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

 

"Aquarium Keeping is Water Keeping" and this involves understanding its own special knowledge and considerations.  A recent survey found that internationally over 1/3 of beginning aquarists drop out of aquarium keeping within the first year.  That is in fact down from what it was years ago when the technology was not as advanced as it is today.  However, having some basic understanding of aquarium keeping can greatly lower the drop out rate, and increase satisfaction. This is as true for the advanced aquarists as it is for the beginning aquarist. There are points covered in this article that advancing aquarists may have not yet encountered, or have misunderstood. The following information should be of help.

The following article has two objectives:  To get across the basics of aquarium keeping, not only for the beginner, but also the advanced aquarist who may have overlooked some of the things that really should be known in this regard, including recent advances in technology. The other objective is to point out products that Kordon has for the aquarist in fundamental aquarium care that will be useful, and as to why they are useful.  Kordon's knowledge and products are based on over 40 years of scientific research, with the aim to have the best and most up-to-date products available that are continually being improved. 

 As you will see in this article and from your experiences, what basically needs to be understood by the beginner in aquarium keeping is impossible to say in a few words.  The reason is that the water environment needs a whole new understanding.  And just having the experience of swimming in water does not prepare us for all that we need to know about aquarium as well as pond keeping.

Pond keeping does not have the same extent of difficulties for the hobbyist as does aquarium keeping, with two factors particularly being apparent.  Ponds are normally a lot larger than aquariums.  The more water involved, the easier it is to provide room for the fishes, and to keep them alive and healthy.  Also, in outdoor conditions air movement circulates the water and more readily expels toxicants from the water.  The outdoor conditions add more oxygen into the water, providing a distinct advantage over indoor aquarium keeping.  Another point is that ornamental ponds are usually set up by experts who install them and instruct the pond keeper on proper procedures.  Therefore, the following account is mainly aimed at aquarium keeping, but many of the general principles apply to pond keeping as well.


Table of Contents

Start Out By Setting Up the Aquarium and Adding Water, But Without Fishes Or Other Aquatic Animals

What to Choose in Essential Aquarium Equipment
        Size of Aquarium
        Water Filtration And Aeration
        Water Heating And Temperature Regulation
        Bottom Cover
         Aquarium Lighting
        Plants And Decorations
         Fish Food Feeder
         Consider Using A Fish Corral Or Fish Refuge For New Introductions

What A Beginner Needs To Know About Water For The Aquarium

What A Beginner Needs To Know About Water Testing

Stocking The Aquarium


What a Beginner Needs to Know When Obtaining Fishes and Other Aquatic Animals
         Start Out With Few Fishes Or Other Aquatic Animals
        Find Out Which Fishes Are Compatible With Others
         How Fishes Hear and Talk and Otherwise Express Themselves
        Avoid Those Fishes That Are Bullies
         The Importance of Fish Talk Through Their Pheromones
         Avoid Those Fishes That Are Notorious Disease Carriers  
        Avoid Fishes That Excessively Release Toxic Pheromones 
        Even When You See No infections, Use A Disease Preventer
        Do Not Put The Water From The Bag That The Fish Come In Into The Aquarium Or Pond 
         When Bringing New Fish Into A Community Aquarium, Always Quarantine Them For One Month
         Consider Using A Fish Corral Or Fish Refuge For New Introductions



What a Beginner Needs to Know about the 'Nitrogen Cycle', 'New Tank Syndrome', and 'Biological Filtration'

What A Beginner Needs To Know About Scavenging Bacteria In The Water

What A Beginner Needs To Know About Aquatic Plants

What A Beginner Needs To Know About  Water Changes

What A Beginner Needs To Know About Fish Health And Medications
         Organic Herbals for external bacterial or single-celled infections (protozoans, dinoflagellates, fungus)
         Chemical Treatments for external infections by bacteria, single-celled (protozoans, dinoflagellates, fungus) and multi-celled        (worms, leaches, flukes) parasites
         Antibiotics for internal and external infections by bacteria

What a Beginner Needs to Know Before a Health Emergency Arises

What a Beginner Needs to Know About Antibiotic Treatments

What A Beginner Needs To Know About Feeding Fishes

What A Beginner Needs To Know About Marine Aquarium Keeping
    Preparing The Saltwater Environment For Marine Aquarium Keeping
         Tropical marine conditions on coral reefs are generally uniform around the world with nearly the same water conditions, whether it is water temperature, major/minor/and trace elements in the water, pH (acidity/alkalinity), or oxygen content
         Salt water holds less dissolved oxygen than fresh water under the same conditions
         Day by day water evaporates from the saltwater aquarium, making the water saltier
         The main water conditions that the marine aquarist should be prepared to measure from the start is temperature (with a thermometer) and specific gravity (hydrometer).
         Getting the nitrogen cycle completed in a marine aquarium can be harder than in a freshwater aquarium
        The use of "live rock"  in a saltwater aquarium is a subject that will come up early on and needs clarification 
        The use of protein skimmers in saltwater aquariums
        Choosing the right coral reef fishes and invertebrates
        Coral reef fishes are more aggressive than most freshwater tropical fishes 
        Few of the tropical coral reef fishes and invertebrates that aquarists want to keep are commercially bred and raised, because how to do this has yet to be discovered.
          When making the choice of what coral reef fishes to keep, we wish to mention again to be aware of the added beginning difficulties of keeping tangs (surgeon fishes, Acanthuridae)  
        Since most tropical coral reef fishes that aquarists acquire are wild caught, they bring in all the diseases that these fishes have accumulated in the wild.  
        Do not put invertebrates into a marine aquarium until  it has been fully cycled through the nitrogen cycle and is stable
        As the marine aquarium gets older, there are three prominent considerations
                 -- The marine aquarium may need extra doses of Kordon's AmQuel+ in order to detoxify the nitrates and other toxic nitrogen compounds that build up in older aquariums. 
                 --  The marine aquarium will have a sewage build up in the bottom sand or gravel, even with vacuum cleaning 
                 --  The marine aquarium needs partial changes of salt water in order to recover the major, minor, and trace elements and vitamins in the water that have been utilized by the living organisms