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Always stand your tank on polystyrene before setting it
up as it helps to cushion the base.
In a new tank the good beneficial bacteria which is
responsible for the biological filtering of fish daily waste
takes about 4 weeks to mature. This can be speeded up by
adding a maturing agent to your tank. (like Mature tank or
Safewater).
When it comes to stocking a new tank with fish you
should only put in a few fish to start off with and then build
the stocks up gradually over the next month or two. This is to
let the tank mature slowly and to stop the nitrites going very
high too soon.
You should always ask for advise when choosing fish to
put in your tank to see if they are compatible with what you
have in your tank already.
When you have purchased your fish you need to introduce
them into your tank carefully, this is best done by floating
the bag for 15 minutes before letting them out. This lets the
temperature of the water in the bag equalize to the
temperature in the tank. Then dip a little water from your
tank into the bag before slowly letting the fish into your
tank.
When it comes to putting new gravel, rocks or bogwood
into the aquarium make sure that you give them a good washing
first of all. To wash gravel put a small quantity of it into a
clean bucket and then fill this with cold water. You should
now swill the gravel around releasing the dirt from the gravel
into the water. This dirty water should be poured away and
then swill the gravel again in the same way until the water is
clear. Rocks need to be soaked in hot or preferably boiling
water for about an hour. To clean bogwood you should soak it
in a bucket of boiling water over night, this will make the
water brown in colour as it removes the stain from the
bogwood. It should be soaked over night in fresh clean boiling
water until the water is clear the morning after.
Never use a bucket that has had chemicals like bleach,
soap etc. in it as this will harm your fish. It is best to buy
a new bucket and use it just for the fish tank, maybe even
write on it "Fish tank" so that Dad doesn't use it to wash the
car !
Never put shells, corals or anything off the beach into
your coldwater or tropical aquarium as this will cause
problems in the future.
Every 4 - 6 weeks you should do a quarter water change,
this stops the potential build up of fish waste getting to
high. When replacing this water you need to treat it in the
bucket for 5 minutes before putting it back into your tank
with a water conditioner. (like Aquasafe, Stress go, Fresh
start or Haloex). These remove the chlorine and the bad metal
ions from the water and put a coating in to protect the fishes
gills. Remember to get the temperature of the water you are
using to roughly the same as the tank.
The ideal tank temperature for tropical fish is 75 - 80
F ( 24 - 26 C)
If you should have to strip the tank fully then always try
and keep some of the good mature water. This will give it
a good start when setting it back up again and remember to
unplug the heater/stat for 5 minutes to let it cool down
before you remove the water.
If any of your fish appear not to get on, or have grown
to large then you can return them to us and we will give you a
credit to spend in the shop.
You should feed your fish sparingly twice a day, if any
of the flake food sinks to the bottom then you have over fed
and this can lead to cloudy tanks and poor water quality.
Never crush the food as even a neon can eat a flake as its
like tissue paper and folds up in its mouth. By crushing the
flake it makes it very bitty and this tends to make it sink
almost straight away again clouding the water after a while.
If your tank is less than a month old then you should only
feed once a day until it matures, which takes a month.
If your water goes cloudy then it is nearly always due
to over feeding, so carry out a quarter water change and then
add a product to help clear the water (like Accu clear, Filter
aid, acurel) and from then on cut down on the food as
overfeeding is the most common problem in this hobby.
Should you suffer from algae in your tank then this can
be cured by cutting down the number of hours that you have
your light on and also by adding an algae control product
(like Algazin, Green away, Clear water).
To grow plants successfully they need about 8 - 12
hours a day of light. Its a case of getting a happy balance
where your plants grow well and the algae doesn't ! If the
plants still are not growing as well as you would like them
then it might be time for a new light tube as after 12 - 18
months the strength of the light given off by the tube
decreases. Adding a reflector to the light doubles the
brightness and you will see a tremendous difference. You might
want to replace your light with a brighter one to help with
plant growth (like Power-glo, Triton, Freshwater lamp, or even
Life-glo with its own built in reflector).
You should be testing the water from your tank every
fortnight or every week for best results as the water in a
fishes life is the most important thing (other than the
temperature in a tropical tank). You should be testing for two
main things, Ph and Nitrites. These important water qualities
keep the fish in tip top health and prevent the fish being
stressed which would normally lead to poor health. You can
bring some tank water to use for us to test and advise (50
pence charge per test) or you might want to buy your own kits
so that you can test the water in the convenience of your own
home.
When cleaning internal or external filters always use
water from the tank to wash out the media as using hot water
or even cold tap water (full of chlorine) can kill the good
beneficial bacteria which is responsible for keeping your tank
biologically clean.
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