Learn About Aquariums

DIY driftwood takes time, but it will save you tons of money. Some small pieces cost well over $20. Also, the soak method (minus salt) will work for store bought driftwood. Store bought driftwood is cleaned and has not been soaked. This may lead to tannins being leaked into your tank

What you’ll need:

Driftwood, which can be found anywhere. It doesn’t necessarily have to come from the water. You could find it in the woods, as long as it is weathered down and looks unique. Also make sure the wood is not rotting.

BIG soaking container, I use a 15 gal rubber maid container.

Aquarium Salt, I use Doc Wellfish brand. This is used as a natural way of killing bacteria and parasites.

First step, clean off your wood! Make sure all debris and bark are removed from the wood (or itll fall off in your tank!). Once complete, boil the water in the BIG pot and add aquarium salt. I use about a tablespoon per gallon. Boil the entire piece for about 2-4 hours depending on your size. If you can only fit half the wood in the pot then you will need to boil the other half.

Once the boil is complete you can transfer your wood into the rubber maid container. Add water until the whole piece of wood is under water (you can also add salt if you want). If the wood does not sink place something on top of it until it does. Itll sink after a week or two. Youll notice the water turn into tea-ish color. It is the result of the tannins that are released into the water. If you didnt soak the wood, the water in your tank would be this color. Tannins are natural and some fishes actually like it because itll make them feel more at home. Itll also affect your PH, Im not sure about GH or KH. Youll need to do water changes every other day to clean the water. This may take weeks or months.

When the color of the soak water suffices, you will need to soak your wood for another week without any salt. This will make sure that the wood does not hold any salt that may leak into your tank.

Once soaking is complete wash the wood well and transfers the wood into your tank. Do not keep the wood out of water for a long time or it will float.

For more information and pictures about this project, please visit www.CarolinaFishTalk.com and check the DIY section.

About the Author:

Site owner of http://www.CarolinaFishTalk.com
Article written by krayzievanh@yahoo.com, member of CFT Community
Proof read by Brandan Njagu b.njagu@gmail.com

Read more articles by: CatfishAttack

Written By: CatfishAttack

Whether you have a big sized aquarium with lots of tropical fish or just a glass bowl on your table with a couple of Gold fishes, they give you great pleasure and tranquility to see them.
Fishes are most soothing pets, but they can be real delicate too. However you can take a good care for your fishes by remembering some small tips.
Whether you are out for a couple of days, your fishes will be there waiting for you when you come back. Here are some tips to keep your fishes healthy.

1) Cleaning your aquarium or tank

Your fish survives in the water of your tank or your aquarium. Not only they eat in it but also the water gradually accumulates the bio-waste from our fishes and gravel.
So it makes a god sense to clean the aquarium and change the water once a week. Do not change the entire water immediately. Fishes are sensitive to water temperature and a sudden change may affect them. Collect your fishes in a tub or a plastic bag with some water of your tank or aquarium. Seal the plastic bag and put it safely. Then clean the aquarium and change the water. Put the plastic bag (with the fishes and water) inside the aquarium -without opening it. Let the temperature of the water inside the plastic bag change gradually to that of the new water in the aquarium. Your fishes will adapt to the new temperature. Then open the plastic bag and release the fishes inside the aquarium.
After all a clean aquarium is always more pleasant to look at.

2) Cleaning your aquariums air pump

Dirt and gravel often coagulates the air pump making it function less efficiently. Often bio-waste accumulates in the air filter. Consider changing the air filter at least once a month or as mentioned in the air-pump manual

3) Feeding your fishes.

One big word: Do Not Overfeed your fishes. Most aquarium fishes die of overfeeding rather then underfeeding. Also leftover foods (usually your fishes will continue eating till they are in real trouble!) contaminate the water, and promote bacteria harmful to the fishes. Feed the fish small amounts, which they can consume in three to five minutes and feed them daily. And if you are going out for a couple of days in the weekend, do not try to feed them an extra quantity on Friday. Your fishes will do well on an empty stomach for a couple of days. Also it is always better not to ask your helpful neighbor not to feed your fish when you are away for the weekend. The chances are that your over-zealous neighbor will overfeed them (with a good intention, of course!).
There is sufficient food in a balanced aquarium to keep fish healthy even though not fed for a day or more.

About the Author

See my e-book on Tropical fishes at http://dotpacket.net/tropical/

Written By: Partha Mitra

A balanced diet for your aquarium fish is essential to thier survival. Most of the commercially available dry fish foods are almost always unbalanced. In many cases, the vitamin content will gradually decline at room temperature and since majority of the dry food for tropical fish commonly used will only keep for about three months, it is always advisable to buy fish-feeds in many small packs rather than in one large pack. The feed could preferably be kept absolutely dry in a refrigerator. However, all fish appreciate a change of diet and will thank you for your consideration with more interesting behavior, better colours, and greater readiness to breed and better general well -being. This change of diet should be supplemented with live food; majority of which now come in irradiated freeze dried forms to make sure that they are disease free.

I will mention a few that could be found handy in some major aquarium shops and I will group them into two. And they are flake foods and freeze-dried foods

Flake foods

Most popular and highly recommended brands are Aquarian, Tetra, and Wardley. They are varying in cost and quality. Wardley is the least expensive among the three. However, the Aquarian and Tetra are richer in specialty flakes compare to Wardley.

