Adding fish to fish tank aquariums

Now that you have the water in your aquarium you need to give it a week or so just to settle.  After a week check the ph level and hopefully it will be neutral.  If not you will need to get the appropriate ph adjusting chemical and add it.  Wait another week again for the settling.  Once you’re ph is good and all is well you can add some fish.  I recommend something hardy like mollies or swordtails, don’t use goldfish.  Now you enter the phase where your aquarium is getting use to having fish in it.  This is called cycling your aquarium and basically it is the process of building up a bacteria field in your filter process that eliminates toxins created by your fish.  Your testing kit is needed here as you go through this process.  You can as an alterative take a sample of your aquarium water to your pet store of choice and they will test it for a fee, or sometimes free of charge.

What you are essentially doing is allowing time for ammonia and NO2 nitrates to run their course and get them down to trace levels.  You need to be exchanging old water for new fresh treated water (just tap water with conditioner) in the range of approximately 15% every couple of days.  After a week or so your ammonia levels will most likely be high so don’t worry.  Just keep changing out water and it should dissipate in a few more weeks.  Meanwhile the fish are doing their thing eating and excreting.  After approx. eight weeks you should have N03 bacteria (good thing) and trace amounts of ammonia and NO2 bacteria (bad stuff).  Once you’ve achieved this you can add more fish and go through the same process if you want.  Simply put exchange water when you add more fish and go through the cycle process.  When you are just maintaining the fish you have you only need to top up the evaporated water.

With a properly set up aquarium you will keep maintenance to a minimum.  Your aquarium will be a closed environment that is balanced.  It is not hard to achieve if you follow the principles explained on another page in this website.  Having said this, you are on a learning curve if you are a novice, and will run into some maintenance issues and fish problems no doubt.  Aquarium maintenance is a very important part of keeping your fish healthy as well as the general look of the aquarium.  You don’t want to have it overrun with algae or have a bunch of dead plants rotting in the water.  It all impacts on the look so a good maintenance plan is the key, and much of the information given here should become habit.

Feeding being one of the core principles should be done based on water temperature.

The morning is preferred if possible. 

Aquarium lighting should be turned on in the morning and shut off after the desired amount has been given to the plants if you have some.

Monitoring the water temperature is of course always important along with Aeration and the filtering system.  Make sure what ever filter system you purchase you read over the manufacturer’s instructions carefully and maintain your system following their guidelines.

When you see a growth of fish tank algae starting up you can do three possible things.  Cut back on the amount of light per day, or use a scraper or sponge and clean it off.  Vacuum up the debris that settles on the bottom of the aquarium so it doesn’t fester.  You could also purchase algae eating fish from the shark family.  These are not sharks as you know of the flesh eating type that will bite you.  These fish eat fish tank algae off the side of the glass by sucking onto the glass.  I call them nature’s algae vacuum. 

Test the water with your testing kit periodically and this will confirm to you that your aquarium is in a balanced state and you will sleep better at night. 

If you have a fish tank aquarium set up and would like to show it off, send me some pictures and a write up.  I’d be glad to put it on this website.  …. Thomas