If you have fresh water fish or are looking to keep a tropical aquarium, it’s important to understand how to maintain the tank to keep the fish healthy and happy. This is something many beginners find challenging to work around, but with the right ideas you will sail through seamlessly. Building the small ecosystem for your fish comes with great joy especially when the initiative becomes a success, but failure to adhere to the basics of maintenance that can help keep your fish alive will always result to deaths and diseases. Here are several tips that should help you avoid embarrassment when you start off keeping a tropical aquarium.
Cycle the tank prior to adding fish
If you have never learnt about cycling a tank, you should pay attention to this point. What this basically means is that you should take all necessary steps that would work to maintain the conditions in the water at levels that are ideal for fish to survive. In short, don’t buy a fish tank and start adding fish immediately. You are advised to grow healthy microorganisms as part of the cycling process as this is one of the steps towards creating a healthy ecosystem for the fish.
Understand your water parameters
Most importantly, you need to understand the parameters that affect the safety of water. With this information you are able to adopt the right practices to keep your fish healthy. For example, it’s necessary to observe chemical properties of the water then compare them with the recommended standards. These properties include PH levels and the amount of nitrates in the water, so when cleaning the tank you are able to know which elements to reduce and what to introduce to afford the fish a healthier environment. The lifecycles of your tank could also lead to the release of chemicals that might mix with the water thereby creating an unstable environment.
Research before purchasing fish
Also be keen when buying fish as there are various varieties and each is able to survive in different environments. Conducting research will be useful in ensuring that you choose varieties that can do well in your area and the kind of environment you will offer. Don’t just use looks as the basic consideration when buying as this might be misleading and costly. You might end up buying aggressive species or ones that are not compatible with the ones you already have in the aquarium.
Managing light
As a beginner in aquarium ownership, you might be faced with a challenge when it comes to managing light, and this leads to a problem of algae in the aquarium. What you need to understand is that algae are similar to plants and might need sufficient light to grow well. Managing the amount of light entering the tank is one of the ways you could ensure that the problem is managed effectively. One suggestion you could adopt is ensuring that you keep your aquarium away from direct sunlight as this would only offer algae best conditions to thrive, and soon you might be faced with a challenge of having to get rid of the plant often. Use material that is good for algae attachment, and for this you could get advanced concrete Tioga to reinforce your tanks and to keep fish in a calm environment.