Fish and their life cycle. A tropical fish tank needs light, filtration, oxygenation, salt, food*and heat. Lights*on a timer work best for*consistant*timing of*ten hours of light per day*at an intensity of*1 watt of bulb*per gallon of water. Oxygenation takes two forms, bubblers and plants. Both have their place, not everyone wants plants, but everyone needs a good bubbler set up. Heat is easy. *Tropical tanks need a fairly constant 73-78 degrees f. Most heaters have a dial that you twist and set the temp, and they turn on and off as needed to keep a constant temp. Salt: fish need salt and other*trace minerals just like we do. We add special aquarium salt to the tank water, and replace it when we do our periodic water changes. Food: I like tetra brand tropical crisps.**Filtration is hard. This is the most complicated part of an aquarium. You can't over filter a tank, but it is easy to under filter a tank. *There are two types of filters that are needed. One you buy, the other you make (or buy from someone who has developed it adequately). *Mechanical filters clarify the water and remove odors and colors. Biological filters must be developed. This is called cycling a tank. Let's do some biology and science. Fish consume protein. Protein is broken down into nitrogenous wastes, co2 and water. *CO2 evaporates and is used by plants in a tank. Water, well let's not worry about that. That leaves nitrogenous wastes. Mainly ammonia is produced because fish don't have to conserve water. *Ammonia (which is toxic to the fish)*then rises in the tank because it is a closed system. Bacteria come in here. A special bacteria starts converting ammonia to nitrite. As the ammonia goes up,*the bacteria reproduce and come to a sufficient level to control the ammonia. Now you have zero ammonia but lots of nitrite, (also toxic to the fish). Here comes more bacteria. These second bacteria convert nitrite to nitrate (not toxic unless at very high levels). *After your tank is cycled there is sufficient bacteria to convert the ammonia to nitrite and nitrate so fast that the ammonia and nitrite leves are very close to zero. Nitrate needs to leave the tank now. Here is where there is a problem. The bacteria that convert nitrate to N2 are anaerobic and the aquarium has lots of dissolved oxygen. There are 4 ways to remove nitrate. Chemically, anaerobicaly, biologically and manually. API makes a chemical that absorbs nitrate and then you pull the filter out and follow some procedure to recharge the filter (expensive and time consuming). Anaerobicaly is very strange. You create an anaerobic environment in a sump below the tank, and a colony of bacteria start there that converts nitrate to N2 (very expensive, complicated and space occupying). *Biologically is what I favor, because it is more natural. Plants grow in your aquariums and absorb CO2 and nitrate to grow. You then have low nitrate, more oxygen in your tank, and pretty plants. ( fairly easy and cheap). The last is manually. This is also the most common method. You use a hose and remove approximately 30-40% of the water each week and replace it with fresh declorinated water at the same temp as the tank. (very easy, cheap, but time consuming). *The tank does need one of these*fresh water changes*at least once a month regardless of how you*remove the nitrate. *Personally I recommend plants and periodic water changes.*
Cycling the tank (aka: establishing the biological filter).*There are two ways we can get the tank cycled, one is naturally ( bacteria supplements and lots of dying/dead fish) but it is theoretically cheaper. The other way is that someone on this site sell you/gift you some used filter media.**This way will instantaneously cycle your tank, and you will have little if any fish death with this.
New to fish and plants?: petsmart is where I recommend getting your fish. Plan 1 inch of adult size per gallon of water. The tags at the store tell you the adult size.*
Plants: you can get aquarium plant bulbs in the fish care aisle at Walmart. This is probably the best bet for easy plants, but amazon swords and giant swords from petsmart are also very nice.*
