For the beginner even a brief introduction to saltwater aquariums can seem a bit daunting. This is because not only are marine systems a bit complex to set up and maintain they can also be expensive. Saltwater aquariums are not for everybody and even the simplest marine tank can cause headaches. Fish keeping can be tricky and marine fish in particular take a lot of time and effort to keep healthy.

This is because marine species are far more sensitive to water quality and temperature changes so you will need to be informed about the needs of all your fish as well as the tank itself. Saltwater aquariums require patience and a degree of know-how to make it work. You will also need to make sure that you can afford to keep the tank in a healthy state.

Which saltwater aquarium you choose will depend on your aims for the tank and your personal preferences. There are many different options available in terms of the fish and animals you can keep in your tank as well as the equipment you can choose from. Some saltwater aquariums are not suited for the absolute beginner.

The first thing to decide when setting up saltwater aquariums is what kind of fish you want to keep. The next step is finding out as much about each one as you can. Not all marine species are suited to beginners so you might have to adapt your wish-list to suit your level of expertise. Never take on species that are for advanced fish keepers or you could well run into trouble.

There are two main kinds of saltwater aquariums namely 1) fish only or 2) fish only with live rock OR reef tanks.

The first is probably the easiest saltwater aquariums to attempt. This is because in saltwater aquariums of this nature, lighting is not really an issue and you can use a simple tank with its usual equipment and only a few extra bits like protein skimmers, powerheads and live rock or sand.

These kinds of saltwater aquariums will usually be either a community tank containing species like clownfish, damselfish, gobies, wrass, and dottybacks, or an aggressive tank where you will find species like lionfish, triggers, eels, groupers, and larger predatory species.

Before you choose your fish, make sure you know EXACTLY which species live well together to avoid your tank turning into a complete massacre. If you are a novice to saltwater aquariums start with a tank that is at least 10 gallons in size. This is because most if not all of your fish will easily outgrow the tank.

Go for the largest tanks you can afford. The bigger saltwater aquariums are easier to keep in tip-top shape.

Most important to the health of saltwater aquariums is water purification in your tank. This means that even the smallest amount of impurities in the water can hurt your fish Remember most of these animals are found in natural coral reefs where the water is very pure. So you will need to make sure that the water in your tank is clean at all times.

In small (10 gallons) saltwater aquariums you can use a Brita filter or water purifier column or you can use distilled water. These methods wont work in bigger tanks, however. The best bet for any size tank is an RO/DI (reverse osmosis/deionization) system.

Filtration is quite complicated in saltwater aquariums but depends to a large degree on the fish species you intend to keep and how many. In a fish only tank you can use a freshwater filter for example canisters, power filters and the like. You can also try a wet-dry trickle filter. If you decide to keep a reef tank you might want to use a natural filtration system like live rock or sand or a refugium.

Protein skimming is also important in saltwater aquariums and it is strongly recommended that you do it, especially if you have lots of fish in your tank. A protein skimmer uses foaming bubbles to separate fish waste that floats up to the water column from the waters main flow.

The foundation in your tank will require the laying down of live sand. In saltwater aquariums sand doesnt only act as a substrate it is also the breeding ground for millions of vital bacteria. These bacteria help the nitrogen cycle to work efficiently. The sand is also home to the small animals that help control the waste products in your tank.

The best sand for saltwater aquariums is calcium carbonate (aragonite). You can get this from crushed corals, or finer sands. You can also use silica and quartz sands but they are not as good.

What about live rock? Probably one of the most expensive features of saltwater aquariums, prices may put off many a budding marine aquarist. Live rock can be bought by the pound and it is expensive because its the real thing. In the sea live rock makes up a reef structure with little calcium carbonate structures produced by corals. Since live rock is harvested from nature and laws govern this harvesting you can begin to understand why it is so expensive.

Live rock is important to saltwater aquariums for the bacteria it introduces into your tank. These little organisms keep your water filtered in the same way it does in nature. It also acts as a home and shelter for your fish and a place for coral to grow. It is well worth the high price you pay. Fiji rock is a good choice if you can find it. Try to avoid any live rock that has a mantis shrimp on it as they multiply very quickly.

Lets move on to the lighting in saltwater aquariums. In a fish only or fish and live rock tank lighting is not really an issue. In a reef tank, however, it is critical. This is because light is needed for most corals and anemones to grow. Special lights are needed for a marine tank so use one of the following:

Power Compact Fluorescent (PC)
Very High Output Fluorescent (VHO)
Metal Halide (MH)

Remember you will still need to cycle your tank and perform the necessary water quality testing before you add any of your livestock. So there you have it the basics of what to start thinking about as you set up saltwater aquariums. We suggest doing plenty of further research to make sure you know exactly what you are doing before you get started.