Freeze-dried foods

You will also find freeze-dried foods available in aquarium stores. They are favorite foods for aquarium fish. They have single animal-ingredient like mosquito larvae, blood worms and Tubifex worm each. Aquarist should note that freeze-foods are not in themselves complete diet but they can be combine to flake food or other type of freeze-dried foods. We shall discuss more about Tubifex as a popular freeze-dried food.

TUBIFEX - This is a traditional favorite food relished by most fishes. They are small red worms that live at the bottom of streams and rivers particularly where large amounts of organic matter are present. Therefore, it is difficult for the aquarist to collect them life from their habitat. It is therefore preferable to buy Tubifex from pet shops where they are already clean, freeze-dried and concentrated into cube forms.

From personal experience, Tubifex tubes could probably be the most exciting feed to use for fishes. The cube can be stuck to the front inside wall of the aquarium. The fishes in the tank will immediately come forward and bit off pieces of worms excitedly until satisfied.

You need not bother to remove the rest worms since they seldom pollute and in most case fishes return to the feed for further fill.

About the Author

For more great aquarium related articles and resources check out http://fishfood.aquariumspot.com

Written By: Nathan Miller

Tropical Aquariums are for keeping tropical fish, but you can have two different types of fish, saltwater or freshwater. Saltwater fish obviously needs saltwater and the salt needs to be a regulated level along with the PH and temperature. Freshwater fish need to have fresh purified water, both of these set ups need the good bacteria that helps to keep the aquariums clean.

Tropical aquariums that contain saltwater are only for saltwater fish. If you put a freshwater fish in this tank it will die! Saltwater fish are made to stand the levels of salt and are essential for the fish to breath and move. If salt wasn’t present they would die a death like suffocation. In saltwater aquariums you need to make sure that there are living rocks in it, this means rocks that already have the good bacteria present. You then need to leave the rock in the tank for at least two months before putting any fish in, this is to get a bacteria cycle on the go. Once the bacterium has built up, I set up the filter. After that it is safe to add the fish.

Freshwater tropical aquariums are for fish that need clear and clean water. This water has to be chlorine and ammonia free. The freshwater tank also needs to be set up and cycling for at least four weeks before adding any fish to it, as this will help the bacteria to build and make sure that the ammonia levels are kept to a bare minimum, ammonia is a substance that will kill our fish as it makes breathing for them very hard to do. You know when your tank has very high levels of ammonia because the fish are at the top of the tank struggling to breath but the trick is not to change the water, what to do is clean out the filter in some of the tank water (in a separate bowl of course) and then put it back in within a day or so. The water will be in a completely better condition. Purchase a water test kit to check your levels or nutrients before putting in your fish, they are not expensive but are a great help.

Tropical aquariums are stunning ornaments in any household! Just make sure that you don’t forget about the work and responsibility involved, they may be fish but they are still alive and should of course be kept that way!

About the author:

William Nabaza of http://www.Nabaza.com specializes in domains, webhosting, webmaster’s tools, netpreneur’s articles and resources. Stands out as a freebie provider, business opportunity provider and the like. Visit his site at http://www.nabaza.com or contact him directly at william@nabaza.com There’s more pet resources here: http://www.nabaza.com/pets.htm

Written By: William R. Nabaza of http://www.Nabaza.com/pets.htm

Aquariums have evolved into a very popular hobby, with about millions of aquarium and tropical fish enthusiasts worldwide. Starting in the 1850s (when the predecessor of the modern aquarium were first being developed as a novel curiosity) the ranks of aquarium keeping has grown as more sophisticated systems including lighting and filtration systems were developed to keep aquarium fish healthy.

However before you can get started in the hobby you must first buy an aquarium. When you get to the pet store or specialized aquarium store you will have lots of aquarium tanks to choose from:

Metal Framework:

Most of the old style aquariums are made with sheets of glass, which are held in a metal framework. This is usually constructed of pieces of angle iron or stainless steel, which are welded together at the corners. Leakage between the glass and metal is prevented by putty aquarium cement, acrylic or silicon sealant.

Battery Jars:

Fish Globes or Bowls: This type of aquarium is useful for emergency purpose, but is not to be recommended as a permanent features. The glasses are cast in one piece and a crack, however small, may suddenly expand and cause a flood. This not only results in a loss of fishes but also necessitates the buying of a new tank, as it is impossible to repair the old one.

Also, when looking through the walls of this type of aquarium, there is distortion, which adversely affects one’s view of the fishes. Similar disadvantages apply in fish globes or bowls.

Plastics:

With the ever-expanding applications of plastics, it is not surprising that these synthetic that these synthetic products have been used to replace glass for aquarium. Plastics have advantage of being unbreakable, but are soft enough for the surface to become scratched. This is in time will mar transparency.

Vitorlite:

This glass-like material is available in many different colours and some very pleasing effects can be obtained by applying it to the sides to back up the aquarium. Moreover, being opaque Vitorlite will hide the wall and any unsightly wires or other apparatus behind the aquarium.

Wood:

Aquarium frameworks with wood are desirable mainly for aesthetic reasons. The wooden framework however will have to be constructed from plywood to prevent warping.

The advantage of the wood lies in the fact that it can be polished, covered with upholstered rug, stained or coated with colours to harmonize with the furnishing of the room.

About the Author

For more great aquarium related articles and resources check out http://fishtanks.aquariumspot.com

Written By: Nathan Miller