If you are a pet lover and have a particular interest in keeping fish, you need to ensure you do it right. Fish, if they don’t have the right living environment, will quickly die. So, what do you need for a good fish tank?
When you have the right fish tank, you will be able to rear your fish with little worry if they’ll die or not. There are certain things you need to ensure you have a good fish tank. Below is a rundown of the things you need for a good fish tank.
Filter
The crucial part of the fish tank has got to be the filter installed on the tank. This is how you will generate essential water movement in the tank. Other than that, the filter is the one that provides the three crucial types of filtration.
The crucial filtration types are mechanical, biological, and chemical. Each one of them offers different benefits to the tank’s overall conditions. The filtration types are also crucial to the fish that live inside the tank.
- Chemical filtration – happens when water flows through activated carbon. The result is that the toxins in the tank are removed.
- Mechanical filtration – this one is when water passes through the filter pad with a design to trap debris.
- Biological filtration – happens when water comes into contact with a medium. The medium has to be colonized by nitrifying and healthy bacteria. The ammonia inside the tank is broken down, and the water is left safe for the fish.
Air Pump
As much as you can only focus on the water in the tank, you also want to ensure you have the right air pump. With water, you need to note that flow is crucial as it will promote gas exchange – between the water and the air. But you also want your water oxygenated.
When you have an air pump on your tank, it will ensure the water is oxygenated and the fish can breathe easily. When you visit AquariumStoreFepot.com for your fish tank, you will have many options of tanks with a quality air pump available to you. The air pump also helps ensure the water is heated evenly.
You don’t want to have water in the tank unevenly heated – this is where you only have pockets of stagnant warm water around the element.
Water Conditioner
There’s bound to be bacteria in the fish tank, but it needs to be the right bacteria. And good bacteria are pretty crucial for the overall health of the water and the fish. When you have a water conditioner for fish, it will help inoculate the tank.
When the tank is inoculated, it is done with good bacteria. These are the bacteria crucial to breaking down the ammonia excreted as waste by the fish. You don’t want ammonia to build up in your fish tank as it is pretty toxic.
It would help if you had the right water conditioner for the whole bacteria colonization system. This will then help you to prevent toxins from building up in the tank.
Lighting
You need to have the right amount of lighting on your fish tank. Think of your pocket before making any decision concerning lighting for your tank. You also want to look at how the light will improve your fish tank’s overall appearance as much as necessary.
Most people today would go for LED lights as they offer a better overall investment. For one, these lights tend to last longer than other types of lights – fluorescent, etc. The only drawback is that these lights are pretty expensive than the others.
You don’t only get lights that last longer; they also tend to use minimal energy. The lights also generate almost no heat which is an excellent thing for your fish inside the tank. So, as much as it is to invest in them, you will save more over time with them.
Aquarium Test Stripe
You need to ensure that the pH in the tank is always just right if your fish are to survive longer. You need to test the water for nitrate, ammonia, and nitrite. This is where a test stripe comes in quite handy.
In just under 60 seconds, you will get a clear picture of what’s happening in your tank and if it is safe for your fish. The info you get from the stripe is crucial to maintaining a healthy system for your fish.
A good fish tank needs to have several aspects, but when you look at the crucial ones, the above should be considered. They not only ensure your fish are safe, but they also ensure everything goes on well inside the tank.
