Choosing the Correct Lighting for Your Aquarium

By Leonard Boyler

All aquariums require lighting. It not only enhances the look of your aquarium, including the dcor and the fish themselves, but it is also necessary for the ecosystem in your tank, especially if you have live plants.

The easier way to set up an aquarium is to get the full tank setup. This usually includes the lighting, along with the other necessary equipment. Although this setup might be cheaper, it is much more advisable to choose your own lighting so that you can customize it according to the size of your tank and the needs of your selected fish and plants.

The power of the aquarium lighting should be around 2 to 3 watts for every gallon of water in the tank. Keep in mind, however, that the lighting requirements for the aquarium with live plants would be more than that of the same aquarium with artificial plants. Be careful though, because more light is not always good for all fish. Some fish thrive in a brightly lit habitat, while some are bothered by too much light and end up being stressed. Furthermore, an environment with too much light causes algae to grow much faster.

There are two types of lighting to choose from for a freshwater aquarium. You can have either an incandescent or a fluorescent bulb. Incandescent bulbs are more appropriate for smaller tanks and generally cheaper than fluorescent bulbs. But the yellow color of light they emit is not at all similar to natural light. They also heat up the water so you have to regularly monitor the temperature.

If you have live plants, you'll need an aquarium fluorescent light. Available in the form of tubes or compact fluorescent bulbs, their light is much brighter and does not give off any heat. The fluorescent light can be used by your live plants. If your tank is very heavily planted, you may need more than 3 watts per gallon. A compact fluorescent bulb will fit into any fixture designed for incandescent bulbs, while fluorescent light tubes need to be purchased at the correct length for your aquarium hood.

Some fluorescent lights come in specialized spectrums, though you can use an ordinary household fluorescent light. "Full Spectrum," which contains all of the necessary wavelengths of light, is the best choice for brightly colored fish and healthy plants. Different parts of the spectrum have different effects on your aquarium. Purple-tinted lights will bring out the colors in bright tropical fish; the blue area of the spectrum increases algae growth. Orange-red light is ideal for your aquatic plants.

Although a lot of fish are nocturnal, it is still important for the main aquarium light to be turned off at night to imitate the natural order they are used to. The use of submersible LED lights will allow you to watch your fish when the main aquarium lights are off. You can use different colors to highlight the dcor or the fish. To watch the fish without disturbing their daily routines, use small red or blue LED lights.

Replacing your aquarium light bulbs is an inevitable part of aquarium maintenance. Regardless of whether the light is still working, replace the bulb every year, because they grow dimmer over time.

If you choose the right aquarium light, it will not only add color and artistry to your aquarium, it will also serve you well in keeping your fish and plants healthy. - 32185

About the Author:

Leonard Boyler has been keeping fish for more than two decades. His favorite products make aquarium care and maintenance so easy from start up to clarifying cloudy aquarium water. To learn more about how to keep your fish tank water clear and your fish healthy, please visit ONEdersave.com.

Bringing The Fish Home

By Roshan Goodman

Whether it's your first aquarium or you are an expert aquarist, bringing fish home from the store can be a tricky task for everyone. Getting your fish home safely can be easy or very difficult. With a few steps your fish can arrive home and be happy and healthy. The distance to get your fish is a big factor in getting your pets home safely. Longer distance can cause hardships for the fish and yourself.

If you live far away then planning when and how you get the fish home can be vital. If you cannot get the fish home right away you might consider investing in a small plastic transporting tank. A tank can help the fish feel more safe and they will have airflow in the tank.

Leaving the fish in the bags they come in is ok, but not suggested. The bags have only a certain amount of water and the fish ca survive for a small period of time in the bags. Moving the fish to a different container is highly helpful.

The worst thing you can do is leaving the fish in the bag in the sun. If you have to park leave the air conditioning on. If it is cold do not leave the fish in the car. Have someone stay in the car with the heat on. Do not leave the fish in the car alone.

When the fish are home the last step to establishing them into the new tank. Floating the bags in the tank is a key point to make sure the fish do not go into shock when they are released into the tank. Float the bags in the tank for around thirty minutes so the fish can get used to the temperature of their new habitat.

By following the steps earlier in the article you can avoid losing any fish. The fish will live happily in the new tank. The temperature of the new water will not shock the fish. The new fish will also not die in the way home. - 32185

About the Author:

Roshan Goodman gives tips on fish tanks and on buying an aquarium.

Do You Learn Anything at the Zoo?

By Sara Ferguson

I am a very active zoo visitor; I often go more to a zoo in a week than most people do in year. In all my zoo visits I have learned that animal behavior isnt limited to across a watery moat, steel fencing, or glass window. It goes on everyday in the crowds of visitors which come to the zoo.

