A Few Advice On Keeping Marine Fish - The Easy Way

People in general, think that keeping marine fish is a difficult task. In some cases this could be true, because saltwater fish needs a little more time, work and equipments in comparison to freshwater fish. There are several marine fish species which are easier to handle once you're able to understand the proper way of maintaining the saltwater aquarium, and establishing a constant environment.

The Parameters

Marine fish are more sensitive to variations in their surroundings. The basic parameters for marine fish tank are pH, salinity, nitrite and temperature. At the time of cycling process, nitrate and ammonia can be a problem. For keeping marine fish anyone should be vigilant towards the pH of the water, and it should not fluctuate more than 0.2 each day. Majority of the marine life likes pH ranging in-between 8.0 to 8.4. So, it must never drop below 8.0. Other crucial parameters like nitrites, salinity and temperature, needs to be around 20 ppm, 1.022 and between 75F to 80F respectively.

The Components

The basic components for keeping marine fish are synthetic sea salts, filters, lighting, decorations and test kits. One of the most vital items for saltwater aquarium is the size of the tank, the bigger the better. Bigger tanks provide more stability and room for mistakes to be rectified; anyway, tanks must never be lower than 20 gallons. Generally, fish enjoy long, wide tanks; the larger surface area help in better gas exchange. And always use a good substrate such as crushed coral or marine sand.

Setting Up

The first step for keeping marine fish is setting up a tank in the correct place and position. Be sure that the stand is equal from all direction; you can normally do this with Styrofoam under the tank. Next, install the filtration, inside the tank or outside, according to the form of filter. Add substrate after rinsing it with clear water and then organize the decorations. Now the tank is prepared for adding saltwater, this could be done several ways either ready mix the synthetic sea salt along with reverse osmosis water or from a purifying unit in the tank or containers but it is advisable to place a plate on the substrate before pouring water into it. Then let the tank become steady for about 2 days and keep testing before adding live stock.

Aquarium Filtration

Fish kept in tank are confined to an extremely small amount of water and so contaminants such as scraps of uneaten food or ammonia released from fish's gills, feces raises the toxic level of the water very quickly. Keeping marine fish in such type of a condition is harmful for proper development of the fish. Regular change of water can aid containing contamination, but maybe impractical because of size and frequency of water changes required. The best method of tackling this problem is by installation the finest aquarium filtration you can afford - be it under gravel filtration or wet/dry filtration system.

Selecting the Fish

Keeping marine fish are usually more expensive than freshwater fish, so it is extremely crucial to get them home alive and maintain their long life. Never buy a sick fish, always seek a healthy and vivacious fish in the store, and check, if any irregular patches, spots or wounds on the body. Torn fins aren't a problem, they will heal up soon, but other symptoms may kill the fish or even infect other fish of the aquarium. Experienced aquarists suggest that someone should always keep a quarantine tank, specially for saltwater fish, experienced aquarists suggest that you must always keep a quarantine tank.