Sick Old or Just Likes To Rest On The Rocks

It seems like one of our fish is on his way to the garbage can. Most of the time I look at him, he is resting and sometimes even laying on his side on the rocks. He’s been doing this for a little over a week and I am constantly certain that he is going to be dead the next time I see him.

Then, he will suddenly decide to go swim around for a while and look pretty much normal again.

He always has been a fairly active, playful fish so I can’t tell if he is sick or old or has just decided to start playing on the rocks.

He is the oldest (and one of the smallest) fish in the tank. Actually, he was originally from my small 10 gallon tank. He is nearly 2 years old by now. He was also one of the fish that my daughter picked out herself and has paid attention to on a near daily basis.

Aquarium Driftwood

While cleaning my fish tank last night, I stumbled onto a small piece of driftwood and a bunch of plastic plants that I had removed to clean a couple months back and never replaced. I cleaned them up and put them back in the tank.

When I upgraded from the 10 gallon to the 65 gallon tank, I decided to give up on some of the cartoony decorations and use aquarium driftwood instead. I bought one large piece and one smaller piece. The fish love the nooks and crannies they provide and the pleco spends half the day attached to them.

In my opinion, very few things improve the look of a fish tank more than aquarium driftwood. Before dropping it into the tank, though, there are a few things to consider.

Don’t use driftwood that you find out in the wild. You have no idea what kind of chemicals, pesticides, or other germs, which could quickly kill all of your fish. Go to a fish store you trust and look through their aquarium driftwood which is guaranteed not to contain those toxins.

It is really hard to tell how a piece of driftwood will look in your tank. I thought the ones we bought would take up a little more space than they really do. While at the fish store, take the pieces you like over to a display fish tank the size of your one at home and put the wood inside to get a real idea of how much space it will actually take.

Soak the wood. When you get it home, put it in a large Rubbermade storage container filled with water. Leave it there for a week or so changing the water every day or two. Your aquarium driftwood will probably leak a little bit of color and debris during this time. It is better to get rid of all of that before you put it into your tank. It probably won’t harm the fish but it will make your tank look dirty until the filter can process it all.

Leave some room in the tank. When I first added the driftwood, the fish tank had been running for a couple weeks and was full of water. Aquarium driftwood ways a fair amount and if you don’t remove some water it will get displaced over the side and onto your floor.

Rinse it off once in a while. Just like the plants and other decorations in the tank, it will get dirty over time. Running it under the faucet and scrubbing it down with your hands should keep it clean enough.

Fish Tank Bubble Wand

I am not 100% certain on how important having air bubbles in a freshwater tank is. I’ve read everything from definitely to not at all because as long as the filter is working properly it will keep the tank aerated enough.

I like the bubbles, though. They are soothing for me and seem to be a good play area for some of the fish. I have used a couple of skulls and trucks with hoods that lift to release the bubbles. They work fine but I was never a big fan of th big giant bubble crashing into the surface every handful of seconds.

The other day, I bought a bubble wand while at the pet store. I hooked it up and stuck it to the bottom back of the tank. I love it. Instead of a big concentrated bubble, it constantly sends up little tiny bubbles along the entire length of the 23 inch wand. It looks like a little bubble curtain.

This fish seem to play in it at least as much as the old one, probably more in fact. The big buble always seemed to intrigue them but scare them away,. They actually will swim back and forth through the bubbles now.

I also love that the wand attaches to the back wall of the tank instead of taking up space in the middle of the tank like most of the old aerators I used which leaves room for more small plants in the middle of the tank or a more attractive decoration.

Adding Salt To A Freshwater Aquarium

Over the last couple years I have had a fish tank, I have had good success adding a little bit of salt to the tank. I started on the recommendation of the fish store and have continued adding 1 tablespoon for each 5 gallons when I add new water to the tank. So far, it has not caused any harm at all.

Photo by dlkinney

Benefits of Adding Salt to a Freshwater Tank

But what are the actual benefits of adding salt to a freshwater tank.

• Reduce stress to the fish’s gills (especially during sickness)
• Helps promote slime layer which speeds up the healing of injuries
• A lot of the bad things that cause fish to get sick have trouble surviving when salt is added to the water

My fish have generally been health so I keep using the salt.

What Does It Cost to Add Salt to a Freshwater Tank

Since you normally add 1 tablespoon for each new 5 gallons, the cost is pretty cheap. This 65 oz bag of aquarium salt at Amazon is under $7. I bought less than that about 9 months ago and still have several months left.

How Do You Add Aquarium Salt to Your Fish Tank

Before I use my Python (link), I fill a bucket with water and mix in the salt and any other chemicals that I plan to add. I mix it up well and then dump it quickly into the tank. Pouring quickly helps get as much of the salt as possible in the tank since it does have a tendency to stick to the inside of the bucket when I poor slowly.

Photo by Leino88

Alternatives to Adding Aquarium Salt to the Tank

While almost everyone agrees that salt helps the fish when they are injured or sick, not everyone agrees that you need to add the salt to the tank. An alternative would be to add water and an appropriate amount of salt to a bucket, then move the sick or injured fish to the bucket for 5 to 30 minutes, and then put him back in the tank.

