Artificial plants for the aquarium: pros or cons

In this article I will briefly list the main stages of installing an aquarium. Installing or, as they often say, starting an aquarium from scratch is very simple, but it is still worth knowing some features. It would not be superfluous to remind you that a novice aquarist should choose an aquarium with a volume of at least 50 liters, otherwise it will be more difficult to maintain biobalance in a small volume without any experience and the necessary knowledge. As a last resort, start with at least 30 liters. So, first things first.

Starting an aquarium from scratch. Substrate preparation

Soil can be purchased at any pet store. The soil should not oxidize water and should not have sharp edges. It is better to purchase dark-colored soil, as it looks more advantageous and does not reflect light, blinding the fish.

We wash the soil with hot tap water to remove all the turbidity. Then pour boiling water over it for five minutes to disinfect. After this, we lay the soil in the aquarium three to five centimeters thick.

It is customary to level the substrate in such a way that its thickness gradually increases towards the rear wall. In the future, bacteria will settle on the soil and the soil will become one of the links in the biobalance of the aquarium.

I almost forgot: you should avoid all kinds of colored primers, as they are harmful and, in addition, over time the paint will disappear anyway.

Changing water

Although there are many ways to remove excess nitrates, the most effective method is to regularly replace some of the water. This is one of the most important rules for caring for an aquarium.

How often and how much water should be changed depends on the amount of waste in the aquarium and the sensitivity of your fish. Under no circumstances should you change ALL the water at once, because sudden changes in the composition of the water are very harmful to the fish. The best way to determine the frequency and volume of water changes is to regularly test the water quality using special products sold in pet stores. If you have a new aquarium, then at a minimum you should check the ammonia and nitrite levels. In older aquariums, nitrate levels should also be monitored.

On average, you can replace no more than a third of the water in one day. Many aquarists average a quarter of the water change every two weeks. But you are unlikely to have an “average” aquarium, so you should focus not on these numbers, but on the test results.

Indian glass catfish (Kryptopterus bicirrhis)

Starting an aquarium from scratch. Placing decorations and filling the aquarium with water

At this stage, driftwood, stones, grottoes and other decorative elements are placed. Stones should not give an alkaline reaction. Driftwood should be pre-treated by boiling for three hours.

All decorative elements should be kept in boiling water for at least five minutes before placing in the aquarium. Next, you can pour regular tap water into the aquarium. Fill the aquarium about a third with water.

To avoid loosening the soil, you can place a saucer on the bottom of the aquarium, into which water should be poured. In the future, during maintenance of the aquarium, the water will have to be changed to fresh water that has been standing for at least a day once every seven days, replacing a third of the volume of the aquarium. Starting an aquarium from scratch, of course, can take place without decorations.

Cleaning a marine aquarium

If you want to thoroughly clean an ordinary marine tank, which is usually filled with various decorative elements, you will need to follow these rules:

Decorations can be cleaned inside the aquarium with a stiff brush or outside with a sponge; Modern detergents and household cleaners are not used; Be sure to remove all algae damaged by crawling snails or fish. You also need to get rid of eaten leaves.

The plant should not complicate the movement of aquatic inhabitants; If you do not plan to change the water during harvesting, you need to weed out the bushes very carefully, without raising the turbidity.

To save yourself from regular and tedious weeding, you should get special algae-eating fish. They will keep the water clean for a long time. If you use an additional magnet to clean the aquarium, you can get the best option for cleanliness.

If plants grow very quickly, if they acquire a brown tint, this indicates an unfavorable situation in the reservoir. It will be necessary to take certain measures to effectively control lower plant species.

Starting an aquarium from scratch. Planting

Plants can be live or artificial. Plants are necessary to shelter fish fry from their parents, who might eat them. Live plants are preferable for starting an aquarium from scratch, as they make the biobalance in the aquarium more stable.

However, living plants require light, fertilizers, and carbon dioxide. Or at least just enough lighting. Plant roots must be completely hidden in the soil.

Direct

About carbon dioxide! There is no need to rush into making installations for supplying carbon dioxide to the aquarium. The fact is that the air that enters the aquarium during aeration contains, in addition to oxygen, carbon dioxide. But special fertilizers for aquarium plants will not harm, although you can completely do without their use.