Marine tanks are not for everyone, so make sure they suit you before you spend a lot of money.

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Finally, All The Information You Will Ever Need To Begin A Wonderful Love Affair With Fly Fishing! Active hyperlink must remain with article.

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Written By: Sam Weston

How do you use a siphon to clean your goldfish tank?

You will need to use a siphon to clean your goldfish tank because it efficiently cleans up the muck, does not disturb your fish and is easy to use. Its essential to use during the partial water changes. A typical aquarium gravel vacuum would be a wide tube attached to a narrower siphon tube. By cleaning the gravel every week you would get rid of a lot of substances that could turn toxic for your fish over a period of time. Heres how you begin the siphoning process:

* Put a bucket on a low stool or even on the floor in front of the fish tank, and place the wide end of the gravel vacuum in the tank.

* Now gently suck at the other end and hold it over the bucket. Once you feel the water flowing into the tube let it flow into the bucket. Be careful not to swallow the water though- but even if you do, it isnt going to be harmful!

* Now that the siphon has started, use the wider end to suck out the dirt and debris out of the gravel and flow out of the tank into the bucket.

* Pass the vacuum end over all the gravel and keep doing so till you have removed 10 to 15% of the water.

* If gravel gets stuck in the vacuum, release the gravel by plugging the other end of the siphon tube with your finger or thumb.

* When you want to stop the siphon just raise both ends above the level of the tank

* To stop the siphon, simply raise either end of the siphon above the surface level of the fish tank.

There are gravel vacuum that can be attached to a faucet but this would mean that you be putting back tap water directly into the tank which might not be good for your goldfish if there is a marked temperature difference. Also you would be adding all the chemicals present in the tap water without allowing the chlorine to evaporate. The best option is to keep a container of fresh water overnight.

The Weekly 10-15%

Cleaning your tank is essential to your goldfishs well being. In fact, both your plants and your goldfish need fresh, clean and healthy water to survive. All you need to do is set aside a little time every week to do what is called a Partial Water Change or 10-15% Water Change.
This weekly routine will not only keep your aquarium look nice and clean, it will keep your goldfish healthy. Partial water changes are no sweat all you have to do is scrape the algae, vacuum the gravel and replace the water you remove with fresh water. Heres what you need to do:

* Remove the algae on the surface of the tank with an algae scraper before you siphon out the water.

* As the name suggests you need to remove 10 to 15% of the water from your aquarium.

* There is no need to remove your fish to a separate container.

* As you remove the water use the siphon to remove the messy deposits in the gravel.

* In case you have an under gravel filter, then you would have to clean the gravel during weekly water changes.

* Do not take out all the ornaments and decorations and scrub them clean because you might destroy some of the much-needed beneficial bacteria that act as natural biological filter.

* You can clean the filters during the weekly water change but do not change all the cartridges, sponges, carbon packets, etc., as this might remove all the good bacteria and harm your goldfish in the long run.

* Also remember to rinse any new filter media in cool running water before introducing it to the system.

* Once you have siphoned out 10-15% of the water and most of the dirt and the alga, its time to replace the amount of water you removed with fresh, dechlorinated tap water which has been left at room temperature over night, in container free of soap residue.

* Use a siphon to transfer the fresh water into the tank as this would be a gentle way to put the water back in and it wont disturb the plants and the gravel. You would also spill a lot less!

* Do make sure that the fresh water is of somewhat the same temperature as the water in the tank. You cannot just dunk in cold water because Goldfish are not tropical fish.
Do remember to leave enough space between the top of the water and the tank hood so that your goldfish get enough oxygen to breathe in.

What not to do:

* If you see that the level in your aquarium has gone down, do not simply add water to make it level again. This is harmful, as you are not getting rid of the impurities in the water. You are just adding water without removing the dirt and thus making the water harder and more difficult for the goldfish to live in. So dont add water to top off the tank, do a partial water change.

* Never add water directly from the tap. Please keep a separate container only for aquarium use and leave the water overnight so that the harmful chemicals and chlorine evaporate.

* Please do not skip weekly water changes because if you do not partially change the water, you are allowing the build up of waste products like Nitrate that are not removed by the filter, and contribute to the growth of algae.