When Is It Bad to Add Aquarium Salt to the Fish Tank

Live plants do not do well with salt in the water. I am considering starting to add live plants and because of this will be phasing out the salt. There are also certain kinds of fish that cannot handle salt. Particularly fish from the Amazon and fish without scales. Make sure you make sure your fish will be safe before adding salt.

Fish Tank Light Timer

One of the biggest problems I have had with a fish tank is remembering to turn the lights on and off. I like for the kids to be able to watch the fish during the day so I try to turn it on before I leave in the morning. Then I like to watch it for a couple minutes during the calm down period of the night after they go to bed.

Photo by threefingeredlord

That means that on a day that I remember to do everything, the light is on from 6am until 9pm or so.

I occassionally will get a little more algae growing than I like and when I looked into it, I learned that one of the things that causes algea growth is too much sun light.

According to this article about how to properly light a fish tank, I learned that you really only need the tank on for 6 to 12 hours for freshwater fish only and 10 to 12 hours for freshwater and live plants.

I bought a cheap timer that you plug into the outlet and plugged the fish tank lights into it. Now my light is on from 9:30 in the morning until 8:30 at night. The kids normally are just finishing getting ready for the day at 9:30 and my son frequently spends a few minutes looking at the fish and I normally feed them either right before or right after the kids go to bed at 7:30.

The best part is that I never have to think about lighting the fish tank anymore. It turns on and off exactly when it is supposed to. Plus, I haven’t had any kind of an algae problem in the last couple months since setting up the timer.

Benefits of a Gang Valve

I bought a gang valve for my fish tank a while back because when I stepped up from the 10 gallon to my current tank, I kept the old skull air bubble toy and bought a new one. I don’t even remember what the new one was since they have both been replaced with an airstone type of bubbler.

The gang valve let me split the air from one air pump to multiple destinations in the tank. Which was pretty cool. And by using more than one bubbler, I was able to spread the bubbles to a couple different spots of the tanks.

Now that I am back to using just one bubble source, I still love my gang valve, though, because it lets me control how much air is going into your bubbler at the top of the tank instead of climbing under the tank to mess with the pressure on the air pump itself. Plus, if you have more than one device hooked up, you can control how much air pressure is sent to each individual item.

Python No Spill Clean and Fill Fish Tank Cleaner

Our Fluval 405 Cannister Filter keeps the tank clean for long periods of time, but I still have to do some vacuuming every couple weeks or so. I used to have a little battery power tank vacuum that worked relatively well for my old 10 gallon tank. It would be worthless with the current 65 gallon tank.

So, I bought the Pyton No Spill Clean and Fill and quickly fell in love. One end attaches to the sink and the end that you stick into the tank has an on off switch, too. The pressure from the sink water passing through the sink attachment creates a vacuum that sucks the fish tank debris very aggressively. The clear main vacuum piece makes it easy to tell when an area is clean and it is time to move on. The large, sturdy constructions makes it great for stirring up the rocks a little bit to free the debris from deep in the rocks. The fish barely seem to care when I am vacuuming. It takes me approximately 15 minutes to do a pretty major tank cleaning.

Then, instead of refilling the tank with buckets, you can switch the direction with a simple twist of the sink attachment and the sink water flows through the tube into your fish tank. I’ve found it helpful to set the glass lid on the top of the Python so I don’t have to worry about the end in the tank flapping around and jumping out of the tank from the water pressure. I always stop a little short and use one bucket of water to mix the small amount of salt and other tank maintenance drops that I use. After adding that bucket, I switch back to the sink to finish filling.

I have about 30 feet of hose. I had to add an extension to comfortably reach the sink. I store all of it in one of those big Rubbermade totes that I keep in the laundry room. I don’t recommend storing it in the garage because in the winter it will be pretty cold when you put it in the tank and could shock the fish. I also use that same tote to carry the plants and filter to the laundry deep sink for cleaning.

If I ever get a smaller tank, I plan on using the Python still. It would make for incredibly quick tank changes. For anything larger than a 10 or 20 gallon tank, I’m not sure how I would survive without the Pyton No Spill Clean and Fill.

Hagen Fluval 405 Canister Filter

My biggest cost shock when buying my first tank was not the tank or stand or even the fish. It was the filter. I have a 65 gallon tank and the fish store sales guy recommended that I go with the Hagen Fluval 405 Canister Filter.

I installed it on a new tank and made a couple slight mistakes installing it. I cut the outbound tube a lot shorter than I would have preferred. I forgot that the inbound and outbound tubes should be on opposite sides of the tank. I ordered a new tube and easily fix the problem. I also installed filter after filling most of the tank with water which made it very hard to connect the tubes since it all happens behind the tank. If I would have installed them first it would have been a snap.

Since then, the tank has been running about 9 months. The fish keep swimming and the water stays clean. I always plan on cleaning the tank every week or two but normally do it every 4-6 weeks without it appearing to cause any harm and without the tank getting gross.

The Fluval 405 is rated up to 100 gallons so the extra power surely helps keep the water circulating and clean.

I also recommend talking to your trusted fish expert to explain exactly what kind fish and how many you plan on keeping and also where your tank is located and what the environment is like. The filter has 4 rows with 2 chambers each for putting various filter media all designed to do different things. The out of the box set up seemed to work fine but since making some changes based on the advice of my fish store expert, the fish tank seems incredibly stable between long periods of not touching anything.