by S. N. Nagendra of India Aquarticles

Quite often we tend to neglect the quality of water provided for fish in containment. Disasters with aquariums happen mainly because of poor water standards. For the better aquarists there are products commercially available to improve water conditions. But the majority of us end up buying either low grade stuff OR pay very high to get better products. But, here lies a simple way of enhancing your water parameters by using a leaf of the Great Indian Almond Tree. Read the rest of this entry »

by Alan Ruben
First published in The Daphnian, Boston Aquarium Society, Winter 2002 Aquarticles

Lets start off really basic. How far you get along into this is up to you.

Fish make Waste - Bacteria get rid of Waste.

Complex enough for you? OK, we can get a little more specific. Read the rest of this entry »

By Madhu Soodhanan of India, Aquarticles

Whenever one surfs the net or refers to a book about fish-keeping, pH would be a short-listed, important point of concern. Many of us have read articles/books saying fishes are not tolerant to wide pH ranges or pH fluctuations. But is pH that important in fish-keeping? Is it easy to handle pH? Read the rest of this entry »

by Marcus Ng of Singapore
Originally published on www.aquaticquotient.com Reprinted by permission. Aquarticles

From time to time, folks ask questions about setting up so-called mini or micro-tanks, which for simplicity’s sake are defined here as tanks less than a foot long/tall/wide. I find myself surprised though that hobbyists can cram almost as much equipment and accessories into these tiny cubes as in larger systems. Thus, I would like to offer a little of my own experience in setting up and maintaining a mini tank, with the hope that others are persuaded to try out a much simpler (and cheaper) alternative to piling in the gadgetry. Read the rest of this entry »

by Dr. Adrian Lawler
Extracted from the staff Operational Handbook which Dr. Lawler wrote as Aquarium Supervisor for
the J.L. Scott Marine Education Center and Aquarium, of Biloxi, MS Aquarticles

A tank should be “seeded” (inoculated with waste-oxidizing bacteria) when:
l. A remodeled tank is stocked-out.
2. An ammonia build-up occurs when:
- A tank is over-fed, or animals throw up their food.
- Air is left off a tank for too long a time and the biological filter bacteria die off.
- A tank’s filter is cleaned too well, discarding too many bacteria.
- An organism gets killed or dies (does not survive shedding, injury, or other causes of death) in a tank.
- Too much city water (high in chlorine and ammonia) is added to a tank killing biological filter.
- A treatment used in tank kills off biological filter. Read the rest of this entry »

by Rajendra Kumar, G.G.
First published in “Infoaquaria”, newsletter of The Aquarist Society of Karnataka, India Aquarticles

You have bought yourself a new aquarium, filled it up with water, then added a few fish, and naturally you feed them. The fish digest the food and excrete waste into the water.

In nature fishes live in vast water bodies or in flowing rivers that refresh their water continuously removing waste. But in the stagnant and limited quantity of water in your aquarium the nitrogenous waste products break down into ammonia. Read the rest of this entry »