Plants

Plants in the aquarium not only are beneficial to your fish but they add certain aesthetics to the tank.Just think of fish in the wild and all the vegetation in their environment. Live plants in the tank help with a natural filtration of the tank water and adding important oxygen and removing such harmful products such as nitrates and ammonia. It will give your aquarium a more natural and pleasing effect when you add live plants to your tank. It also serves as a hiding place for the more timid and smaller fish. Consider using more live plants in your tank instead of the fake plastic ones out there that look neat for awhile but soon lose their luster. You and your fish will be happier for it.

Dieases in Fish

I talked in an earlier post a little about fish disease and medicines. I would like to add just a little more on this subject. As I said earlier,fish develop disease primarily due to an inadequate environment. Let me compare human life to fish life. If you lived in an area surrounded by heavy pollution,poor air quality or poor sanitation and drinking water chances are you would develop some type of disease. You would go to your doctor and he would probably diagnose the disease and make recommendations for your health. Chances are if your environment caused the disease you would take steps to solve the problem. With today's medications and there side effects you would think first if an environment change would take care of your health problem. Fish in an aquarium environment are the same. If I look into my tanks and see problems with fish I try to look at their environment and diagnose the problem. Cause of disease in the tank could be from many things. Just keep in mind that the best medicine for fish is to keep your aquarium as close to the natural habitat that the species of fish you have live in. Also keep in mind the food you give your fish determines the overall health of the tank. A poor diet for fish equals poor health.

Aquariums

Let me talk to you a little bit today about why you should start a tropical fish tank in your house. For me one of the greatest benefits of having an aquarium in your home is the beauty it provides for your living quarters. It is by far the first thing that my friends and company notice when they walk into my home. Today's advancements made in the tropical fish aquarium setups make it easy for the novice to establish a tank in their homes with little or no experience. Not only will it provide a centerpiece for conversation with your friends but you also receive personal enjoyment from the relaxing effect it has . Tropical fish do become pets,get a tank setup today and over time start adding fish and you will see how the fish will and very fast show you their personality and how fast you become attached to them.

I applaud anyone out there who has the courage and devotion in starting a business. It takes a special kind of someone who doesn't lose sight of their dream and who remains focused on their objective.
When I started on the path of opening my own business I expected obstacles and have met each one of them up to this point. However I was surprised to see to this point the amount of obstacles our bureaucrats cause. I cannot help but feel our elected officials only job in life is to sit around and think up of more ways they can create stupid ass documents and hurtles for business to jump and climb through . Anyhow enough with the rants and on to something more pleasant.
The building for my store is basically roughed in. I'll start working on the electric supply this week and estimate it's completion soon. After that is done and inspected for the bureaucrats everything else should fall in line and I can start my floor design and adding and setting up the aquariums. I'll let you know how it goes.

Hello again. I would like to talk a little today about aquarium lighting and aquarium heaters.
Choosing the right size heater for your tank is crucial in maintaining your tropical fish health. As I discussed in a previous post dealing with some of the fish diseases, water temperature fluctuations can considerably promote fish disease. Compare it to humans who experience drastic changes in temperature and contract the common cold. Fish react the same in their enviornment. Keeping a constant water temperature in your tank will promote happy and healthy fish.
Aquarium heaters come in different sizes and shapes. What you want to look for in a heater is it's wattage. This will determine what size heater to use in your tank. The general formula for choosing the right size heater is roughly 5 watts to every one gallon of water. In other words if you have a 40 gallon tank you would need a 200 watt heater. There are other factors that play into this such as what is your constant room temperature and if you reside in a warm or cold climate but you can use this formula to get you in the ballpark of what size heater you need in your tank.
Aquarium lighting basically uses the same formula. I generally use anywhere between 3-5 watts of lighting per gallon of water in a reef system. If you come under this amount of lighting in your tank it will affect the animals that live in this enviorment. Any comments or questions feel free to post and I'll get back with you.

Just a follow up to the last post.When ever you do detect disease in your fish prior to cleaning your aquarium I have always set up another tank where I transfer the fish so I can treat them with certain medicines depending on their type of illness. I'm not an advocate of using medicines in a fish tank. This is absolutely the last resort to cure what ails the fish. The best medicine for aquarium fish is to keep the water at the right temperature,PH levels within the species range,ammonia and nitrate levels to a minimum and frequent water changes. The most common disease aquarium fish get is what is called ich. The fish will develop small white spots all over and if not treated right away the fish will die. This disease is is always present in your aquarium to some extent but it can be kept at low levels if you do the things I mentioned earlier. Getting back to cleaning the tank ,when you suspect disease in it I make it a point to either throw away the old gravel or boil the gravel that was in the tank to ensure the gravel is sterile. More or less sterilize everything in the tank. When you set the tank backup keep in mind when you sterilize everything you are going to need a longer tank cycling time to get the beneficial bacteria for the fish built up. One other thing I will do after having a major overhaul to a tank is to start putting maybe one or two inexpensive fish in it like guppies to see how they react to the water. There is a ton of information I have on this one subject so if you have any questions please feel free to ask.

Hello again just me. I cleaned out one of my 75 gallon aquariums today. Just thought I would post some of the things to watch for when you either clean out or set up a new aquarium. Ideally when you do either of the two ,you have to let the aquarium cycle for 3 to six weeks depending on the size of the tank. What's meant by cycling is more or less let the aquarium run with filters or power heads on to establish beneficial bacteria in the tank system and to remove any impurities in the water such as ammonia and nitrates. Pet stores sell products that will help reduce the time it takes when cycling a tank. Sometimes what I will do is use a certain amount of water that was originally in the tank before cleaning and put a certain amount of it back in the tank after cleaning provided that there were no signs of disease in the fish before cleaning. This will help the fish adjust more easily to the tank water when putting them into the clean tank. Keep this important fact in mind when starting a new aquarium. You cannot simply set up a tank and add fish to it right away. Let the aquarium cycle and properly acclimate the fish to the new water and in the end you will have healthier fish.

Good evening everyone. I should have a pic up sometime this week in my profile and I will add a video later on this week of my aquarium. Still learning how everything works on my blog site. I see that my daughter has joined the blog and I would like to have anyone with an interest of tropical fish to join also. I've come across several pics of fresh and saltwater fish that I will be adding also on this site. Last but not least I would like to send a personal message out to George to post any comments on this blog he may have. I'm sure he will have something amusing and interesting to say. Good night everyone.