Sunday, April 1, 2012

Keeping your Aquarium Clean

By Kent Henry


A healthy aquarium reflects how far you are willing to go in keeping your aquarium clean. The adorable creatures inside your freshwater aquarium will exude its natural exquisiteness when they are living blissfully inside the artificial aquatic environment that you have created. A regular maintenance system should keep your tank healthy. Freshwater aquarium maintenance is simply having a regular schedule of keeping your freshwater aquarium clean.

Proper equipments are needed when you endeavor to keep your aquarium clean. Your little friends are very sensitive even to the minute change in their environment therefore you need to know how to do things properly.

Never use household cleaners to clean your fish tank. These are deadly to your fish. No matter how well you rinse, these chemicals leave a residue that is toxic to aquatic life.

One major advice for keeping your aquarium clean is to insure that the water supply is clean. A dirty pump is not going to fill your aquarium with clean water. A good, clean filter is vital to the life of your aquarium's ecosystem. However, a clean filter does not mean a spotless filter. Your filter media contains good bacteria that helps break down toxins and waste in your aquarium. Removing all of the bacteria can allow harmful levels of things like ammonia to develop in your water. Gently rinsing your filter media on a regular basis should be all it needs. Your filter manufacturer will provide a suggested maintenance schedule for you to follow. This will prevent you from cleaning it too often and harming the bacteria balance, or too seldom, allowing too great a buildup of waste in the media, which will prevent it from cycling the water as frequently as it should.

You can also clean the accessories you put inside your tank every two weeks. This would prevent the algae from mounting on them. However if what you have is an acrylic aquarium you need to clean it on a weekly basis.

Another maintenance test is to make sure that all the devices in your tank are functioning perfectly. Your air pump for instance, it should supply the adequate level of oxygen. And your filter should be able to circulate the clean and well oxygenated water.

The most important freshwater aquarium maintenance you can do to keep your tank clean and your fish healthy is to perform scheduled partial water changes. This is vital for the health of your ecosystem. An aquarium is a closed ecosystem. Whatever is put in to it stays in it until you remove it. Waste and toxins do build up and the only way to keep the environment safe and healthy is to change the water and vacuum the gravel or sand to remove excess waste.

Use water conditioners when you replace the water in your tank. They have the ability to control harmful chemicals such as chlorine to hurt your aquarium and they can also eradicate excess ammonia.

Make a regular maintenance schedule for your tank. Your pets need you. Give time in keeping your aquarium clean your little friends have their own way to thank you that you never have thought of.




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