What the Beginning and Advancing Aquarist Absolutely Needs to Know and Do When Starting An Aquarium

What A Beginner Needs To Know About Water For The Aquarium

First set up the aquarium and fill it with water.  Tap water can be used.  Resist putting aquatic life, particularly fish and other aquatic animals, in the aquarium until it is successfully set up and operating properly.  It is best to wait days, or a week or more, to be sure that the aquarium is stable before adding fishes or other aquatic animals.  The less the aquarist knows about aquarium keeping, the longer the aquarist should wait before adding fishes or other aquatic animals, so that the aquarist has the time to learn some of the basics for keeping them alive.  Most keepers want to rush into setting up everything at once and adding the fishes, etc., but this can be very hard on the aquatic animals.  Conditions are not yet stabilized, and too often can go wrong at the start. 

A majority of the problems that come from fish diseases and deaths is in the first weeks and months of aquarium and pond keeping.  This is an especially critical time for keeping the aquatic life alive and functioning.  Even deaths and diseases months and years later can be caused by what went wrong at the time of the aquarium start up that lowered the fishes' resistance.   The fishes may never have fully recoveredand the infections break out later.

Tap water from public water sources is now in most places to some extent toxic to fishes and other aquatic life, because of the requirements from government regulating agencies to public water utilities to treat their water with chemicals.  Such water treatment almost universally requires that the public water utilities use chlorine and for many localities ammonia additives (used together called chloramines) to kill bacteria and viruses.  these also harm or kill fishes and aquatic invertebrates, and other organisms in the water.  Also to be contended with in tap water are the metals from the pipes carrying the water, many of the pipes being decades old and rusting.  Also, from some water sources such as wells there may be substantial amounts of dead bacteria, viruses and other organisms that pollute the water, or there may be toxic minerals that are dissolved from the ground water, etc.  

The aquarist may receive advice that if tap water is stored before adding it to the aquarium or pond, or heated to the boiling point, it will have lost its chlorine.  This to some extent was true years ago.  But now public water utilities are using more powerful chemical chlorines in ever rising amounts that are increasingly bound with toxic ammonia in chloramines.  They need to be removed, and this is done most effectively by the use of Kordon's AmQuel+. 

Water from public sources may be safe for humans and pet animals (dogs, cats, reptiles, birds, etc.) to drink and use.  But tap water is usually not safe for fishes and aquatic water-breathing animals, because they are much more sensitive to what is in the water.  For example, the EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) has established that up to 4 ppm (= 4 mg/L) of chlorine be used by public water utilities in tap water to kill organisms that are harmful to humans.  These are harmful and lethal to the fishes and other aquatic life that aquarists and pond keepers want to keep in their aquariums and ponds.

Fortunately, these toxins in the water can be easily and quickly detoxified/removed within a few minutes by using both Kordon NovAqua+ and Kordon Amquel+, which are available from pet and aquarium stores.  They have the ingredients that together will handle all types of regular water, whether supplied from public utilities, wells, bottled water, or natural sources such as rivers or lakes.  If these products are not in stock, they can be ordered by the stores from their distributors.   Follow the instructions on the bottles when using these products.   If bottled water is used, be sure to add Kordon NovAqua+ because this adds the electrolytes needed for breathing by the fishes for them to get oxygen from the water.

A brief explanation may be helpful about what NovAqua+ and AmQuel+ are doing in detoxifying/removing of toxins in the water.  AmQuel+ removes all chlorines and breaks the bond of all toxic nitrogen compounds (ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, and others without common names) that are in water supplies (including natural and well water) and gases out the hydrogen and oxygen in the compounds into the air.  The remnants of the nitrogen compounds are dismembered, detoxified,  and in part consumed by beneficial bacteria in the water as well as remaining harmless in the detritus.  Eventually the remaining nitrogen is used by the plant life (algae, etc.) and other aquatic micro-organisms in their metabolism.  None of the nitrogen substances remain toxic in the water or return to be toxic.  To state this more simply, AmQuel+ dismembers the chloramines added by water utilities, binds chlorine into a nontoxic compound, and breaks up the ammonia and all other toxic nitrogen compounds (nitrites, nitrates, etc.) into nontoxic substances that are consumed by the micro-organisms and plant-life in the water.

Kordon NovAqua+ binds all heavy metals, including zinc, iron, lead, copper, arsenic, etc., into harmless compounds  that cannot revert to toxic forms.  These heavy metals in the water come from the soil, storage tanks, wells, and metal pipes used by the water utilities in handling the water supplies.   Heavy metals are in all water supplies passing through metal pipes.  Heavy metals even in trace amounts are toxic to fishes and other aquatic animals.  They do not disappear over time but need to be detoxified. 

Therefore, between Kordon NovAqua+ and AmQuel+ they take care of the water problems that come from the "Nitrogen Cycle," "New Tank Syndrome," and all stages of "Biological Filtration."  See the Kordon Articles about them under "About Water Conditioners..." and "Biological Filtration".  The Kordon products considerably lessen the stress that there can be on the fishes and other aquatic life.

Kordon has products for the beginner that is setting up a small aquarium (10 gallons or less) or a glass bowl.  These are the EZ4U Instant Water Conditioner products in tablet form that combine the features of the original AmQuel with the original NovAqua.   The EZ4U tablets remove the chloramines (chlorine and ammonia) and heavy metals from the water, and add slime replacement to the fishes' body and electrolytes to the water for the fishes' health. 

Continue to "What a Beginner Needs to Know about Water Testing"