Petsmu

First of all wash the tank carefully with sponge and normal tap water. Do not use any detergent or chemical for washing your tank. After cleaning the tank place it where you want to place, but avoid direct sunlight. And also careful about the table or self, should be strong enough to carry the load of your tank. Now after placing the tank, add the accessories such as filters, air pumps air stone tube lights etc.

Check all the electrical equipments before adding the water and gravel. Next thing is to add the gravel. Before adding the gravel you should clean the gravel with tap water (Do not use any soap or detergent). I suggest that you should dry up the gravel after washing. Now add the gravel slowly. Fill your tank about 3-4 inches.

Now add some decorations to your fish tank. Avoid any decorations with edges. You should buy decorations from pet stores because they are for fish tank only and doesn’t contain any harmful chemicals. Add some water plants (Hygrophilas, Sagittarias, Elodeas, Cabombas, Vallisnerias, Java Fern,) to your tank.

Now start filling your tank with dechlorinated tap water. Fill it 1/3rd of it. Now run air pumps. Check all the equipment that they are working properly or not and also check any leakage. Now fill the tank and leave the tank for some days (15-20 days). Do not add any fish at this time. After 15 days change 20% - 25% of water. Again wait for 2 weeks and then add some starter fish to your tank. These are inexpensive and easily available at your pet store. For next 3-8 weeks you should cycle the tank. Partial change water weekly and do not overfeed the fish. After all these your tank is ready for your fish.

When we first started keeping tropical fish - we did have one major disaster which wiped out the whole tank. It was a particularly gruesome situation which we could have avoided but I didn’t count as “our fault”…

We had gone away for a long weekend and yes, you’ve guessed it, the thermostat on the tank heater broke, the temperature of the water soared - fish tank extinction ensued…and my family and I were in tears on our return…

I was so shaken by the experience that for a while we kept only plants in our aquarium as we didn’t have the heart to start again.

Slowly over time we realised how wonderful a properly planted tank can be and how exotic the plants can make the whole aquarium look, a properly landscape tank adds enormous visual impact. And of course, when you add fish, plants play an important role in aquarium life as they add oxygen to the water and help to absorb nitrites that are toxic to the fish.

The sun is the most significant factor in the life of a plant, and in an aquarium, lighting is equally as central to maintain the health and beauty of the plants.

Wayne Vandre, Horticulture Specialist, comments that light is the all-important source of energy used by plants in photosynthesis. But light is not just one simple, well-defined entity. The plant response is influenced by light quality, intensity and duration. Experiments show that maximum growth of most plants is under cool white fluorescent light.

It is important to realize that skimping on the quality of lighting will affect the quality of plant growth that you get and therefore the overall quality of tank life.

Landscaping a tank can be fun and it is essential to get different types of plants to give the tank that exotic look. There are many diverse ranges of aquatic plants. Tubers need to be anchored by the root to the bottom of the tank. Floating plants plainly float in the tank do not need to be anchored and will not usually require fertilizer. Rooted plants, like tubers need to be anchored to the bottom of the tank normally tied to pieces of rock or wood. These species usually grow to be fairly tall and will help to fill the aquarium.

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Setting up an aquarium may not be a hard as what everybody thinks. It can be really easy if you are well prepared with knowledge and learn how to react to problems. Do bear in mind that patience and having the sense of tediousness are very important. There is no such thing as shortcut and people who think in such a way often fails. If you intend to successfully set up an aquarium, have it done to the best of your ability.

Finding the right location for your aquarium
Let’s begin by first choosing the right location to place your tank. I feel, this is the first step to start and novices often make a mistake by heading to your local fish shop only to discover that the purchased aquarium does not fit into any location. Believe me, most people often overlook on this issue.

You might want to consider these few important facts when finding the perfect spot.

* Access to electricity supply - This is important to ensure that air pumps, heaters, filters and lighting have reachable power supply. The shorter the distance, the better it is and ideally power point should be at higher location compared to the aquarium height for safety purposes.

* Source of lighting - Natural sunbeam although will ensure proper propagation of aquarium plants, it is not needed if you can stimulate artificial lighting. Placing aquarium too close to windows is actually not a good idea, as the high intensity of the sunbeam could cause unhealthy growth of algae. Instead, use artificial lighting whereby you can actually control light intensity and stimulate the day and night cycle.

* Make sure that the surrounding space is wide enough - This is important to ensure that no untoward incident such as accidental knocking could take place especially if you have to move between tight areas. Place it on a location whereby there are wide-open spaces around the aquarium left available. It is a good idea to have gaps between 12- 15 inches apart from the nearest object. This is also important to ensure that daily routines such water changing could be done easily without bumping into objects. Continue Reading »