in other filters. They use a mechanism that forces water in the filter media, achieving greater filtering action than most. You have to be wary though, this type of filters is quite hard to maintain, and at most times quite expensive.

Corner filters were the first kind of filters to be used. It works by the simple action of letting the water flow through the filter and into the filter media, and finally filter the water as the filter media begins forming its own beneficial bacteria colony.

Sponge filters make use of a sponge (believe it or not) inside a tube to hoard beneficial bacteria into them, initiating the biological filtration process. Alternatively, the sponge can also be used as a mechanical filter, as it can also trap certain solid particles into it. Some hobbyists install extra sponges for interchanging purposes.

Fluidized bed filters are a relatively new type of filter that uses the concept of using sand for biological filtration. These sands are installed into tubes and are used as the main filter media, letting beneficial bacteria colonize the sand, and then pumping the water upward, which produces the filtering action.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/pets-articles/the-dirtfree-fish-tank-freshwater-aquarium-filters-1522694.html

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Accidents that occur in aquarium fish ending in tragedy is usually down to the ignorance on the part of the owner in not providing adequate fish care. When planning on setting up an aquarium in your home it is important that you learn everything you need to know on how to care for your fish, especially for the different types of fish. The most commonly sold fish is the goldfish, which with your patience, requires attention with proper care and maintenance. You can get a lot of advice from your local pet store as well as books to buy so that you can read up at home, and use as a reference when you need to refresh your knowledge. You can also books from your local library.

An aquarium is the ideal habitat for a goldfish as it gives them ample room to breathe, and swim. They are much bigger than a goldfish bowl or small container which were largely used in the past. Goldfish have great demands for oxygen like many other living creatures, and they have acquire this from the surface of an aquarium. Choose an aquarium that gives sufficient space for this. To calculate the space required you need to look at the length in inches of a fish, and the depth of the tank. For each inch of a goldfish, the recommendation is about 30 square inches of surface space. You will also need to add on a few extra square inches to allow for your goldfish to grow, which it will in time. This ensures that they have plenty of oxygen to breathe.

When shopping for an aquarium, the store assistants should be able to assist you on the ideal tank for your goldfish. You will already have an idea of how many goldfish you wish to keep, so this will be a deciding factor of the size of tank required. Read up on the different variety of goldfish on the market so the store representative can provide you with the correct information and aquarium suitable. Do your research first before you purchase anything so you know what to look for straightaway. As living creatures, it is up to you as fish owners, to preserve their lives. By doing research, you will become knowledgeable and be able to decide on the ideal variety that appeals to you. You will learn about maintenance of the plants and other fish you may want to keep in your aquarium. Having a basic knowledge is a good thing so you know exactly what goes well together in a tank and how to maintain it.

Most fish apart from the odd few need high quality water. Tap water is usually fine, although it is more likely to build up pollutants. Ask your local pet store for advice before using tap water and see what they recommend. They will have local knowledge of the condition of tap water in the area, and whethe it is suitable for maintaining fish. Tap water should be run for about five minutes before you fill up the tank as this will rid it of any chemicals or dissipate them. Water can also be left overnight to rid it of more chemicals as it contains chlorine, copper, metals and all sorts of contaminating substances. By setting the water overnight, you will minimise the build up of chlorine, and the water will also reach room temperature.

Room temperature can be maintained by using humidifiers, or dehumidifiers, which can be kept near the tank. Goldfish water should be made pure and clear of chemicals at all times. So that you can maintain pure fish water, you can purchase filters, vacuums, gravel, floss and other items which all help. You will need to learn how filtration works as ammonia builds up in aquariums as well. Read and learn about biological, chemical and mechanical filters.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/pets-articles/complete-goldfish-care-easy-tips-to-keep-goldfish-in-your-aquarium-740455.html

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1. Consider where you want to put your aquarium. Where an aquarium is going will affect the size of the aquarium you choose. A bookshelf will hold a fishbowl for a single Betta, while a corner in a room will hold a larger tank for entire schools of fish. Do not forget about lighting – fish need light too, and putting them near a window or lamp means you will not have to buy a light especially for your aquarium.

