After Reading this Article You Will Know Everything You Need to Get Started With Your First Tropical, or Cold-water, Aquarium!
Keeping Tropical Fish: A Beginners Guide:
Fish are one of the easiest and most rewarding pets you can choose to keep. Not only will you be able to add a beautiful water-based ornament to your home, you will reap scientifically proven benefits such as reduced stress and anxiety, and lowered blood pressure.
Starting an aquarium is a lot easier than you may think, and following our easy guide will get you started with all the basic information you need to start keeping Tropical Fish. We have helped hundreds of people start their first aquarium and get started on the right path.
Believe it or not, larger aquariums will be easier for you to look after! As a result of the increased water volume, larger aquariums provide better conditions for promoting stability than smaller aquariums. We recommend, for your first aquarium you should not start with something smaller than 50 litres as this will only make your life harder! When you gain some experience however, smaller aquariums can make a beautiful addition to your bedroom or study!
When considering size, it is worth looking at what fish you will plan to keep before you buy your aquarium! If you are wanting to keep larger, or more active, fish it is worth planning ahead for this!
Click HERE for our guide to the best Tropical Fish for beginners: ( Hyperlink ):
Choosing the best location for your first fish tank:
The best location for your fish tank is somewhere it is both visible and accessible but not exposed to natural sunlight, as this will stimulate algae growth, and away from doors and windows.
Once you have a location in mind, it is worth measuring up your space and thinking about what you will put the tank on.
What is Involved in Maintaining Tropical Fish:
Weekly/Fortnightly Maintenance:
Tropical Fish require very little maintenance. Initially you will spend between 10-15 minutes a week keeping your aquarium maintained. Generally, after 3-6 months your aquarium stability will have increased significantly and you will be able to reduce your maintenance to around 10-15 minutes every 2-4 weeks.
These 10-15 minutes will involve: Changing a small percentage of the tanks water. We recommend you stick to 25% each week, for the first month or two. After this period you can reduce the water changes to 10-15% each week. If you are looking to reduce your workload, you can change this to changing 25% every fortnight.
While performing the water change, when the water is changed, it is worthwhile using a cloth to wipe any dirt or algae off the inside of the glass. Even if you can't see any, this step is still worth completing to remove any biofilm that will only help the algae grow later!
Monthly Maintenance:
Every month you will want to either clean your filter sponge or replace the removable cartridge ( the tank instructions will tell you what type of filter you have ). If it is a sponge you simply, when completing a water change, use the bucket of old tank water and give the sponge and any other media a rinse in this. Try to remove as much dirt as possible but don't worry about it being exceptionally clean. It is imperative that you do not rinse anything under the tap. The chlorine will kill the beneficial bacteria that keep your fish alive!
It can also be worth using a gravel vacuum to give your substrate a deep-clean, or use an aquarium substrate cleaning chemical. This ensures you do not get a build-up of dirt at the bottom which, when it slowly rots down, will only make the water quality worse!
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