Do not forget that at night, in the absence of light, living plants, like fish, consume oxygen. This point must be taken into account when organizing aeration in the aquarium.

After planting the plants, you can fill the remaining 2/3 of water into the aquarium.

Selection of artificial plants

Specialized stores with a good reputation, as a rule, sell products from trusted manufacturers. But considering that the use of artificial plants of poor quality can destroy the inhabitants of the aquarium, you should approach the purchase seriously.

There should be no mechanical damage on the plants. The packaging is intact, with clearly marked information about the manufacturer. Products made from high-quality raw materials do not emit an unpleasant and pungent plastic odor.

WE RECOMMEND READING THE ARTICLE: Types of compressors for aquariums, selection criteria, installation of equipment

Starting an aquarium from scratch. Installation and masking of the filter

The filter can be selected either external or internal. Internal ones are cheaper. External ones are usually used for filtering large aquariums from 80 liters. Internal Polish FAN filters from AQUAEL are very popular.

When using the latter, we also get aeration as a bonus to filtration. It is impossible to do without aeration, since in artificial reservoirs, which include an aquarium, due to the lack of water movement, enriching it with oxygen in any other way is simply impossible.

The larger the size of the sponge in the filter, the more effective the mechanical (cleaning of dirt particles) and biological (processing of fish waste by aerobic bacteria) filtration.

Do not forget that filters require periodic cleaning (about once every two weeks). If the filter is equipped with aeration, then it is very easy to understand when the time has come to clean the filter: as soon as the air bubbles have stopped flowing or the intensity of the bubbles has decreased to a minimum, it is necessary to clean the filter sponge and the air intake hole. The filter must be cleaned in water drained from the aquarium, and not in boiling water or tap water.

Starting an aquarium from scratch can be speeded up by squeezing bacteria out of the filter of an already running aquarium with “live” water.

Mistake #7. Operation of aquarium equipment

Do not turn off aquarium equipment at night!

Imagine that you live in hot Africa, and when you go to bed, you not only turn off the lights in the house, but also turn off the air conditioner, while closing all the windows tightly. If you are a thrill-seeker, then, of course, you can experiment on yourself, but it’s better not to do this with fish!

Remember!

The compressor and pump filters must not be turned off overnight. If you don't like the constant hum of the compressor, you can try installing an internal filter in your aquarium. If a compressor can make distracting and irritating sounds during operation (by the way, high-quality products from well-known manufacturers will delight you with their relatively quiet operation), then modern pump filters are almost silent.

You just need to turn off the function responsible for pumping air bubbles out of the outlet (which is provided in almost every model) and direct the water jet to the surface. Then there will be no need for a compressor, since the water will be well saturated with oxygen due to diffusion with air and the resulting flow.

But if there are quite a lot of fish in the aquarium, and the size of your artificial pond is small, you will still have to install a compressor. Therefore, think in advance where the aquarium will be located, and if you think that the most suitable place for it is the bedroom, think carefully about what equipment will suit you in this case.

Starting an aquarium from scratch. Heater installation

Personally, I didn’t use a heater until I bought an aquarium thermometer. Having bought a thermometer, I discovered that often the spread of temperature readings during the day in an aquarium is 5 degrees or more. And for fish and their health, it is important not so much to maintain the temperature in the aquarium at the optimal level for a particular species, but to maintain temperature stability and avoid temperature changes of more than 3 degrees during the day.

Most fish feel comfortable at room water temperature of 22-23 degrees (the water temperature in the case of using an internal filter and fluorescent lamps, from which the water heats up a little, is usually 25-26 degrees). But if you decide to purchase a heater, you should completely immerse it in water and install it on the side opposite the filter for a more even distribution of heat in the aquarium.

To start an aquarium from scratch, a heater is not at all necessary, but if the air temperature surrounding the aquarium is less than 22 degrees Celsius, then you should take care of purchasing a heater in order to avoid a decrease in the immunity of aquarium fish and their illness as a result.

Why does an aquarium get dirty?

Watching the fish calms you down, improves your mood and allows you to promptly notice changes that have occurred in them, indicating that it is time to wash the aquarium. Gradually, the water becomes cloudy, small debris appears in it, and plaque accumulates on the walls, bottom, and soil. These troubles are associated with the life activity of the inhabitants, the presence of algae, and water quality.

