by Aquarium Addons on May 6, 2009
One way to have a cleaner fish tank is to keep the plastic plants and other accessories algae free. Once algae shows up it seems to grow exponentially.
Cleaner fish tanks lead to healthier fish and also mean that you can do the big cleanings a little less frequently.
- Don’t use soap or bleach - Even trace amounts of soap or bleach will quickly kill the tank. I learned this the hard way with the one and only attempt that my parents made at owning a fish tank. My dad got a little aggressive with a cleaning and the tank went away a couple days later.
- Use dedicated scrub brush - A scrub brush is a great way to quickly clean the algae off of the decorations. But make sure you only use the fish tank maintenance scrub brush on the fish tank because of the point above.
- Rearrange objects when placing back in fish tank - This doesn’t actually do anything to keep the fish tank cleaner, but it does keep it fresh and interesting. I know that every time I rearrange the objects in the tank it somehow seems like I have a cleaner fish tank. And the fish get to spend a little time getting acquainted with the changes.
Sometimes when you know that you don’t have time to do a full cleaning, getting the algae off of the plants and decorations can really help make it look like a cleaner fish tank. Don’t forget to do regular full cleanings. Just because the plants and toys look clean, you still need to make time to clean between the rocks a clean the your filtration system.
by Aquarium Addons on April 28, 2009
Buying new fish is a great way to change up a fish tank. You will get new colors, new schooling patterns and new interactions between the fish. New fish must be added to your fish tank carefully, though, to protect both the new fish and the old.
How to add new fish to an aquarium
- Place unopened bag the fish came in directly in the fish tank and leave there for about fifteen minutes - this lets the water temperature in the bag adjust to the same temperature as the aquarium so that the fish are not shocked with the transition
- Remove bag and hold over bucket
- Open bag and pour the contents through a fishnet you are holding over the bucket so that water ends up in the bucket and fish end up in the net - water from the store aquarium should never be put in your home aquarium to prevent spread of any germs
- Place fish in tank
by Aquarium Addons on April 21, 2009
I use a Hagen Fluval 405 Canister Filter
to keep my fish tank clean. It does an amazing job.
I had a brief moment of frustration when I tried to get it started the first time.
The Fluval 405 uses a little plunger with a suction cup on the end to create the vacuum need to get the flow started. When I move that plunger up and down nothing happened.
Upon poking around a little bit, I noticed that the lip of the suction cup had a little bend in it that prevented the cup from sealing tightly with the tunnel that it moves up and down against and therefore it was not creating the vacuum properly.
I bent the folded part back into shape and it immediately created the proper suction letting everything work perfectly now for a year and a half.
If you are having trouble getting your Fluval 405 started, you should check out the suction cup at the end of the little plunger. Fixing that extremely easy.
by Aquarium Addons on April 14, 2009
My first fish tank a couple years ago was a 10 gallon tank. We set it on one of the coffee tables and frantically worked on keeping it clean and the fish alive.
Not much fun.
About the only advantage of a small tank is the ability to put it on a small piece of furniture. Well, that and a smaller price tag.
My advice for people looking for their first tank is to buy the biggest one you can afford. 55-70 gallons would probably be a decent entry level without going into the truly crazy high end equipment.
Advantages of a big fish tank
- More fish and/or bigger fish - The experts recommend about 1 inch of fish per gallon of tank. Bigger tanks allow you to buy more small fish which will do more impressive school swimming. Or you can go with bigger fish that just look amazing from across the room. Or you can do some research to find good combinations of big and small fish that won’t eat each other and get the best of both worlds.
- Easier to see - With the 10 gallon tank, you had to get right up to it to really get a look at what was inside. You can easily see the inside of the 65 gallon tank from across the room. I’ve noticed that the kids pay a lot more attention to the tank now because it catches their eye more frequently.
- More and bigger fish - Bigger tanks allow you to buy more small fish which will do more impressive school swimming. Or you can go with bigger fish that just look amazing from across the room. Or you can do some research to find go combinations of big and small fish and get the best of both worlds.
- Easier to keep clean - Bigger tanks require bigger filter systems which just work better (I’m a huge fan of the Hagen Fluval 405 Canister Filter). Bigger tanks are more forgiving when you go a few weeks between cleaning. Bigger tanks seem to make it easier to use the power cleaning tools like the Python No Spill Clean and Fill
.
In my opinion, small tanks are frustrating and annoying. If you decide to upgrade to a larger tank, you frequently cannot use a lot of the equipment from the smaller tank. So, just save yourself some money and go straight to the larger tanks.
by Aquarium Addons on December 9, 2008
I have these three fish that have a silver body and these really cool red fins. Besides the one blue gourami, they are the only fish that are not white, black or brown. The other day I noticed that one of them had lost the red coloring on his fins and even his silver had dulled to where I at first thought that he was one of the white fish.
Last night, I cleaned half the tank. Once again it was pretty bad so I’m doing it in two steps a few days apart. So last night, he looked pale. This morning (less than 12 hours later) he has already regained quite a bit of his red marking and the shiny silver on his body.
I have heard that tank conditions can affect the coloring of fish but have never seen such a dramatic instance of it. And I was equally surprised with how quickly things can seem to recover after cleaning the fish tank.
Just a reminder to break out the super awesome Python No Spill Clean and Fill and take care of the fish tank a little more often.
by Aquarium Addons on December 1, 2008
The fish tank heater seemed to die the other day. We set the house temperature at 69 degrees for the winter and the fish tank temperature quickly followed.
Apparently over the summer, the fish tank heater had turned it self off and I never noticed because the tank was always a little warmer than it was set at.
I almost spent $35 buying a new heater but decided to kick the old one a couple times to see if it had really died. I unplugged it and plugged it back in and I turned the heat settings up and down and returned it to the 72 degrees that I normally set it at.
Amazingly, the fish tank warmed up.
So before you throw away your dead fish tank heater, you might want to fiddle with it a little bit to see if it turned it self off and just needs some help getting turned back on.
by Aquarium Addons on November 6, 2008
I love the tranquility of my aquarium. The fish drifting back and forth, the bubbles floating to the surface, the gently hum of the filter. I try to keep the tank fairly elogant. I focus on natural colored rocks and plants, and real driftwood. I have one “fake” looking piece which is a replica of a double decker bridge that looks realistic and non-garish.
But for some people a country cow print aquarium
really is the right way to go.
Perhaps this is just the right Christmas gift for someone a little more eccentric than average.
by Aquarium Addons on August 12, 2008
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.
by Aquarium Addons on August 8, 2008
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.
by Aquarium Addons on July 25, 2008
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.