About the Author

Dane Stanton – Goldfish-Secrets.com

Having 30 years experience in everything Goldfish, Dane Stanton has spent the past 18 months researching the most pressing questions on Goldfish. This information has been recorded in his book titled – “Goldfish Secrets Revealed” – which you can pick up by going to his website – http://www.goldfish-secrets.com

Written By: Dane Stanton

The older aquarists were obsessed with copying nature in their tanks–or rather with the attempt to try and copy nature–whereas the keepers of warm-water fishes had to experiment and create suitable environments for them…

Often they started only with the knowledge that the fish must be kept warm, and this in itself raised problems, including the death of favorite weeds and water snails at higher temperatures…

So the aquarium gradually came to be regarded as most of us see it today, as a beautiful display, not a mirror held up to nature…

However, until the keeping of tropical fish, it seems that aquarists in general thought that the proper aim of an aquarium keeper was to reproduce a segment of nature…

They now realize that their task is the maintenance of a highly artificial and restricted community of animals and plants, with a balance that can easily topple with disastrous results to at least some of the members. At the same time, aquariums can generally be easily maintained as long as a few fundamental facts are recognized and applied with commonsense to the problems that arise…

So lets talk now about some of the characteristics of aquariums and tropical fish…

The old fashioned fish bowl has almost completely replaced for serious fish-keeping by the rectangular glass tank, either made wholly of glass or with a metal frame and glass sides and a bottom of glass, slate, or other rigid material…

Except when used for spawning, for exhibition purposes, or as a hospital tank for the treatment of disease, the tank contains growing, rooted plants; these are set in a sand or gravel layer 1 or 2 inches thick. There may be decorative rocks, but the chief decoration is usually the plants themselves, which contribute more to the attractive appearance of a well set-up tank than do the fishes…

Rectangular tanks are usually between 5 and 25 gallons in capacity; a 15-gallon tank measures 24 X 12 X 12 inches and is a favorite size. Smaller tanks than these cannot house many fish or allow proper development of the plants…

Larger tanks are very attractive and give scope for beautiful planting arrangements and for fine growth of the fishes, but they are expensive and not likely to become generally popular. Most fish lovers therefore prefer a range of medium tanks rather than one or two very large ones, but it must be emphasized that fine fishes can be grown in large tanks…

In general, tropical fishes can be housed in smaller tanks than cold-water fishes. This is because they are usually smaller and are also better able to withstand a relative deficiency of oxygen in the water…

Size for size, most tropical fishes can be crowded a good deal more than the common goldfish and very much more than fancy varieties of goldfish. A 15-gallon tank might comfortably contain a dozen 3-inch rosy barbs, four or five 3-inch common goldfish at the most, and not more than a pair of Orandas of the same size…

Fish consume solid food and excrete solid faeces. They breathe oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide, and therefore they tend to deplete their environment of oxygen and to pollute it with carbon dioxide and excrement…

Plants also breathe oxygen, but in sufficiently bright light they manufacture sugars, etc., from carbon dioxide taken from their surroundings, whether air or water, and they release oxygen. This is done in the green leaf…

Plants also absorb dissolved salts and use these together with carbon dioxide in building up complex organic compounds. Very few higher plants can utilize solid or very complex substances, and before animal excrement (usually known as “mulm” in the fish tank) is available to them it must be broken down by fungi or bacteria and made soluble…

So plants, in adequate light, tend to restore oxygen to the environment and to remove the waste products of animals. In poor light or in darkness they deplete the water or air of oxygen just as animals do. It is only in the daytime, or under bright artificial light, that they perform the complementary function to animals…

From these facts grew the concept of a balanced aquarium, with the waste products of the fishes absorbed by the plants, and the oxygen necessary for the fishes provided by the action of the plants in light…

The moral of the story? A well-planted tank with adequate illumination will usually stay clear and sweet for months or years with little attention…

Hopefully this article has given you a great insight into tropical fish as pets and the healthy keeping of aquariums.

About the Author

Dave Klein is the author of http://www.tropicalfishltd.com a comprehensive resource on tropical fish and aquariums. Visit http://www.tropicalfishltd.com to learn more about tropical fish as pets and how to keep them happy and healthy.

Written By: Dave Klein

Plants will not only provide your fish with valuable shelters and make your aquarium look beautiful; they will also help you to keep the water quality up. Fish and plants coexist in the wild and will complement each other well in the aquarium. The waste products released by fish will contain compounds that the plants can use as nutrition. Organic waste will therefore be contained within the plant instead of floating around in the water where it can harm the fish. You should however keep in mind that these compounds will not “disappear”, they will just be confined within the plant. If you allow dead and decaying plant material to stay in the aquarium, the organic compounds will be released again and begin to pollute the water. Plants must therefore be regularly pruned and unhealthy parts must be removed from the water as soon as possible. In return for the organic compounds that they receive from the fish, the plants will produce oxygen which is essential to the fish. The plants will also use dissolved carbon dioxide and thereby lower the levels of carbon dioxide in the aquarium.

The direct exchange between fish and plants is important, but it is not the only thing that help keeping the water quality up. The plants will also provide a home for a wide range of micro organisms that are beneficial for the ecosystem in the aquarium. Plants are also capable of inhibiting ugly algae growth since plants and algae compete over the same nutrients.

