Excellent Tips for Installing a Freshwater Aquarium

Whether you wish to install a large fish tank or a Freshwater Planted Aquarium, the same ideas can be applied. If you want to transform your home for a new pet animal, you should ensure your new fish have the optimal tank conditions to ensure their overall health and well-being. It might not be hard, but it requires a little thought and extra work. Taking out the time to discover how to get your tank installed correctly can mean the difference between failure and success. Here are some tips to help beginner aquarists get on their way.

Cycle the Fish Tank

This is the basic thing a new aquarium owner should always do, before fish are bought. You should not buy the fishes and tank on the same day. Unfortunately, this is exactly what every new aquarium keepers do when it comes to installing aquarium at their house. Some employees at the pet stores just stand back and watch first-time aquarium owners make mistakes. Cycling the tank might mean you are assisting in growing the necessary bacteria in the bottom substrate and filtration system to easily break down fish waste. Ammonia and other nasty materials might build up in a tank up to the point where it is poisonous for the fish in the aquarium. In the absence of these healthy bacterial microorganisms, the cycling process happens much quicker.

Test the Water

The second important thing you should do is purchase a fully-functional water testing kit and discovers how to use it properly. You have to daily monitor the chemical constituents of the water to make sure it is safe for the fishes. The water testing kit indicates when the tank is properly cycled, and then allows you monitor the living conditions in the tank as you add extra fishes. Adding fish can directly impact water conditions in the tank, and the more fish you have the bigger the demand on the healthy microorganisms to break down the fish waste.

Check the Water pH Every Week

Besides testing the water the fishes are living in, you have to test the water source which you are using every single day to fill the fish tank. This may sound simpler, but many beginner aquarists don’t even consider the chemical solution of the water. Whether you are filling the tank with well-water, a municipal water supply, or from a commercial source, make sure to test it and see where it stands in its base state. It may not likely you’ll discover Ammonia or Nitrates, but you will know how acidic the water is by using an Aquarium Temperature Controller. Several fish species can adapt to a different range of pH levels, so as long as the numbers aren’t too higher, but it is better to correct toxic pH.