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- Develop and sustain a functioning biological filter in your freshwater tank
- Control or eliminate unwanted organisms in your tank
- Recognize and address fish health and behavior problems
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Freshwater Aquarium Upkeep
If you set up your aquarium properly from the beginning and continue to maintain your water quality, equipment, and fish over time, you can avoid nearly every problem common to freshwater aquariums.
Taking good care of your aquarium includes maintaining suitable water quality for your fish through frequent water changes and tests, tank cycling (developing a mature biological filter to eliminate toxins in the tank), and performing regular maintenance tasks. You also need to help new fish adjust to their environment and protect your other fish from any illnesses or parasites the new arrivals might carry.
How to Maintain Water Quality
Nothing matters more to the health of an aquarium fish than regular, proper water changes. Quality filters do a great job of purifying water in an aquarium, but changing the water regularly eliminates impurities that even filters won’t remove.
Test your aquarium’s water quality at least once a week with a test kit. It’s easy to monitor ammonia and nitrite levels, which should remain at zero at all times. If you ever get measurable levels of ammonia or nitrite in your tank’s water, perform a water change immediately to correct the situation, and step up your changing regimen so that it doesn’t happen again.
How to Change Your Water
A useful tool for aquarists is a simple water changer that serves as a two-way conduit between a sink and a tank. To change your aquarium’s water with a water changer:
- Make sure that the temperature of the water going into the tank is the same as the water going out. If an adjustment is necessary, go to the sink and modify the temperature accordingly.
- Attach the device to the faucet and turn on the water, which will draw water from the tank and down the drain.
- When the tank has been emptied to the desired level, twist the device’s connector to reverse the flow, and fill the aquarium with fresh tap water.
- While the tank is filling, pour a conditioner that removes chlorine and chloramines directly into the stream of water entering the tank.
You can also change the water in your tank by using a
siphon and bucket. However, using this method takes longer, which can make you dread the task—and which could result in less frequent water changes. A faucet water-change system makes it much easier to keep up with this vital part of aquarium maintenance, though it produces a lot of waste water.
Quality Concerns
Though many types of fish are relatively hardy, some can be sensitive to water qualities such as pH levels and hardness, in addition to chlorine and waste levels. You can determine these characteristics by purchasing test kits. Test strips that monitor pH levels are easy to read and understand, and many hardness test kits offer readings of “soft, moderate, or hard” on their scales. (The quantitative measurements of hardness are more difficult to assess.)
Tank Cycling
Cycling a tank simply refers to establishing a mature, functioning biofilter—a special bacterial colony growing in a
medium through which the aquarium water passes. There are two types of these bacteria: The first consumes ammonia in the tank, turning it into nitrite. (Ammonia is extremely toxic to fish, and nitrite is slightly less toxic.) The second type of bacteria converts the nitrite to much less harmful nitrate. The accumulated nitrate is then diluted whenever you perform a water change.
How to Cycle Your Tank
All you need for this procedure is a test kit that determines the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels in your aquarium water. The proper protocol for cycling a tank contains the following steps:
- Once the aquarium is set up, introduce two or three hardy fish. Don’t feed them anything for a day or two; this limits the amount of ammonia they produce.
- Use a test kit to determine the ammonia level in your tank. If it’s not dangerous, feed the fish a small amount. If it is, don’t feed the fish yet. Perform a water change to bring the ammonia level back to a safe range. You should be able to feed the fish after the water change.
- After a week or so, check the nitrite level in the tank. If there is none, wait a few days and test again until there is a measurable nitrite level.
- If the ammonia and nitrite levels aren’t dangerous, feed the fish a small amount. If either level is in the danger zone, don’t feed. Instead, perform a water change to bring the levels back into the safe range. Repeat daily as necessary.
- At some point, the ammonia level in the tank will drop to zero. This indicates that the first type of bacteria have become established and are consuming all the ammonia as the fish produce it. The nitrite level will continue to rise until the second type of bacteria establishes itself.
- When the ammonia remains at zero, and the nitrite level begins to fall, nitrate will start to accumulate. Check the nitrate level with your test kit, and continue to monitor ammonia and nitrite until both levels are at zero.
- If you want to add more fish, do so gradually—a few at a time once a week—until you’ve reached the amount of fish you want to keep. Adding fish too quickly can increase the bioload, and the filter may not yet be able to handle the increase without dangerous spikes in ammonia or nitrite. Test the water every day as you add fish, and never add more fish unless both the ammonia and nitrite levels are at zero.
