Aquarium Maintenance Guide

Why Maintain Your Home Aquarium?

You wake up every morning. Take a bath, brush your teeth, and make yourself rid of any germ or contamination. You go for the morning walk to keep yourself healthy and fit. Have your timely breakfast and lunch and dinner. You take care of yourself in the best possible way. Why? Because if you don’t your health will deteriorate and you can feel sick. Have you ever thought that the fish- your pet- roaming freely in your aquarium is also a living creature? That also needs to remain healthy and fit. That also needs to have timely availability of food and needs to live under all the optimum maintenance of its home- the aquarium.

That is why the maintenance of fish aquarium or tank is crucial and obligatory. You need to pay extra care while maintaining the suitable conditions of our fish. As the fish is a sensitive and delicate organism, a little variation or disruption in its environment can result in hazardous results- even that can result in its death!

The Main Aquarium Water Parameters

The aquarium is home to any fish. It’s crucial to keep this little ecosystem as nearer or equivalent to the natural marine or aquatic conditions as possible. It’s equally important to keep in mind the amounts of different constituents of the aquarium because a little variation in any one of them can result in massive hazard for the delicate pet of yours!

(1) Nitrates:

Nitrates should be kept below ten parts per million (ppm) in freshwater and five ppm or even lower than that in saltwater and reef aquariums.

(2) Nitrites:

Nitrites should be almost undetectable at all times that s its quantity in the aquarium should be very minute. If the quantity gets higher, you need to check the amount of ammonia as well because the higher concentration of ammonia in your aquarium can distort the balance of your aquarium.

(3) pH conditions:

pH must remain stable throughout the time in your aquarium. Usually, the range of pH is 6.5 – 7.5 for most of the species, but that also changes a little bit.

(4) KH (carbonate hardness):

The amount of KH (carbonate hardness) in the aquarium is usually considered as a measure of pH stability. If the KH value drops close to 4.5-degree hardness or 80 parts per million, you need to monitor it carefully. If hardness drops below 45 dH, the pH of the aquarium water will go out of the range, and that can lead to massive problems for the fish.

Condition of Heating and Lighting

For measuring the temperature of your aquarium on and off, you need to buy that temperature heater that is effective enough to maintain the optimum temperature in the aquarium. If you intend to measure the temperature of the aquarium conveniently and easily, then you may use the attachable and portable temperature strips available in the market that bind to the outside of your aquarium glass. They are inexpensive and available at your local fish retailer shops. In recent times, fluorescent lighting has been the traditional light source used mostly in the aquariums and is readily available. Moreover, you can also go for LED lighting. The LED lighting is comparatively cheaper to install, works well, and usually lasts longer than conventional sources of lighting.

Condition of Filtration and Aeration

You need to choose the best power filter available in the market for your aquarium. Make sure the power filter you buy works best in terms of providing aeration to the aquarium and do the proper filtration of the unwanted particles or residues as cleanliness of your aquarium is necessary for the health of your fish.

Frequency of Maintenance

You need to maintain your aquarium very strictly. You need to check daily, weekly, and monthly the ongoing aquarium setup and detect timely if the fault appears to your sight;

Daily Maintenance:

Check the proper functioning of the aquarium.
Wash away any residue left after feeding.
Change the water of the aquarium on daily basis.

Weekly Maintenance:

Carefully examine your fish weekly. In case of fish death, quickly discard the dead one from the rest of the aquarium.
Test the quality of the aquarium water for mandatory parameters: like the optimum pH range, the hardness of the water, the concentration of nitrite and nitrate in the water.
You need to wipe the walls of the aquarium once a week to get rid of any kind of debris or pollutants.
Empty the gravel of the aquarium once a week.
Revamp the water in the aquarium by the quantity of 10-15%.
Wash the filters installed also.

Monthly Maintenance:

You need to replace the filtration system of your aquarium every month. Wash the entire filter if the need arises.
Carefully check the tubs, connections, air stones, skimmers, and other parts of the aquarium that whether they are working properly.
Clean the aquarium as a whole by placing the fish in some other equivalent conditioned container. Do this step quickly as the fish can’t tolerate the different environments for a much longer time.
Look out for the expiration dates of all the bottles of aquarium materials. It is strictly prohibited to use anything after the expired date.

Maintenance Procedures

You need to carefully look at the points mentioned below in order to ensure the maintenance of the aquarium’s ecosystem:

Do check the water quality of your aquarium. By water quality, it means the optimum required conditions of the pH, alkalinity, and the concentration of different chemical components. Nitrates and phosphates must be thoroughly examined.
Do buy an aquarium that is large enough to incorporate all your organisms comfortably and conveniently without creating any hustle or inconvenience.
Do run your newly bought aquarium (without any organism) for some 1-2 days before introducing any organism into it.
Perform the acclimation process of your newly bought fish before you introduce them to your aquarium.
Do the research (like the food, living environment of that specific species) for all organisms you desire to have in your aquarium before buying them.

More Steps

Do change the water of your aquarium about 25-30% every week. Make sure there is no change in the temperature of the new water and the previous water of the aquarium. Both must be homogenous in terms of temperature.
Use algae scrapers for cleansing of the aquarium. You may also use a microfiber clean cloth, and you may use vinegar diluted water to clean the exterior of the aquarium. Before you begin cleaning the aquarium with an algae scraper, do remove the aquarium articles from it like the stones, the plants, the rocks, the pebbles, etc.
Clip the aquarium plants after regular days of intervals to keep the atmosphere healthy and manageable for the organism, as well as to minimize the rate of growth of algae.
Unplug the aquarium filtration system and other electrical parts of the aquarium before cleaning the aquarium.
Do care while cleaning or dusting the electrical parts of your aquarium as they may pose an electrocution hazard.
Use the deionized water or distilled water to fill the aquarium.
Do give you aquarium a thorough cleaning daily and after every ten days.

Avoid These Myths

Don’t completely turn off the aquarium to clean it. The factor may result in a collapse in the biological and ecological balance of your aquarium.
Don’t go for water changes for more than 25% in an amount as water changes can result in the stress of your fish and disturb the balance in your aquarium.
Don’t turn the aquarium light continuously for 24 hours. You may turn on the light for some intervals. Excessive lighting can result in fish stress and algae growth.
Don’t place your aquarium where the sunlight or even the room light directly reaches out into the environment of your aquarium.
Don’t buy the fish and aquarium on the same day. Firstly buy the aquarium, let it work for a few days then incorporate the fish into it.
Don’t allow newly bought transport bag water to ever enter into your aquarium when introducing some new fish into the aquarium.

Avoiding More

Do not overcrowd your aquarium with more and more organisms.
Don’t feed your fish too much food. Only incorporate the food that your fish may consume in 2 minutes. Uneaten food can cause pollution in the aquarium.
Don’t interact with your aquarium any material that has even a minute degree of contamination or pollutant on it like; beakers, glass pots, buckets, transport bags.
Do not remove the water of the aquarium all of a sudden. Change water in small quantities ranging from 25-30% at a time.
Do not use any strong chemical or other synthetic material like bleach, ammonia, soap, dishwasher, or detergent for washing purposes.
Do not ever try to use tap water for your aquarium, as it may have a considerable level of water hardness in it that can result in complete havoc for your aquarium. Always use deionized or distilled water for the aquarium.
Do not ever use too much hot or too much cold water for your aquarium, use lukewarm water.