Aquarium Setup

2009-01-28T23:41:00.013-06:00

Welcome to Aquarium Setup for Beginners. This site provides tips and techniques for beginning fish hobbyists to set up and run an aquarium successfully. If you have questions not covered here, please feel to post on this site.

Click here for Aquarium Setup.

Neon Tetra Disease

2009-01-23T00:00:00.000-06:00

Treating Neon Tetra Disease.

Symptoms:
If you have neon tetras, it is possible that some neon's may start loosing color like in a band in the middle of the body. This is due to a infection which kills the fish from the inside.
This is highly contagious. Separate the fish and move to quarantine tank.

Treatment:
Add salt to the aquarium or in the quarantine tank. 1 tablespoon per gallon of water. Keep the fish in this tank for 20 days. If treatment is started early fish will survive.

Why this works: The protozoan which causes this disease eventually comes out of the fish. This needs enough water to live. But if salinity in water is high, the water from within this protozoan comes out into the salty water due to osmosis and kills this pathogen.
Fish will start recovering soon.

I was able to successfully treat a neon tetra which had this infection.

Cycling an Aquarium

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Aquarium Setup - Fishless cycling the tank.
One may be very excited with the aquarium setup and then add fish immediately to the tank. Stop and read the following before doing so. One needs to go through the following important step.

Before adding fish to the tank, the tank needs to be cycled. Cycling an aquarium is a process where good bacteria are established in the tank. This can take anywhere from a week to about 1-1/2 months. It is safer to have patience.If this is not done, the fish may die rapidly and one may give up the fish keeping hobby altogether.

Aquarium Setup. Process occurring in aquarium.

1. Fish wastes and uneaten fish food get converted to ammonia. Ammonia is harmful to the fish and burns the gills of the fish. Due to this fish cannot absorb oxygen easily.
2. Ammonia eating bacteria convert the ammonia to nitrite.
Nitrite is harmful to the fish. Though not as much as ammonia.
3. Nitrite eating bacteria converts this to nitrate. Nitrate in concentrations of upto 20ppm is not harmful to most fish.
4. If live plants are present in the aquarium, these consume the nitrate and keep this concentration down.

Aquarium Setup - Starting a cycle
Add a source of ammonia.
- This could be from a frozen prawn kept in stocking within aquarium.
- Get a pure source of ammonia. Janitorial strength. This is typically the non sudsing kind. On shaking the bottle there should be no foam. I hunted high a low and could not find this.
- Alternatively use urine. This may gross out many people but this is a good source of ammonia, it is sterile and free. I used this technique and successfully setup my aquarium.

Aquarium Setup - Monitoring the cycle
- Raise temperature of aquarium to 86 degrees F. Bacteria grow faster in this temperature range.
- Check ammonia levels each day. These should not exceed 2 to 3 ppm. Any reading above 5 ppm will slow down the process of setting the biological filter. When this level goes down, add more ammonia (see above). Need to keep the bacteria fed or the population dies off.
- In a few days there will be high levels of nitrite.
- This will eventually turn to 0ppm
- At this stage you may get a reading of nitrate based on whether you have live plants or not.

An aquarium is fully cycled when:
- Ammonia readings are 0ppm.
- Nitrite readings are 0ppm.
- Nitrate reading between 0 to 20 ppm.

If nitrate are any higher, do a large water change bring these levels close to 0ppm.

I have not had much success with Prime or other chemicals claiming to cycle the tank quickly.

Aquarium Setup - Adding Fish

Add fish slowly to the aquarium. Start by adding about 3 to 4 each week till tank is fully stocked.

Add fish by the 1 inch of fully grown fish to 1 gallon of tank water. This is to prevent over crowding and have healthy fish.

White Mouth Disease in Fish

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When one buys fish from the local fish store, carefully observe the mouth of the fish and its head for any signs of white patches.

Symptoms

If the fish in the tank behaves in the following manner, it has contracted a bacterial disease. Fish swims with its mouth open like it has a pebble or something stuck in the mouth. Fish keeps swimming at the surface of the water.

If this is the case, remove the fish immediately. At this stage treating the fish is very difficult. The fish does not live for more than 24 hours depending on what stage the infection is in.