The development of a mature, functioning biofilter happens slowly—it takes six weeks or more—but the result is a clean, safe, and healthy environment for your fish.
Cycling Shortcuts
There are several ways to speed up the tank cycling process, including using mature media (adding substrate or other media from an established tank) or an already
matured filter (matured in a friend’s or a willing retailer’s tank). No matter which method you use, continue to test the water regularly to determine whether ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels are progressing properly.
Quarantine and Acclimation
Whenever you bring home a new fish, and especially if you’re
introducing a new fish into an existing aquarium, that fish must adjust to its new environment. All fish need to be acclimated to water that is different from that in which they are used to swimming, and those added to an existing tank should be quarantined for several weeks beforehand. Without this period of adjustment, the fish could face serious consequences, ranging from social difficulties with new tankmates to death from the chemical shock of unfamiliar water conditions. Also, your new fish could be carrying an illness or parasite that could infect your other fish.
How to Quarantine Your Fish
When you first acquire any type of fish to add to your existing aquarium, keep the fish by itself for a month after you bring it home, without allowing it to share a water source with any other fish. During that time, any disease it might be carrying will likely manifest itself, and you can treat the fish to eliminate the infection.
Also, remember that fish don’t have to come into contact with one another to spread disease. Nets, hoses, or even your hands can transfer pathogens from one container to another. And keep in mind that even a properly acclimated fish can be so stressed by suddenly entering a new environment that the experience can kill it. After several weeks of quarantine, you can be certain that your new fish is healthy, has adapted to your water and food, and has recovered from the stress of transport and sale.
How to Acclimate Your Fish
The process of acclimating a new fish matches the conditions and chemistry of the water in which the fish has been swimming to the water in the tank in which it will live. Acclimation is absolutely necessary for all new fish. If the chemistry of the water in your aquarium is drastically different from that of the water in which the fish arrived, the chemical shock can kill the fish outright or weaken it so
badly that it succumbs in a short while. The proper acclimation of a new fish not only keeps it from receiving these severe shocks but also prevents the introduction of any diseased organisms or unwanted chemicals into the aquarium.
The following method of acclimation takes a little time but requires only a container and some airline tubing.
- Gently empty the bag in which your new fish arrived into a container that can hold several times the volume of the original water in the bag.
- Tie a loose knot in the length of airline tubing.
- Put one end of the tube into the aquarium, and suck on the other end to start a siphon.
- As soon as the water begins to flow through the tube, tighten the knot until the water is merely dripping slowly from the tubing into the container. (You want just a drop or two to escape per second.)
- When the volume of water in the container has doubled or tripled, stop the drip and net the fish out of the container, then release it into the tank. Dispose of the water in the container down the sink drain. Do not put it into your tank.
This method equalizes all water conditions, including temperature, between the aquarium and the water in which the new fish has been swimming. It takes a while, but it’s time and effort well spent. You can now safely add your fish to its new home.
Aquarium Maintenance
With any aquarium comes a certain amount of necessary maintenance tasks that you must perform on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, depending on the chore.
Daily Tasks
You’ll need to perform the following tasks on a daily basis:
- Wipe down the aquarium glass, both inside and outside. Do not use cleaning products because they can seriously harm your fish.
- Check the water level of the aquarium.
- Observe each inhabitant of the tank to see if any are behaving strangely or appear to have health problems.
- Check the thermometer to make sure that the water temperature is adequate.
- Check the filter to make sure that it is running properly and that a particularly rambunctious fish hasn’t damaged it.
Weekly Tasks
The weekly maintenance of your tank should consist of the following procedures:
- Perform a partial water change. (The more water you replace, the better.)
- If your tank has substrate, clean it thoroughly.
- Inspect filter cartridges to see if they need replacing.
- Inspect hoses and aquarium seams for leakage.
- Test the water quality to make sure that the pH, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels are acceptable.
Monthly Tasks
Perform the following tasks once every month:
- Perform a major water change—approximately 50–65% of the aquarium water or more.
- If your tank has substrate, clean or replace it as needed.
- Service the filter thoroughly (not at the same time as the water change).
- Check all air hoses and connections.
| Text & Photos Copyright © 2007 TFH Publications, Inc. | Acknowledgments & Disclaimer |
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