2. Decide on an Aquarium Size. Determining freshwater aquarium size is done by thinking of the fish you want in the tank. If you are a beginner, starting with twenty gallons or under is a safe idea. As always, do research on the fish you want to determine how much space they need before purchasing a tank.

3. Go Shopping! After all that careful time and thought, now you can finally buy your tank and equipment. Purchase a tank, filter, heater, a light if you need one, gravel, plants, and decorations – meaning all the shipwrecks, scuba divers, and logs your fish could want!

4. Set Up! Go ahead and set up your aquarium at the desired location – rinse everything only with water. Read: no soap, no detergents. It is difficult to remove the residue left over from soaps and it is poisonous for your fish.

5. Wash Everything Else. Wash your gravel, plants, and decorations also with water only. An easy way to do this is to place things in a colander and run water over it in your bathtub or sink. After cleaning, place gravel in the aquarium first, and then add the plants and decorations.

6. Add Water. To avoid disturbing the contents of your tank including decorations, gravel and plants, place something flat (like a plate) in your aquarium and allow the water to flow onto it. Ensure your water is at room temperature prior to filling the tank. Test for chlorine (also bad for your fish) and be sure to remove any signs of it.

7. Set Up the Equipment. Install the heater – but wait! – do not plug it in yet. The thermostat needs time to adjust to the water temperature. It should be ready to plug in after approximately fifteen to twenty minutes. Set up the filter and whatever other equipment you have. After everything is set up, fill up the aquarium to just under the hood. Place the hood and tank light (if you have one) on the aquarium and make sure any power cords are clear of water. That sounds pretty common sense, but it can be overlooked!

8. Play the Waiting Game. The aquarium has to cycle before adding any fish. This takes about twenty-four hours. If you must put in fish before the aquarium has gone through one nitrogen cycle, choose a hardy species. Otherwise, wait a day, test parameters, and continue on to the next step if ammonia and nitrate levels are at zero.

9. Add Fish! Exactly what you have been waiting for! Only add a couple at a time. Slowly introducing fish gives the filtration system time to get used to the new biological load. When you bring the fish home, allow the container (usually a plastic bag) to float in the tank so the water in the bag can sync up with the parameters in the tank. Set the fish free after five minutes of floating. Do not feed fish on the first day. They probably will not eat anyway. Get them used to their new environment first.

10. Enjoy Your New Aquarium! After all of your careful planning, research, and setup, you can now enjoy the tranquility of a freshwater aquarium in your home. Keep up regular maintenance, love your fish, and enjoy the peacefulness of the aquarium.

There is a good deal of freshwater aquarium information available and obviously the above list is not an all inclusive one. Rather the ten steps are what I consider to be some of the more important ones you must be aware of.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/home-and-family-articles/freshwater-aquarium-setup-in-10-steps-4120784.html

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What I also find interesting is that many of these same persons who trash them will then state a protein skimmer as essential. I have maintained tanks with and without Skimmers (again every other possible variable the same or as close as possible), and noted the changes in measurable parameters and found that yes they are useful, however often not by much and that Mud Filters, DIY DSB filters or similar can often replace them (as well as UV Sterilizers and good over head lighting such as MH).

Back to the subject at hand, here is a thread I will comment on. In this thread one person who offered proof (albeit not of the perfect scientific nature, but as good as it can often be within this hobby) was attacked dog pile style without other backing up their statements other than criticizing his methods:

Arthur #1 (Edited):

“If you read some scientific documents about UV sterilization of water you will know they talk usually about a standard long, 40W mercury UV tube in a 3″ diameter lamp and water passing at the speed about 500 gph or less. This kind of setup delivers dosage of about 18,000 mW-sec/cm2. In order to increase this dosage you need to lower the water flow. For example, 250 gph

flow will in above mentioned lamp would be exposed to the almost double dosage of 34,000 mW-sec/cm2. This dosage is enough to kill bacteria, yeast, some mold spores, viruses and microalgae. And some aquarium grade lamps achive this effect with unicellular algea. To kill protozoa (like a well known from school “Paramecium” or our ich-causing “Cryptocaryon irritans”)

you would have to increase the dosage.

