Aquarium Management

Adding Accessories to Your Aquarium

Adding accessories to your aquarium is not just for decoration. If your fish don’t have a filter and/or a heater they may die. You have to make your tank look as though it is part of their natural habitat, and you also have to make sure that it functions like it too.

When setting up an aquarium for fish you have to make sure there are lights, heat and filtration. The filter is extremely important as this keeps the water waste free, which is essential to keeping your fish alive. The filter sucks in water from the bottom and basically recycles it, and it comes out the top fresh and clean. There are other methods of filtration, but that is the most common one, unless it is a saltwater tank then you have an external sump tank and that does all the filtration. Filters can be picked up in any pet or fish shop.

Heating is also another crucial element of setting up an freshwater aquarium. Generally, goldfish and the like won’t need a heater but most tropical fish do. This aquarium accessory regulates the temperature of the tank, and yes it can be used in water. You can set the heater to a temperature that you want the water to stay at, most tropical fish like the water around twenty six or twenty seven degrees Celsius. Fish are pretty fussy about their temperature, they start to do funny things when it gets too cold, and when it is too hot they may die. Heaters are available in every aquarium shop and you can choose the size and voltage of the heater, as bigger tanks will need bigger and powerful heaters.

Lights are another essential aquarium accessory, as they help certain fish live, such as corals and anemones; yes they are living creatures, not just plants. They need intensive lighting conditions to ensure that they don’t size, the lights need to be at least a T-5 which means one of the most powerful lights that you can buy and of course they are very expensive and heavy. They are only available in specialized shops and not all fish shops stock them. They may need to be ordered in or you can purchase them second hand, which is a cheaper option.