There has always been an ongoing argument about the educational value of the zoo compared to the animal suffering in the cages. An argument which, of course, wont be solved here but will give you a lot more to the think about in the end.

Yes, I do agree with all those that say, Animals should be free in the wild. I do not feel that we have the right to lock up animals for our own use in this manner. Animals like humans in prison will and do develop mental problems, behavior usually gets worse over time, and nothing good come out of it.

In all my years of going to the zoos I have found few people get any educational value from the visit. No one reads the signs, people past exhibits so fast they miss the animal, and most do not even stop long enough to really take a good look and reflect about the animal they are viewing. Many people spend the day speed walking, dragging one or more child, and wishing they hadnt promised to go to the zoo that day. I dont see must educational value to visitors or a reason to make animals suffer if people act that way.

Then you wonder about the school field trips, yes kids do get to see animals they might never see in the wild. They do hear, at least, some interesting facts about the animals. Do they really learn anything? I doubt it very much, most kids in those groups are too excited to just be free from the burden of school and having to sit still all day they cant pay attention to learning. Did you ever hear anything at the zoo field trips? I never did. Once the kids have a quick run through the zoo, they are fed like cattle and shoved back on a bus. How much educational value did the child get from the trip? I know the teachers would rather be in a pit of live snakes than go on a field trip with ten thousand screaming kids.

The sad thing is the adults really. Going to the zoo all the time, I have over heard some very interesting conversations between adults. Things said that convince me that the human race overall has a low IQ. One of the most common things I hear is people seeing a mother and her baby, and then calling the mother a he. I didnt know males got pregnant (No, I didnt forget about certain species, we dont want to get that complicated here).

Often adults cannot even pronounce the name of the animal. They usually get by calling it whatever name they know close to it. I can understand the Latin scientific names can be pretty hard, but Orangutan does not have a g at the end of it. Yes, the little things can lead to much bigger problems. How can you care about an animal to help save it from them becoming extinct (which we are causing), which probably has a higher IQ than you, if you cant even pronounce the name us humans gave to it?

What is the educational value of the zoo to the overall human population; Very little, in my opinion.

There are however, those cases and individuals from which the lack of a zoo might not have made them into the person they are today. Those people are now on the leading forefront of trying to save from the human race the very right for these animals to exist. So while most people get little to no educational value, hopefully just enough seeds are sparked to keep anymore animals from going extinct.

Do I like seeing a Polar Bear in a cage? No, but if it sparks enough people to help save all the polar bears from extinction at the hand of the human race then it is worth it. We can however make that Polar Bears life active, interesting, and fulfilling.

So what do we do now? Do we close all the zoos and set the animals free in the wild? Do we design the zoo a bit better forcing people to learn? The last time I looked, almost every sign at the zoo had the word Endangered on it. Oh well, after all the animals go extinct, man will be next. - 32185

About the Author:

Sara is the editor of World Zoo Today. World Zoo Today is a global news site dedicated to zoos, aquariums, wildlife, and conservation. Sara's motto is "One World One Zoo", this world on which we live is one giant zoo, we are the current zookeepers. As zookeepers, we are doing a very very bad job.

The Importance of Aquarium Water Testing

By Leonard Boyler

One important thing that a person setting up an aquarium must not overlook is aquarium water testing. When you have arranged the decor in your aquarium and put water in, do not immediately add the fish but instead, let the water stand for several days to let the water settle. Beneficial bacteria in a product like EcoBio-Block will help you to speed up the nitrogen cycle. You can monitor this cycle daily with water quality tests, and add the fish a few at a time. At the start of the cycle, you will see a spike in the ammonia level. This will be followed by a nitrite spike when the beneficial bacteria convert the ammonia into nitrites.

After adding the fish, monitor the water chemistry daily for the first few weeks. You can shift to weekly testing if all proves well in your aquarium. Testing can be done in aquarium supply stores but for your convenience, you can just buy a water test kit and do the testing yourself.

You will be presented at the aquarium supply store with a wide variety of testing kits to choose from. There are basic kits with strips that test important water quality indicators like pH, nitrate, water hardness, ammonia, nitrites and others. The strips change color to indicate the quality of the water.

However, although they are convenient, they are not very accurate. More complex tests involve a test tube. Don't forget a thermometer as part of your water testing supplies.

The health of your fish depends largely on the quality of the aquarium water. That is why it is essential that you do regular aquarium water testing. You need to add whatever is necessary in order to bring your water level to healthy levels for your fish.

Healthy pH level is around 6 or 7 for most fish, but they will generally tolerate a fairly wide range of pH. Any decor, food or medication added can change the pH level in your aquarium. You can increase or reduce the pH to healthier levels by adding some chemicals. A natural, but much slower approach will be to add driftwood or peat for more acidic water or a lime rock if you want more alkaline.

