Beginners Luck

by Frank G. Anderson

Having just finished a column for another on-line publication on aquarium-keeping basics, I may have fallen into a trap of assuming that the basics are all that beginning and intermediate fishkeepers should know about, and that the rest will take care of itself. Well, it's not true, I have to admit. There's a lot more to aquaria keeping. And while the basics are certainly going to have to be there to guide us one and all, the other more sophisticated parts of the hobby will always keep us on our toes and provide many a challenge in keeping fish healthy, if not just alive.

Part of the reason for the growth in the aquarium industry, from the now thousands of species of fish available to the tens of thousands of pieces of equipment to chose from, is the rapid technological development we as a race (human) have both generated and experienced. With the advent of electronics, advanced plastics materials and molding processes, new fish-monitoring equipment and automatic feeders, digital thermometers that you can peel and place on the aquarium glass with no fuss, water testing kits and now, on-line resources for species, community tanks, equipment, diseases, and so on, why the entire aquaria world is now much different than it was only a few years ago. That difference is making some decisions for the beginner and re-entrant into fishkeeping somewhat complicated and uncertain. An ad on the back cover of the July 1997 issue of Freshwater & Marine Aquarium Magazine, for example, described a sophisticated filter, a combination of wet-dry and mechanical/chemical and biological filtration, all in one piece of equipment. This particular filter is made by Aquarium Systems, one manufacturer I have no qualms about (does anyone out there?), so I can say that their ad provides a good resource in showing us what's now possible with a single filtration device. A device that essentially replaces several older ones that would take up more space in the aquarium and which would be more difficult to maintain.

The trend toward more compact and more multi-function equipment in the hobby and business of aquaria is a blessing. But the associated choices we make along the way toward the right choice for our needs is not. A lot stands in the way. Some of it useful and relatively cheap, some of it useless and very expensive. So what kind of choices should the beginner and relative novice make in deciding which type of equipment to purchase, to use, to discard and to replace? Decide from cost, efficiency, need for change, manufacturer's recommendations, what else?

The old KISS principle still applies here. Basically, keep it simple, and don't try to build Rome when all you need is a single house. I have done this myself in previous lives, going about to revamp an entire room to make it into a "fish room," only to find out later that expenses and time put in to the project became much more than I could bear. So first and foremost, look at what your personal limitations are, and work from there. If you have all the time in the world, that's one thing. If you are already pretty busy and adding another time-consuming chore isn't in the cards, then tropical fish are not, either. Yet, that said, anyone can reorganize his/her personal schedule to fit in a fish tank. If other family members are around, possibly you can train and delegate feeding and cleaning or water changes.

Keeping it simple also involves a little of that redundant word, preplanning, or planning ahead before you go on with your project. Preplanning might be considered to be mental planning, thinking through what you are getting into and what it will take to make a success. You don't need to develop an operating plan and business plan for the next five years, but you do need to see where certain facilities are or where they can be built/placed. Take water supply and draining. These two are top billing for any aquarium. In my own case, I would love to place a small aquarium in my den. The trouble is, there is no water supply in this room, and when the cabinet makers get finished doing the room, I don't want water leaking all over the new furniture or carpeting.

Yet, maybe I will still go ahead, but I will have to solve the water situation first. Hoses are easy to handle, but they have to be uncoiled and then recoiled, attached to taps, leaks spot-checked and so on. For your own water supply and draining, make sure that you have a good water source no further than the next room, and preferably in the same room, that your fish are in. Buy or find a stiff spring clip that you can use to clamp on the hose to the tank while you are putting water into the tank. It's boring and time-consuming to stand in one spot filling the tank when you could be doing that with the clip while you are doing something else at the same time. Try to find a non-toxic (aquarium/fish-safe) hose. To the ire of some, I will state once again that I have successfully used normal garden hoses with no harm to my fish. Normal garden hoses are lined with material that, if contaminated or deteriorated, etc., can place toxins in the water. The safest way to handle this possibility is to get the non-toxic hose. Failing that, flush out your hose with tap water until you are pretty certain that any long-lasting effects of poor hose will have been washed away. This will usually be only a couple of minutes under regular house water pressure.

