Day to day care of your aquarium
1. Get the right Equipment
You’ll need a bucket, net, magnetic glass cleaner, gravel cleaner, fish food, tap water conditioner, aquarium test kit and replacement filter service packs.
2. Take A Look
As part of your daily routine observe your fish. Watching your fish will help you understand what ‘normal’ activity looks like in your aquarium.
More importantly, you’ll easily notice unusual activity that could indicate ill health or conflict between fish.
If you start to notice problems, Take pictures of your fish, setup and ideally bring us a sample of your water to help find out what is wrong and, more importantly, how to fix the problem.
3. Feed Your Fish
Fish usually need to eat 2-3 times a day. Feed a little at a time, as much as the fish will eat in a few minutes, and remove any leftovers with a net.
Did you know that more fish die of overfeeding than underfeeding?
This is because over feeding means there is more food waste that can be left to rot and pollute the water which in turn can harm or even kill your fish.
So it’s a good idea to make sure only one person in the house is feeding the fish and removing any left overs.
If your aquarium is very newly set-up, keep feeding to just once a day (Understanding the Nitrogen Cycle for more advice on new aquariums).
4.Clean The Glass
Just like the windows on your house, aquarium glass can get dirty very easily, with algae being the most common cause of dirt on the inside of the glass.
Give the glass inside your aquarium a clean with a simple-to-use magnetic glass cleaner. Be careful to not get gravel stuck under the cleaner as this will scratch the glass. Polymer wool is also handy to use to wipe the corners of the tank which a magnet cleaner finds hard to reach.
The outside glass of the aquarium can be wiped with a damp cloth and dried with a dry cloth or towel. Never use glass cleaning products as the spray can easily get into the aquarium and poison your fish.
5.Remove Dead Plants & Fish
Rapid removal of dead plants, leaves and fish will prevent decay from polluting the water.
Doing this regularly along side removing any left over fish food before it has the chance to rot, will help keep your tank in tip top condition for your fish to thrive in.
6. Check your Filter
Rapid removal of dead plants, leaves and fish will prevent decay from polluting the water.
Doing this regularly along side removing any left over fish food before it has the chance to rot, will help keep your tank in tip top condition for your fish to thrive in.
7. Check the temperature
Keep an eye on your aquarium’s temperature using your aquarium thermometer, especially in warm weather.
Depending on the type of heater you have, the water can rise above the correct level if the room temperature is warmer than normal.
A small change shouldn’t cause a problem for most tropical fish species, but a large rise in temperature will. If this happens then it’s important to gently reduce the temperature without affecting the health of your aquarium.