This is very contagious and the other fish can get this also. I had purchased a guppy which had this infection. The guppy died eventually. I changed about 80% of the water hoping the bacteria would go away. The next day 2 harlequin rasboras in the tank got the same disease. These were healthy fish and were in the tank for about 3 weeks without any issue. I had to remove these 2 rasbora fish to prevent these from spreading the infection. These 2 fish died in a few hours. Any kind of medicine is pretty much ineffective.

Preventing spread of infection:
The method I discovered was to add aquarium salt to the tank (1 tablespoon or thereabouts per gallon). This kills the bacteria and prevents the other fish from succumbing to this infection.

Avoiding this problem.
Quarantine any new fish before introducing in the aquarium.

Treating Ick without harming fish.

2009-01-01T22:50:00.004-06:00

The following gives details of treating fresh water fish infected with ick.

Source of Ick

Fish get ick infection from the ick parasite a protozoa called Ichthyophthirius multifiliis. This is very dangerous if not treated in time and will kill the fish eventually.

Ick Symptoms:
Ick will manifest itself visibly as white dots on the fish (generally the spots will start on fins and move towards the body, but not always). The spots will be about the size of a small grain of salt. Fish will often "flash" or scratch themselves quickly and repeatedly on objects in the tank in an effort to dislodge the Ick cysts. Some fish will continue to act normally even when infected with Ick, but others will have clamped fins, color loss and lethargy.

To treat Ick, one needs to understand the cycle of the ick parasite.

Ick cycle:
Ick lives through 3 cycles in its life and is susceptible to treatment at only one stage of the life cycle. Awareness of the life cycle is important to properly treat this.

Adult phase - it is embedded in the skin or gills of the fish, causing irritation (with the fish showing signs of irritation) and the appearance of small white nodules. As the parasite grows it feeds on red blood cells and skin cells. After a few days it bores itself out of the fish and falls to the bottom of the aquarium.

Cyst phase - after falling to the bottom, the adult parasite forms into a cyst with rapid cell divisions occurring.

Free swimming phase - after the cyst phase, about 1000 free swimming young parasites swim upwards looking for a host. If a host is not found within 2 to 3 days, the parasite dies. Once a host is found the whole cycle begins all over again.

These three phases take about 4 weeks at 70º F but only 5 days at 80º F. For this reason it is recommended that the aquarium water be raised to about 80º for the duration of the treatment. If the fish can stand it, raise the temperature even higher up to 86º.

The free swimming phase is the only time treatment is effective. Raising the aquarium temperature to 80º F will greatly shorten the time for the free swimming phase to occur. These cysts do not survive over 86ºF. So if you can raise the temperature to about 88ºF without stressing the fish, it will be more effective.

Ick Pre treatment:

Ick is highly contagious, therefore if your affected fish is in a community tank, the tank should be treated as well. Keep the water at 86 degrees F or higher. One may have to raise the water temperature slowly so as not to shock the fish. Warmer temperatures will cause the cysts to fall off faster. When the cysts have fallen off, this is the only time the parasite is vulnerable to treatment. When attached to the fish, the medicine/treatment does not get to the parasite, since it is embedded in the skin of the fish.

Ick Treatment using salt.

This is very effective way to treat the fish.

Treatment is most effective when started early, then the cure is early too. But this can be done at any stage of the ick infection.

Raise the temperature of the aquarium to 86 degrees F (slowly over a period of about 5 to 6 hours). Add about 1 tablespoon per gallon of aquarium salt (non iodized salt available in fish stores). Mix the salt in the water and gradually add this to the tank. Observe the fish for stress when doing this. If fish is getting stressed reduce the amount of salt. The free swimming ick parasite cannot survive in salt water. This kills them. That is why salt water is used as treatement. The freshwater fish can survive for a couple of days in salt water and elevated temperatures without any issue.

Keep fish in this tank for atleast 10 days till the ick is eradicated.

Ick Treatment with medicine

This is not recommend because the salt water treatment is highly effective. But if you have to treat with medicine, read on.

There are lot of medications on the market that will successfully treat Ick. Most medications geared toward Ick treatment contain Malachite Green or copper. Commonly available brand names are: Malachite Green, Coppersafe, Quick Cure, Aquarisol, Rid Ick and Maracide. Malachite green, tends to stain the plastic and silicone in the aquarium. Most of these medications are fairly harsh on plants. Strong copper-based medications can eventually lead to poisoning, so water should be changed frequently after treatment to remove the medications. Follow the instructions on the medicine bottle fully to cure ick completely.

