Aquarium Hints and Tips

This is probably the most important aspect of aquarium keeping. Nothing will have as great an effect on your fish as the water quality. Maintaining water quality is an ongoing challenge but not so difficult that you should be put off by it. It is often said that if you are a fish keeper you are a water keeper first.

So What is Aquarium Water Quality?.......... When we talk about water quality we are talking about the physical and chemical attributes of your water, from water temperature and hardness, pH levels as well as Ammonia and Nitrite levels. All of these will affect your fish and all of them need to be monitored.

What water quality you need to maintain will depend on the fish that you want to keep. We have put together a list of fish that can tolerate a wide range of water parameters to help if you are new to aquarium keeping. Make sure that you have done your research and that you know what water quality you are trying to achieve. Ideally you want the optimum water quality levels for the fish that you are keeping.

Most fish can put up with a variety of water conditions but if you want them to thrive and look their best then you need to get as close to the ideal water quality conditions for that species as possible. Fish will not breed for example if you are far outside their normal water quality levels and can get stressed, unwell and even die if you do not look after the water.

Unfortunately, just to make things difficult water quality is ever changing and this is where the challenge comes in. Once you get to the level of water quality that you want the real test is maintaining it. Your fish add pollution to their water on a daily basis, your plants use up nitrates in the water and the bacteria in your organic filter are changing the water quality on an ongoing basis so the only way to be sure of water quality is to test it on a regular basis.

You could of course trust to luck! The only problem with this is that your first indication of poor water quality will be when the fish start getting ill or dying.

Water quality is important but don't react to every little change by adding chemicals. Water quality will fluctuate and most fish can tolerate some fluctuation in water quality as long as it is gradual. As soon as you start to try to balance the water quality through adding chemicals you run the risk of distressing your fish through sudden changes in pH levels or water hardness.

If you have your filter system set up properly and well maintained the pH levels in your tank are unlikely to vary a great deal and any spikes can be managed through maintenance and regular partial water changes, the same ones that you do through your regular maintenance routine.