And what of drainage? How are you going to drain your tank across the carpet and out the ...? Well? If you have a separate fish room and some skill, friends, or money to spare, you can build PVC drain lines with in-line valves which will permit you to drain individual tanks or all at one time, make water changes, etc. If you don't have a fish room per se, then you will likely have to go the hose route. I combine this with use of an aquarium siphon. This siphon is for sale at most tropical fish retailers, and is simple to use. I connect its outlet to the garden(!!!) hose, and run the outlet end of the garden hose outside where the water from the tank can run into a flower bed or whatever. Note that the greater the vertical difference is between the level of siphon in your tank and the level of the hose outlet, the greater will be the vacuum. This can mean pulling out a lot of gravel and plants, or fish, if you are not careful. You can regulate the flow of this outgoing water by pinching the hose a bit.

Electrical connections are also very important. They need to be safe and plentiful. The average 30 gallon aquarium requires some 3-5 electrically-driven appliances. One heater, one pump, and one light hood at a minimum. Do you have at least two, and preferably three-four outlets within six feet of the aquarium, and in an area where there will be no traffic crossing? You don't want people tripping over electrical cords, or setting up your tank and finding out that now you need to have a couple of extension cords. Is there a ground-fault interrupter or equivalent that will help protect you if water and electricity should mix by accident? Some care should be taken to ensure that the electrical connections are not in an area directly below the aquarium where they can be flooded. Tell me about it! I have done this and continue to. But it would be nice to have such outlets shielded against water splashes at least.

The actual place that you set your aquarium should be viewed with care before you actually place it there. Is that spot accessible to children? Is it in conflict with your wife's cooking preparations or your own special needs? What about the support for the aquarium? I have seen some very large, and some quite small aquarium supports. Make sure that they are not water absorbent (like my den cabinetry), and are plenty strong enough to hold up the weight of the aquarium, water, and decorations. A thirty gallon aquarium fully-laden with plants, gravel and fish, will weigh at least 250-300 pounds. A fifty-five gallon tank will weigh at least 500-700 pounds. You could have up to half a ton or more in that glass container, and should take special steps to make certain that it won't be moved or bumped into easily.

For basic aquarium equipment, you need one daily use heater and one backup, the aquarium, a full-length light hood (check bulb types. Regular florescent is fine, if you don't want to worry about plant growth. If you want plant growth, you will have to see your retailer about Actinic or equivalent bulbs.). You will also need, in my mind, two filters to start with. A BioWheel is fine, but I also recommend a large sponge filter, air-driven, since it permits large cultures of beneficial bacteria. So does the BioWheel, but I am partial to the cost and ease of operation of the sponge filter.

What about thermometers?

I used to work in a materials testing laboratory, and we would get in high-quality glass thermometers for testing of asphalt, etc. Immediately upon arrival, I would open the boxes of thermometers and calibrate them with a known standard one. We had at least 20% rejection rate, because the new thermometers were too far off from the actuals. This can happen in your aquarium if you chose only one thermometer or thermometer type. I like the so-called digital ones that come like a BandAide and you peel off the back and stick the thermometer onto the exterior of the aquarium glass. This is a good simple and cheap system. But for backup and comparison, you should have at least one floating thermometer or a hand-held type that you can ensure accurate readings with.

Last but not least, what about things that you can do to ensure water quality? This is tough, because water quality is diminishing every day with more and more pollution, so it's not a cut and dry issue. Water quality changes from one day to the next, and from location to location. But for your own purposes, if the water is safe to drink, it is usually safe for tropical fish keeping. That said, it can also be too hard for the kind of fish you want to keep, or too acidic. What you need to do at this point, before you bring the fish home, is to find out what their water requirements are, then compare that against your own water supply. You must get your house water tested, or ask the landlord, etc., about water quality. More serious fishkeepers want to keep a close handle on their fish water quality, so they will keep a holding tank where water can be held for some time to allow chlorine to dissipate, or where it can be filtered and treated as needed before making its way to the fish tanks. I strongly recommend such a system, small scale if need be, for any tank that gets more than 30% water change in a week. This is because most of us make this kind of change at one time, and the fish in the tank can undergo shock and stress from water changes that are too far beyond what they are comfortable with.

Finally, food.

There is a lot of choice on the market these days. Bubble packs are now old-hat and disease-free frozen bloodworms are now reality. When selecting food for your fish, select the kind that they are naturally comfortable with. For example, fish that spend most of their time at the water surface don't need food tablets that drop to the bottom of the aquarium as soon as they hit the water! But food that provides a varied amount of nutrition and food type. Flake foods can be the only type of food you do give your fish, but if you teach them to eat other kinds, like freeze-dried bloodworms or tubifex, they will enjoy the food and you will enjoy their obvious health.