High levels of ammonia are lethal to your fish. You can help to reduce ammonia levels by doing a partial water change. Nitrite levels ideally should be close to zero. If nitrite levels are rising, add beneficial bacteria to convert them into less toxic nitrates.

Even simpler and less trouble is to have a bacteria colony established with the EcoBio-Block which gives long-term, continuous results. The bacteria breaks down ammonia into nitrites and then into safer nitrates. The bacteria live and multiply in the block and disperse into the water, keeping the water clear and healthy.

Aquarium water testing is a very important part of keeping your aquarium environment safe and healthy for your fish. - 32185

About the Author:

Leonard Boyler has been keeping fish for more than two decades. His favorite products can really make aquarium care and maintenance very easy from starting up to clarifying cloudy aquarium water. To find out more about how to keep aquarium water clear and fish healthy. please visit ONEdersave.com.

What is the Educational Value of the Zoo?

By Sara Ferguson

I am a very active zoo visitor; I often go more to a zoo in a week than most people do in year. In all my zoo visits I have learned that animal behavior isnt limited to across a watery moat, steel fencing, or glass window. It goes on everyday in the crowds of visitors which come to the zoo.

There has always been an ongoing argument about the educational value of the zoo compared to the animal suffering in the cages. An argument which, of course, wont be solved here but will give you a lot more to the think about in the end.

Yes, I do agree with all those that say, Animals should be free in the wild. I do not feel that we have the right to lock up animals for our own use in this manner. Animals like humans in prison will and do develop mental problems, behavior usually gets worse over time, and nothing good come out of it.

In all my years of going to the zoos I have found few people get any educational value from the visit. No one reads the signs, people past exhibits so fast they miss the animal, and most do not even stop long enough to really take a good look and reflect about the animal they are viewing. Many people spend the day speed walking, dragging one or more child, and wishing they hadnt promised to go to the zoo that day. I dont see must educational value to visitors or a reason to make animals suffer if people act that way.

Then you wonder about the school field trips, yes kids do get to see animals they might never see in the wild. They do hear, at least, some interesting facts about the animals. Do they really learn anything? I doubt it very much, most kids in those groups are too excited to just be free from the burden of school and having to sit still all day they cant pay attention to learning. Did you ever hear anything at the zoo field trips? I never did. Once the kids have a quick run through the zoo, they are fed like cattle and shoved back on a bus. How much educational value did the child get from the trip? I know the teachers would rather be in a pit of live snakes than go on a field trip with ten thousand screaming kids.

The sad thing is the adults really. Going to the zoo all the time, I have over heard some very interesting conversations between adults. Things said that convince me that the human race overall has a low IQ. One of the most common things I hear is people seeing a mother and her baby, and then calling the mother a he. I didnt know males got pregnant (No, I didnt forget about certain species, we dont want to get that complicated here).

Often adults cannot even pronounce the name of the animal. They usually get by calling it whatever name they know close to it. I can understand the Latin scientific names can be pretty hard, but Orangutan does not have a g at the end of it. Yes, the little things can lead to much bigger problems. How can you care about an animal to help save it from them becoming extinct (which we are causing), which probably has a higher IQ than you, if you cant even pronounce the name us humans gave to it?

What is the educational value of the zoo to the overall human population; Very little, in my opinion.

There are however, those cases and individuals from which the lack of a zoo might not have made them into the person they are today. Those people are now on the leading forefront of trying to save from the human race the very right for these animals to exist. So while most people get little to no educational value, hopefully just enough seeds are sparked to keep anymore animals from going extinct.

Do I like seeing a Polar Bear in a cage? No, but if it sparks enough people to help save all the polar bears from extinction at the hand of the human race then it is worth it. We can however make that Polar Bears life active, interesting, and fulfilling.

So what do we do now? Do we close all the zoos and set the animals free in the wild? Do we design the zoo a bit better forcing people to learn? The last time I looked, almost every sign at the zoo had the word Endangered on it. Oh well, after all the animals go extinct, man will be next. - 32185

About the Author:

Sara is the editor of World Zoo Today. World Zoo Today is a global news site dedicated to zoos, aquariums, wildlife, and conservation. Sara's motto is "One World One Zoo", this world on which we live is one giant zoo, we are the current zookeepers. As zookeepers, we are doing a very very bad job.

What is the Educational Value of the Zoo?

By Sara Ferguson

I am a very active zoo visitor; I often go more to a zoo in a week than most people do in year. In all my zoo visits I have learned that animal behavior isnt limited to across a watery moat, steel fencing, or glass window. It goes on everyday in the crowds of visitors which come to the zoo.

There has always been an ongoing argument about the educational value of the zoo compared to the animal suffering in the cages. An argument which, of course, wont be solved here but will give you a lot more to the think about in the end.

