Monday, June 22, 2015

What One Needs To Know About Aquarium Maintenance

By Elaine Guthrie


The practice of keeping fish does not only involve buying them and heaping them into a tank. It involves more than just that. There are conditions that they need to survive, without which they would not do well. The conditions are best provided when the tank is well maintained. There are many routine practices that will need to be followed when it comes to aquarium maintenance in Cincinnati OH. These should be followed to the letter if the fish are to grow healthily.

Tank stability is the most important consideration when it comes to maintenance of aquariums. The most important thing to consider is that all things are running well. If that be the case, there will be no need for any major changes. This is even in the instance that pH or hardness is out of the expected range. However, if there are changes in major water parameters, the tank would need to be attended to immediately. Any other parameter would have to be considered during the routine maintenance.

Change of water is one of the main considerations and needs to be performed once in every two weeks. In majority of the cases, the change should be done to about 15 percent of the tank volume. One of the best techniques to use is to replace the extracted water while vacuuming the gravel. This will help to eliminate the foods that are uneaten and also residues that settled as substrate.

Because it is not possible to see the chemistry of water, it will need to be checked frequently. The best time to do this is during water change. There are various important parameters, notably carbonate hardness, nitrites and nitrates. The suitable range of pH is between 6.5 and 7.5 in majority of the cases. This figure may be adjusted if need be and depending on the needs of the particular species.

The filters will need to be functioning well and therefore the inserts used on them ought to be changed monthly. If however the fish load is higher, the frequency of change should increase. In the event that the inserts have trapped particles, these will decompose the same way they do if they are in the tank. For the filters, they need to be cleaned every month through the use of water from the tank as it is changed.

The frequency of maintenance practices is varied. Some are performed daily, others weekly and others monthly. One should ensure all equipment is running well as part of daily maintenance. Further, fish will need to be keenly observed as they feed. It will help to know any behavioral changes that may indicate potential problems.

For the weekly maintenance, the fish will need to be counted. If there is death of fish, the smaller species will decompose fast, bringing about ammonia and nitrite sparks. This will eventually lead to high levels of nitrates. Cleaning the walls of the tank will need to be done once in a while after assessing their condition.

The expiry dates on bottles and boxes should be checked monthly. There should not be use of supplies after they have expired. Expired kits will give false readings. This may prompt one to take actions that are not necessary.




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