MY COMMENT:

First, most studies I have read show under 10,000 mW per se/cm2 for bacteria. Second, I have read articles that have shown 30,000 + mW-sec/cm2 with 90 watt bulbs at a rate of 200 + gallons per MINUTE (which even I find hard to believe, my point often it depends on whose data you look at. Third, there is more to treatment of Cryptocaryon than just out right sterilization (I would not want it that high in my reef tanks!!!), there is also the Redox potential which Sterilizers improve and also general water quality.

Finally each unit is different and there are many variables from age of the bulb (even a 3 month old bulb has lost 25%), to temperature, design of the unit, pre filtration (a micron pre filter vastly improves sterilization), and to flow rate which I have found to be best at 20 gph (or less for most good units in aquarium applications).

Arthur #2 (edited):

Without a hospital tank, adding a new fish was always hazardous. Back when I had

no UV on the tank, once one of the fish started showing signs, the life

expectancy of that fish was usually less than 3 days; they could not take the

combined stress of the parasites and the copper treatment. Other fish in the

tank would invariably show signs of infestation later, but would usually make it

through. Once the first sterilizer was added, the rate at which the disease

spread decreased; my theory is that some of the parasites were being killed in

their free-swimming stage. After that, the first fish to show signs usually

survived, and some of the other fish would never show any signs at all.

Once I added the second sterilizer, I never lost a fish to ich, though I did get

the occasional infestation. In short, there was a direct relationship to the

number of watts of UV and the intensity and rate of spread of the disease.

Since I was not religious in changing the bulbs (and the bulbs get less

effective with time), I was also in a position to notice that an outbreak was

worse when the sterilizer bulb was pretty old. Again, this didn’t happen once I

had two units running.

MY COMMENT:

This person most likely had decent units with low flow rates, pre filtration, and useful discernment.

Without elaborating too much (my expanded articles have much about this), as stated earlier there are other aspects of UV Sterilizers such Redox Potential, this is not a hard test to perform; simply test the Redox without a UV and then run one for a week and test again, easy! So many person who trash persons like this have not considered all the variables if they have failed, myself I have seen UV Sterilizers not do a damn thing. These were often 8 watt Units running off a sump with a flow rate of 800 gph, a calcified quartz sleeve and poor pre filtration. This is not to say a 8 watt unit (or less) cannot work, just not under those conditions (and in the case a brand I will not mention, a poor mixing chamber design as well). The 15 Watt Custom UV Sterilizer I made has performed well in most every application I have placed it in (The Terminator Compact UV Sterilizers do well too, one of the best compact UVs I have used along with the ReSun and Coralife).

What a UV Sterilizer is, is a tool for good aquarium husbandry along with water changes, filtration, Protein Skimmers and more. In many of my side by side applications with and without, the UV was just one more piece of the puzzle to improved water quality in let’s face it, an artificial environment (unless we want to kid ourselves). I can think of one experiment in particular with several goldfish tanks at a large service customer of mine. All these tanks in particular had canister filters, cleaning and the same feeding schedule and bio load; the only difference was UV Sterilizers. The difference in amount of diseased goldfish, growth and color was very noticeable (the vice president did not no we were performing this experiment and even commented about why some tanks did better than others, after which she had us install UV Sterilizers on all).

For my FULL aricle (including references and more links), please visit this site:

Aquarium and Pond UV Sterilizer

Article Source: http://carlstrohmeyer.articlesbase.com/pets-articles/uv-sterilization-in-aquariums-misinformation-136944.html

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