Many fish species will never spawn in an unplanted aquarium. Some species need the plants to feel safe enough to spawn, while others need leaves to attach their eggs on. A densely planted aquarium will also increase the fry survival growth if you wish to raise fry in the same aquarium as adult fish, since the fry will hide among the plants. Busy plants with a lot of smaller leaves are ideal for this purpose. It should however be noted that there are other ways to provide fry with good shelters. Newly hatched fry can for instance hide among larger marbles on the bottom of the aquarium. Caves, roots, stones and artificial aquarium decoration will also give the fry hiding places where they can stay out of harms way.

A plant relies on photosynthesis and light is therefore essential to it. A fish only aquarium requires little light, but if you wish to keep a densely planted aquarium you might be forced to install new lights. Fluorescent light is better than the standard incandescent light in planted aquarium. Some plant species are very demanding in require even stronger light than the fluorescent, but these species are not recommended for beginners. Fluorescent lights are more expensive than incandescent lights, but fluorescent lights will on the other hand burn cooler and use less electricity. Java Fern and Java Moss are two examples of suitable beginner species. They are tough plants that can survive in a wide range of pH-values and water hardiness. They can even be kept in a slightly brackish aquarium, such as a Molly aquarium. Unlike many other aquatic plants, Java Fern should not be planted in the substrate in the aquarium. Java Fern should instead be attached to rock, wood or aquarium decorations where it will form roots. Once your have purchased your first Java Fern or Java Moss, the plants will propagate themselves. New plants will develop on the old plants, and eventually break off. You can attach these tiny plants to some type of decoration in the aquarium and wait for them to grow large.

About the author:

More information about Aquatic plants can be found on AC tropical fish. A comprehensive aquarium website which is offering all visitors an almost 100 pages long free ebook named Tropical Fish – A beginners Guide

Written By: William Berg

If you want your fish to thrive like the Asian carps instead of quickly vanish like the Roman anemones, it is important that you take the time to learn the basics about fish keeping and aquarium maintenance before you set up your first aquarium. By obtaining the basic information before you go about, you will save yourself a lot of time, money and effort in the long run since you will be able to avoid the common beginner mistakes. One common beginner mistake is for instance to purchase a very small aquarium, thinking that a large one is much more difficult to manage. The truth is however that the mega-sized show aquariums that you can see in your fish store are easier to maintain than your tiny 5 gallon tank. In a small aquarium, there will be a very little amount of water. If a fish dies in a large aquarium, the pollution will be diluted by gallons and gallons of water. If a fish dies in your 5 gallon aquarium, the carcass may very well pollute your entire tank before you even notice the demise and remove the body from the water. I therefore recommend the beginner aquarist to choose at least a 10 gallon aquarium, and a 30 gallon aquarium is ideal. Avoid extraordinary deep aquariums since they are more difficult to clean. A very deep aquarium can also become a problem if you want to introduce plants to your aquarium, since you might have to install extra strong lights that are capable of penetrating the deep water all the way down to the plants at the bottom of the aquarium.

Filling up your aquarium with water and then promptly add all your fish at once is extremely unadvisable since the aquarium is ready to accommodate that many fishes. An aquarium is actually a miniature ecosystem and fish is not the only thing inhabiting it. Your fish will produce plenty of waste products (chiefly fish poop) that will eventually begin to build up in the aquarium. It is naturally not very healthy for fish to swim around in there own feces, but fortunately enough there exists a certain type of bacteria that can convert waste products from fish into compounds that are less unhealthy. Fish poop contains a high level of ammonia, and ammonia is also excreted via the gills of your fish. Ammonia is harmful to fish and also can turn extremely poisonous if your aquarium experience a sudden change in water chemistry that pushes the pH level above 7.5. If you allow populations of suitable bacteria to establish in your aquarium before you introduce all your fish, the bacteria will convert the ammonia into nitrite. Nitrate is also very unhealthy and high levels of nitrite will kill your fish, but fortunately enough there is another type of bacteria that will love to live in your aquarium and that will change the nitrite into a less harmful compound – nitrate. Nitrate is less dangerous than ammonia and nitrite, but high levels of nitrate will be unhealthy for your fish. There are unfortunately no beneficial bacteria to aid you here, and you must instead remove the nitrate by performing regular water changes. Changing 25 percent of the water once a week is a good rule of thumb, but some aquariums require more frequent water changes. When you are trying to establish your new aquarium or if you are experiencing problems with the water quality, smaller and more frequent water changes are advisable.

About the author:

It is good to read a book of two about aquarium keeping before getting your first aquarium and i would therefore like to recommend a good free book about tropical fish available for download named Tropical fish – A Beginners guide which you find by clicking the book name and is available for free download at AC tropical fish

Written By: William Berg