Yes, I do agree with all those that say, Animals should be free in the wild. I do not feel that we have the right to lock up animals for our own use in this manner. Animals like humans in prison will and do develop mental problems, behavior usually gets worse over time, and nothing good come out of it.

In all my years of going to the zoos I have found few people get any educational value from the visit. No one reads the signs, people past exhibits so fast they miss the animal, and most do not even stop long enough to really take a good look and reflect about the animal they are viewing. Many people spend the day speed walking, dragging one or more child, and wishing they hadnt promised to go to the zoo that day. I dont see must educational value to visitors or a reason to make animals suffer if people act that way.

Then you wonder about the school field trips, yes kids do get to see animals they might never see in the wild. They do hear, at least, some interesting facts about the animals. Do they really learn anything? I doubt it very much, most kids in those groups are too excited to just be free from the burden of school and having to sit still all day they cant pay attention to learning. Did you ever hear anything at the zoo field trips? I never did. Once the kids have a quick run through the zoo, they are fed like cattle and shoved back on a bus. How much educational value did the child get from the trip? I know the teachers would rather be in a pit of live snakes than go on a field trip with ten thousand screaming kids.

The sad thing is the adults really. Going to the zoo all the time, I have over heard some very interesting conversations between adults. Things said that convince me that the human race overall has a low IQ. One of the most common things I hear is people seeing a mother and her baby, and then calling the mother a he. I didnt know males got pregnant (No, I didnt forget about certain species, we dont want to get that complicated here).

Often adults cannot even pronounce the name of the animal. They usually get by calling it whatever name they know close to it. I can understand the Latin scientific names can be pretty hard, but Orangutan does not have a g at the end of it. Yes, the little things can lead to much bigger problems. How can you care about an animal to help save it from them becoming extinct (which we are causing), which probably has a higher IQ than you, if you cant even pronounce the name us humans gave to it?

What is the educational value of the zoo to the overall human population; Very little, in my opinion.

There are however, those cases and individuals from which the lack of a zoo might not have made them into the person they are today. Those people are now on the leading forefront of trying to save from the human race the very right for these animals to exist. So while most people get little to no educational value, hopefully just enough seeds are sparked to keep anymore animals from going extinct.

Do I like seeing a Polar Bear in a cage? No, but if it sparks enough people to help save all the polar bears from extinction at the hand of the human race then it is worth it. We can however make that Polar Bears life active, interesting, and fulfilling.

So what do we do now? Do we close all the zoos and set the animals free in the wild? Do we design the zoo a bit better forcing people to learn? The last time I looked, almost every sign at the zoo had the word Endangered on it. Oh well, after all the animals go extinct, man will be next. - 32185

About the Author:

Sara is the editor of World Zoo Today. World Zoo Today is a global news site dedicated to zoos, aquariums, wildlife, and conservation. Sara's motto is "One World One Zoo", this world on which we live is one giant zoo, we are the current zookeepers. As zookeepers, we are doing a very very bad job.

Cleaning The Aquarium

By Roshan Goodman

Cleaning your fish tank is task that must be done every few weeks or so until your tank is established. Once established, your tank will only need to be cleaned a few times a month. If you do clean your tank right the process can be very easy or difficult. The size of your tank can depend on how long it takes to clean. The bigger the tank and more decor is the, the harder it will be to clean.

When cleaning a tank, changing the filters is the first step. If you have a bio filter, or power filter changing the filters is a breeze. A under gravel filter is another story. You must remove all the plants, decor and accessories. Then you must pull it out from under the gravel to clean.

Once the filters are cleaned, replace them with new ones. If you have an underground filter do not replace it back in the tank yet. If you have an established tank then leave the plants and decor, even if they have algae on them. If you do not have an established tank or smaller tank (ten gallon or smaller) then wash off all the plants and decor. If you have real plants do not wash them.

After the accessories, decor and plants have been washed do not place them back in the tank yet. The next step is to siphon the tank. Siphon no more than one third of the water out of the tank. If there is still debris at the bottom of the tank fill it with water and re siphon until all debris is gone. If you have an established tank then only siphon out some of the debris and leave a little in the gravel.

When replacing the water only use soft water so the fish do not die of shock. Soft water is water without minerals. Tap water or filtered water is considered soft water. After the water has been replaced remember to not fill the tank too high because, the plants, decor and filters have to still be added.

Replace the under gravel filter if you have one. Also consider in investing a power filter, this will make your life a lot easier. Then replace the plants and decor. You're all done, and now your tank is clean. Remember that cleaning a tank can be traumatizing for the fish, so they might be timid for a while after the clean. - 32185

About the Author:

Roshan Goodman gives cool info on fish tank and advice on aquarium related things.