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A Key To Vigorous Fish: Freshwater Aquarium Water Quality

Keeping fish has always been a popular hobby, less demanding on a day to day basis than the effort to care for most pets, and interesting enough to qualify as a hobby as well. It is increasingly recognized as not only interesting, but soothing to a therapeutic level, when it is done in a proper manner. Contrary to popular belief, each type of species and combination of fish create a community with a unique personality. All you need to do is set up a tank with good freshwater aquarium water quality and you are ready to go.

Setting up an aquarium so that you can keep and enjoy fish over time is more complex than just filling the container with water and adding fish. Because the fish live in the water, it has to be maintained in a careful range to keep them alive and thriving. In a natural pond or stream there are natural means for establishing and maintaining the health of the water, in a confined environment you have to take care of it all. With a little effort, you can enjoy the thrill of owning a beautiful interactive group of aquatic pets.

If you want to keep fish as pets, you have to maintain the water they will live in just as nature does in the wild. There are narrow ranges of chemicals you need to monitor to keep the fish healthy. Monitoring ammonia, nitrites, the acidity of the water and its oxygenation are all important to keep fish alive. This is relatively easy to check, with kits available at almost any pet store.

Because they are living organisms, fish have to eat and excrete. Both processes contribute to the amount of ammonia in the water, and because it is a closed environment, this ammonia can build up to fatal levels. The best method for dealing with ammonia is to allow for the development of healthy colonies of beneficial bacteria. This will occur naturally if you let the aquarium sit for several weeks before adding the fish. You can also try EcoBio-Block Family products which speed up this cycle and continuously maintain a healthy environment for your fish. Fish stores also sell the bacteria which you can add on a regular basis to the system. The key is letting it reach equilibrium and testing it with kits also available for purchase.

All the water that comes out of the taps in your house have added chlorine or chloramine. This is great for people as it kills many problematic bacteria which are harmful to us. Unfortunately, fish can handle the bacteria much better than the chlorine/chloramine, which is toxic to them. This is the reason it is important to let a fish tank set for at least twenty four hours if you know you have chlorine, or use additives which remove chlorine/chloramines from any water that you plan to use to refill your tank.

Another concern for fish is the acidity of the water. There is a range of acidity or alkalinity fish can tolerate, and each species has its own preference, but it is something to check. Kits are available which test the water again using color coding which will tell you the measure of hydronium ions in the water. The pH levels go from very acidic at the zero reading to very alkaline or basic at readings up to fourteen. A reading of seven is neutral and most fish will do well in it.

Despite the fact that fish live in water, they still need oxygen to survive. Keeping the water adequately oxygenated is as simple as having a filtration pump to keep the water moving and adding a few underwater plants to the ecosystem. It is also important to keep the number of fish in the tank under control and limit algae to help with the amount of available oxygen for each fish.

Starting an aquarium is a fun and exciting endeavor that can yield a great deal of satisfaction. While there will appear to be a never ending list of things to do, the basics are ensuring good freshwater aquarium water quality. You can get some assistance with the process by using the EcoBio-Block products to easily help maintain the balance in the tank and keep your fish thriving.

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