The main causes of pollution are the following:

• Overfeeding. If the fish do not eat the food, its remains sink to the bottom and rot.
• Mistakes when decorating. Unprepared soil causes turbidity to appear in the water. Before use, rinse it thoroughly, rinse the shells or figurines used for decoration, and remove fine dust from them.
• Reproduction of microorganisms. Aquarium water necessarily contains bacteria and fungi, which provide benefits by processing ammonia, nitrates and other dangerous substances. But an increase in their number causes a disturbance in the biological balance and the appearance of turbidity. When starting an aquarium, the water needs to be left for several days and only then repopulated.
• Rapid development of algae. This does not mean those plants that sway beautifully and serve as decoration, but lower organisms. They turn the water green and settle on the walls.
• Overcrowding and poor filtration. There are standards regulating the dependence of the number of fish on the volume of water. If there are too many inhabitants, the filter cannot cope, and the amount of waste products increases, causing cloudiness of the liquid.

How to fix it depends on the cause of the problem. You need to analyze the specific situation and decide how to clean the aquarium at home.

Starting an aquarium from scratch. Installing an aquarium thermometer

If you bought a heater, then you simply cannot do without buying a thermometer for the aquarium. The fact is that the heater can malfunction, which is impossible to notice without the ability to visually monitor the temperature of the water in the aquarium. So, if you don’t want to observe fish soup in the aquarium, then do not regret spending a couple of extra rubles on buying a thermometer.

Preference should be given to glass or electronic thermometers instead of thermometers in the form of a strip that is glued to the wall of the aquarium.

Maturing the aquarium

During the first month, the aquarium is not touched. Prohibited:

• take away;
• change water;
• siphon the bottom.

This is the time when colonies of bacteria form in water and actively multiply, forming a biological environment. If you clean, siphon, change the water, microorganisms are removed. The process is interrupted. Without interfering with the life of microorganisms, the aquarium is allowed to mature.

Water is filled with bacteria on its own, but its acquisition of biobalance can be accelerated. They use Tera Safe Start tablets, the Tetra line of drugs, zeolite and other analogues.

They affect water in different ways:

• promote the proliferation of beneficial microorganisms;
• contain a concentrate of bacteria;
• neutralize poisons.

The drugs are used separately and together.

How to prepare?

There are several methods of heat treatment of the substrate, the most common of which are boiling and frying.

1. To boil the substrate, place it in a pan or bucket, add water and boil for 20 - 30 minutes.
2. To fry, the soil is laid out in a 5 cm layer on a baking sheet and placed in a preheated (+ 120C - +180C) oven for 30 minutes.

Most often, natural soil has an alkaline reaction, which will affect the pH and hardness of the water. Therefore, it is advisable to treat it with inorganic acids: hydrochloric, phosphoric, acetic, the concentration of which should not be lower than 25%.

The oxidation technology is as follows: first, a test is carried out (a little 9% vinegar is poured onto a handful of soil, if you hear hissing and bubbles are released, then there is an alkali in the soil), then the entire soil, placed in a metal container, is poured with acid and left for 20 minutes. This procedure must be completed by washing the soil with running water 2–3 times.

Order aquarium design from WuShop or do everything yourself?

How to choose between natural and artificial plants? How to choose a color scheme so that it fits into the interior? What decorations and algae suit your fish? If you cannot answer at least one of these questions, then it’s time for you to go to WuShop.

When working, we rely on the following basic criteria:

• Aquarium population. Experienced aquarists often buy rare species of fish, while beginners buy ones that are undemanding in food and care.
• Displacement. Thus, setting up a 100-liter aquarium is less demanding on equipment power than 300-liter aquariums.
• Your personal preferences. The composition will be the way your imagination draws it: the ruins of a castle, a real jungle, a natural pond and any others.

To make it easier for you to make a decision, imagine the situation. You have decided to decorate your marine aquarium yourself. First, spend at least a week to select components: compressors, filters, lamps and decorations. Then you will have to deal with the installation and correct connection: you need to arrange objects and equipment so as NOT to flood your neighbors, NOT to kill fish and living plants in the first week, NOT to correct an arch that has fallen down from water flows every day. And even if you do everything correctly, you still won’t be in the black: you’ve already spent 10-15 days and probably bought equipment that is not the most profitable in terms of budget.