Ick Prevention

When adding new fish to a community tank, always quarantine them for at least 2 weeks to reduce the chances of a diseased fish spreading ick to the tank. Note that ick does not come from the tap water. It comes along with the fish. The parasite may be affecting the gills of the fish, where it is not visible by the naked eye. Quarantining the fish is a good way to keep the parasite out of the main tank.

Aquarium Setup Details

2009-01-01T13:19:00.007-06:00

Everything you need to know about Aquarium Setup.

Buying Aquarium
For Aquarium Setup, first step is to buy an aquarium. There are various shapes and sizes available. A beginner may get confused on entering the pet store and wonder which one to buy. There may be robot shaped aquariums, fish bowls, Hexagonal, etc.

There are 2 major types:
a. Acrylic Aquarium.
b. Glass Aquarium.

Acrylic Aquarium may be unbreakable or less likely to break with little kids around. But these are very scratch prone. Avoid these if possible.

Glass Aquariums are breakable. But these are virtually scratch proof. These need to be handled with care. Visibility in these aquariums is better.

Next process in Aquarium Setup:
Selecting Aquarium capacity.
One may be tempted to go for a smaller 10 gallon aquarium. Please avoid this. The cost difference between a 10 gallon and 20 gallon is not much. Go for the largest size your budget allows for. I have a 20 gallon aquarium and am pleased with this.

Selecting Aquarium dimensions:
An aquarium may come in various configurations for the same capacity. Some aquariums are longer versus the taller ones. Most fish enthusiasts prefer the longer aquarium.
The reason being that fish have more room to swim (length wise). But one would choose a taller aquarium, if one is choosing an angel fish as a pet. These grow taller compared to other fish.

One can get a used aquarium (from craigslist/ garage sales or buy a new one.

If buying an aquarium as a kit, these normally come with hood lighting, heater (for tropical fish), thermometer.

Next on the Aquarium Setup shopping list:
1. Gravel: One would need to buy at least one pound per gallon of aquarium water.
Type: Select rounded smooth gravel or sand if considering to keep catfish (algae eaters). The sharp gravel can damage the barbels on these fish.
Color: Any colorful gravel to suit your liking.

2. Live Plants. These help in oxygenating the water and providing some food source for some fish.

3. Plastic Plants. These are colorful and impossible to kill.

4. Water conditioner and dechlorinator. (Essential, one needs this during every water change).

5. Driftwood (if you want to keep this in the aquarium).

6. Other decorations like bubblers/ aerators.

7. Buy water testing kits. At the minimum buy an Ammonia test kit, Nitrite test kit and Nitrate test kit. The liquid test kits from API are good and accurate.

Process in Aquarium Setup.
Wash gravel in tap water thoroughly 3 to 4 times, till the gravel is clean. For the final wash use dechlorinated water. Follow instructions on the dechlorinator bottle.
After this is done fill the aquarium with gravel.

Fill tap water in a bucket. Dechlorinate this using dechlorinator. Dechlorination is very important. If this is not done, the chlorine will kill the fish and the helpful bacteria very quickly in a couple of days or less. Then pour this into aquarium.

When aquarium is about 25% full, put the live plants, decorations, aerator wands etc.
Fill to the top using a plate at the bottom to deflect the water and not disturb the gravel.

Cycle the aquarium
Next you will need to cycle the Aquarium.

Click here to learn how to cycle an Aquarium.

Here is a picture of the completed aquarium:

Compatible fish for Aquarium

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Stocking your aquarium

Find compatible fish. These should be happy to co-exist together.
One fish should not become the meal of another (it would become a rather expensive meal).

Bettas go well with harlequin rasboras.
Zebra danios go well with harlequin rasbora, black skirt tetras.

Try not to combine long fin fish with faster fish or fin nippers. Most of the fin damage occurs in the night when the lights are turned off. The fins regenerate but this takes time.

Here are 2 pictures with harlequin rasboras in the aquarium. They are very peaceful active fish. A must have for any aquarium.

Schooling Fish:
Fish which are of the schooling type like the tetras/rasboras etc need to be kept in shoals of 6 at the minimum. This reduces the stress level on the fish and they are happy. Also a group of fish swimming together makes for an attractive sight.