If you are considering buying an aquarium don’t forget it needs regular maintenance, so it’s not something you can buy and then leave alone. Fish tank maintenance requires some knowledge about the type of fish you are keeping and a certain amount of commitment. Don’t go ahead and buy a fish tank if you are not prepared to perform maintenance and look after the welfare of your fish.
Keeping fish and maintaining your tank isn’t really that difficult if you follow some basic guidelines. You’ll also learn more as you go along and pick up information from experts and experienced fish keepers. As a start here is some basic maintenance information and tips to follow.
If you have a new tank you’ll need to monitor it carefully for a couple of months and only add a few fish. It is essential to your tank to have filter bacteria that removes harmful pollutants in fish wastes and decomposing food, and these can take 4-6 weeks to grow. During this growing time the water could become very polluted and be harmful to fish so be careful about adding fish.
In the first couple of months test the water regularly for ammonia and nitrate and perform partial water changes of between 30-50% to control levels in this time. Do not add fish until the water is completely free of any pollution. It is a good idea to mature your tank before you add any fish at all.
After the initial couple of months of maintenance without fish you can start to add your fish and adapt your tank maintenance.
You should now change 10-25% of the water every week or every other week, although it might be necessary to change more water more regularly if you are keeping larger fish or have a lot of fish in your tank. If you get algae in your tank or your fish become ill it might be because you’re not changing enough water.
Some fish, such as marines, can be more sensitive though and they won’t necessarily like large or frequent water changes, so it really depends on how many and what type of fish you have. Do some research before you buy new fish.
When you do a water change use gravel cleaner to siphon out dirty water from the gravel. Also check the nitrate level in your tap water and compare it with the nitrate level in your tank. If you are doing the correct level of fish tank maintenance the nitrate level should be about the same in both. If you aren’t doing enough maintenance the nitrate level in your tank water will be higher.
Remember never to use tap water without treating it as untreated it contains poisonous chemicals for fish, such as chlorine. This can kill filter bacteria, which would then damage the water quality and harm your fish. Some water companies even use chloramine instead of chlorine in tap water and this is even more harmful for fish.
Tap water should be treated with a water conditioner or dechlorinator before you put it in your tank. Preferably use a dechlorinator that neutralises chlorine, chloramine and ammonia as well. It is no longer safe to rely on an old method of aerating water or leaving it to stand before adding it to your tank, as neither of these methods will get rid of chloramine.
It’s really important to remember to wash your filter parts in old tank water and not in tap water. Also when you add new water to your tank try to make sure it’s about the same temperature as the water already in the tank.
There are other areas of fish tank maintenance to learn about as well but the most important factor is maintaining water in your tank that is healthy for your fish and beneficial to their welfare.