How many lumens should an aquarium light have?

Lm/l is. A 2500Lm lighting source costs over 100L. an aquarium. We get 2500/100=25Lm/l.

In the above-mentioned articles on FanFish, as well as on the Internet, there is a meaning that 50-70 Lm/l is enough for a good herbalist. But is this really so? Alas, this is far from the case.

Firstly, all light sources are different. For example, fluorescent lamps shine in all directions.

Fluorescent Lamp

That is, half of the Lumens, or rather the photons of light, do not enter the aquarium at all, even if reflectors are installed on the fluorescent lamps, the Lumens will still not be 100% accurate.

And, on the contrary, LED lighting sources have a directional glow - they shine only downwards. If such a 16 cm source is installed above a 100 liter aquarium (~80 cm wide), it turns out that the light will shine in the center, and there will be darkness on the sides.

Hence the conclusion: when calculating “your individual Lumens”, take into account the qualitative characteristics of the light source.

Secondly, it is necessary to take into account the individual characteristics of the aquarium. First of all, height, secondly, hardscape, thirdly, types and number of plants.

No amount of 50-70 Lm/l will penetrate an aquarium with a water column height of 50 cm. In the videos that we showed above, this is precisely what the emphasis is on. There is a “nuclear light” above our aquarium - 220 Lm/l - this is really TuMach, if not for all the components of our aquarium complex.

Don’t listen to those who taboo certain numbers - this is just a general guideline, don’t listen to those who state that 100+ Lm/l is overexposure. These are all lies. If you want a Bombay herbalist, sit down and analyze the light yourself for your project. Below we will try to help you with this.

Well, and thirdly, let's not forget about the daylight hours in the aquarium, which also determines the choice of the number of Lumens.

Decorating an aquarium with artificial decorations

Dwarf trees and bonsai, purple, lilac and even rainbow algae - artificial plants allow you to bring the most fantastic ideas to life: elven and fantasy scenery, mountains and Buddhist temples and even spaceships.

The cost depends on the displacement of the aquadome:

Selecting a location

Installing an aquarium is a responsible matter that does not tolerate fuss and negligence. In order to properly organize the care of marine inhabitants and not worry about their comfortable existence, you need to pay attention to several criteria for choosing the location of an artificial reservoir.

1. The main point is the absence of direct sunlight, drafts and heating radiators. You should immediately exclude the window sill. Such “favorable conditions” will allow only green plants to develop. As a result, lush algae will fill the space, the water will become cloudy and begin to bloom quickly, and other living beings will be oppressed. Underwater inhabitants need bright light only during the spawning period, but artificial lighting is installed for these purposes. Dark corners of the room are also not suitable: the aesthetics and visual perception of the aquarium will be lost.
2. The best option for proper installation is the presence of special cabinets or stands with a perfectly flat surface. Moreover, their area should be slightly larger than the size of the aquarium, the edges of which should be stable. Otherwise, the container will not withstand the pressure and may crack. To evenly distribute the weight between the tank and the stand, lay a soft mat.
3. For timely care, it is recommended to choose a place with free access to the aquarium. It is advisable to have an outlet nearby.
4. For comfortable living together, it is necessary to place an artificial pond in that part of the room where its shape and content will best match the interior and style of the room.

Aquarium design in Moscow from WuShop

To save your time and budget, we offer a comprehensive service: turnkey aquarium design. Everything is thought out for you, because the assembly of the aquadome includes:

• Selecting aquarium fish based on your experience and lifestyle.
• Selection of soil based on the type of fish and plants.
• Laying the substrate and planting plants.
• Installation of decorations based on the type and displacement of the aquadome. So, when decorating a corner aquarium, it is permissible to use a background, and for small ones, the density of planting is taken into account.
• Connecting and checking filters and compressor.

Decorations, fish and equipment are paid separately.

Note! The cost depends only on the type of decoration and capacity of the aquarium, and you don’t have to limit your imagination in choosing fish and equipment, and the number of decorations!

Decorating an aquarium with organic decorations

A real jungle with hornwort and limnobium, a quiet pond with duckweed, or a real “Champs Elysees” made from a carpet of riccia - living plants always look more organic and bright, useful for the general microclimate of the aquadome.

The cost depends on the displacement of the aquadome: