Archive for the ‘Novice Aquarist’ Category

The first two in the Aquarium Set-Up series is now posted on http://www.freshwater-tropical-fish-tanks.com in the Aquarium FAQ area. The first two subjects include when to add live plants in a new installation and the impotance of the aquarium stand for the aquarim installation.

We just posted two video tips on the correct way to feed tropical fish. This has been posted on the Freshwater Tropical Fish Tanks website. The site hosts both the video tip as well as the transcript of the tip as well.

Feeding Fish – Feeding Tip 1

How do I Feed Fish – Feeding Tip 2

I apologize for not keeping this blog as current as it really should be. It is not because I have abandoned the beginning aquarist, on the contrary, I have been busy building the content for my flagship website, http://www-freshwater-tropical-fish-tanks.com. I realize that most people believe that the WordPress blog is the way to go, and it is, if all that is being developed is a blog on a lot of topics that can stand on their own.

But for the past few months I have been developing a fully integrated massive website to deliver the aquatic information you need, all in one place, It is easily navigable by topic, nd you have the ability and hopefully yhe energy to giveme feedback in quite a nuberof places. We sure would like your input as to what is good and what needs to be fixed.

Take a look at it, I have just added three new pages of the response I gave to previously asked questions from people who had unique problems. I will continue to poll the questons asked from this blog, and promise to answer them when they arrive. But, I wanted everyone to know I also have a much better system over at the main website. It asks a bit more information on the tank you are worried about, and as such gives me a much better chance of giving the best possible answer the first time.

In addition, the first 11 video tips were posted a while ago. These FAQ syle videos that were developed on the various important aspects of water in the new aquarium and the changes that can occur over time as the aquarium matures. They are held on the Blueram86 Youtube channel as well as the part of the set-up series of videos found on the BlueRam Groups video channel:

http://www.tropicalfishaquariumvideos.com,

Thiosis a dedicated video site for all aquarists and the place to view a categorized collection of aquarium related videos from all public sources in a single place. You don’t have to look all over the web or even search YouTube for your preffered topic in video, they are concentrated on the pages of the Tropical Fish Aquarium Videos site.

But we are far from through. True, there are eleven water tips there, now, but the series has been outlined to offer more than 80 short videos when the we are finally finished with the set as a complete project. We encourage you to join our Facebook Page or subscribe to the YouTube channel so you are the first to know when the next set of videos arrives. They are written and will be posted in the next coming days and weeks.

I have been working hard at getting the right graphics for the various sites I update for fish. The problem has always been that the ambient noise is always captured rather than being able to get a nice sound track. But, with my newest video camera I was able to find a program that replaces the audio track from a .mts file and exports the results as an .avi file.

From there is is a snap to get the format changes to a .flv file for uploading to the web, my original video site – http://www.tropicalfishaquariumvideos.com and even to YouTube as well.

Here it is for viewing directly from the video site:

Enjoy some video of the king of “freshwater fish” – Symphysodon sp the discus

I have been building a few sites recently, all have to do with my dearest passion, keeping fish alive. This blog is designed to provide a place to discuss the various changes I am making to those sites, as well as promote information to the new aquarist who needs help getting their new tank set up correctly and running without problems.

When I first decided to tackle this problem , a couple of years ago, I took a vacation and made a series of videos to show how I set up my small community tank. Unfortunately, until I found the system that is providing all the tools I need to get my main site up and running, SBI, I was unable to efficiently get those videos up and available for the people who need them.

Well, I am happy to say that I have been able to format them into flash (flv) and mount them on my video site:

TropicalFishAquariumVideos

The series includes 30 videos on the topics important to the new fish keeper interested in installing an aquarium system for the first time.  You can see these videos under the Aquarium Set Up category and in the group Beginner’s Tips.  Just the videos are there. But, if you want some written explanation of the steps that are needed, you can follow the written and embedded videos on my flagship site:

Freshwater Tropical Fish Tanks

The process is broken into a series of steps and I have entered the appropriate videos where they are required in the actual step where it is most relevant.  For the serious hobbyist, this would be the best way to understand what is happening and what to expect as the tank matures.  This is by far the most complete site and offers a small listing of freshwater tropical fish species with photo and description.  The fish list wil be growing over time, and as the species are added, I will report them here.

For those of you who want to discuss your experiences with the fish you are keeping and breeding, there is a contact form attached to every fish species.  We welcome you comments and stories about the fish you have kept.  You can add up to four of your own pictures to the area, so everyone can benefit from our shared knowledge.

Besides these two sites, there is a third site that is designed to offer social support for aquarists of all levels.  <a href=”http://www.tropicalfishaquarist.net”>TropicaFishAquarist.ne</a>t offers the ability to form networks and communities of like minded enthusiasts.

Between the three approaches to your fish tending needs, we hope that we can help everyone understand their fish and their unique needs. If we do our job right, far fewer fish will die and the strength of the hobby will build to levels of success never before seen.

I have been very busy building a new aquarium information site, and the amount of information there is massive.  Over 100 pages of content, and I haven’t even begin to add the graphics to liven up the site.  For the past few days I have been updating and enlarging my glossary for the:
Freshwater Tropical Fish Tanks Glossary Page

I know that sounds really dry and not exciting, but if you ever come across a term that you don’t know, or needs to find, try the glossary page, it should have what you need. If it doesn’t, you can always ask me to find it for you in the comments, or at the Facebook  Page for the Freshwater-Tropical-Fish-For-Novice-Aquarists page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Freshwater-Tropical-Fish-Aquariums-for-Novice-Aquarists/162636910441898?sk=app_112493455447504#!/pages/Freshwater-Tropical-Fish-Aquariums-for-Novice-Aquarists/162636910441898?sk=wall

Looking forward to hearing form you.
Steve Pond

I know, it has been a while since I posted anything to this blog.  It is not like I have been ignoring the aquarist’s interests, far from it.  I found a great  website development system that has had me working every day in generating brand new fresh content. I never have used other people’s words to start with, but so far I have over 100 pages of newly written content at the site:

http://www.freshwater-tropical-fish-tanks.com

It is directed to the beginning aquarist and has loads of information on the proper set-up and installation of the equipment.  These are headings such as Set up, Equipment, Care, Water, Tropical Fish, Problems, Glossary and Resources.   It is a big site, and wil get much bigger as time goes by.  I love working on it, it is clean and easy to manage.  The block by block construction is pure dynamite.   I can’t say enough about the system. Click the link and have a look for yourself.  Only wish that I had found this site with all its web building tools when I decided to offer my knowledge online.  I would never have wasted the two years and many thousands of dollars  looking for the right methodology to get my message across.

The other project I have been working on is:

http://www.tropicalfishaquariumvideos.com

We all know that a picture is worth a 1000 words, so what is a video worth. I took some time and went through the videos on the web and organized the best into a coherent structure. Whether you want to look at some of the information on new styles of filtration, or just wonder what the actual habitat may be for some native South American Tetras, the whole range of aquarium interests is offered for free on the site.  It may sound like Youtube, and in a way it is, except the content is devoted exclusively to aquarium keepers. You can even mount your own videos up there as well to give us all a good look at what you are doing.

If you want, visit my Facebook fanpage and give me a like. This post should be automatically posted there and its is a good way to be notified when I add new content. The next planned set is a large bunch of FAQ style answers on all types of beginner aquarium topics

I know, it has been quite a while since last I wrote.In the meantime, I have written a long series of Aquarium tips for beginning aquarists who need some basic information on their new tanks. I am also going to do each as a video and put it up on the video site for aquarium videos as well.

http://www.tropicalfishaquariumvideos.com

If you prefer to see these entries on your Facebook account, I have set the RSS feed to update my Page there for Tropical Fish Aquarist enthusiasts.

Freshwater Tropical Fish Aquariums for Novice Aquarists

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Freshwater-Tropical-Fish-Aquariums-for-Novice-Aquarists/162636910441898?v=app_112493455447504

Sure would like to have a lot more friends who enjoy the aquarium hobby. Take a look at the above Facebook page and the resources offered there. If you Like the pages, please give me your vote of confidence.

I know there is such a huge amount of information on the Internet that it is easy to become confused.

When searching for information on a specific topic, it is so easy to get off the original topic when following a set of key words through various articles. One of the most confusing for me is to keep my focus when viewing the offerings of the various Video sites, such as YouTube.

Technorati Tags: Aquarium Placement, Beginning Aquarium, New Tank, Novice Aquarist, video sites

In the case of a new aquarium, what is being described here is the phenomenon of “New Tank Syndrome”.  It is quite common and not particularly dangerous, but it is certainly unsightly.  Just like most other living organisms, the bacterial cloud consumes oxygen, so it is not a bad idea to elevate the oxygen content to ensure any fish are not oxygen deprived during this problem.  If they seem to be gasping, add an airstone to agitate the surface.

New aquariums start with sterile water, the municipal water supply is often treated with antibiotic compounds to kill any pathogenic organisms that might affect a human drinking it.  In effect they make the water “potable”.  Potable water is deadly to bacteria, but it is also deadly to fish as well.  In most cases the munipal water company uses compounds such as chlorine (in most cases) and chlorine when the water needs to be transported a great distance.  Although the two compounds require different doses of the same compound, once they are removed, the water is left with no living organisms alive, but the ability to support them should they arrive.  The first ones to arrive are bacteria that occupy the water column.  These are very rapid replicating bacteria that split in two on a reguular basis. This progression is termed geometric replication, one becomes two, two become four, four double to eight and so on.  Each generation roughly doubles in size.  Since the water is sterile, there are few predators or other dangers to this uncontrolled explosion at the lowest living level.

The only limiting factor to this unchecked population growth is the amount of food available.  In many cases the water from the tap has much more in it than just water and chlorine, it has plenty of dissolved organic material as well.  This is the food that the bacteria require and assuming there is enough of it available the bacterial population rises higher and higher.  In a new aquarium it takes about three days for the heterotrophic bacterial density to get so packed that the bacterial bloom can be seen by the naked eye.  It appears, as mentioned, almost as if someone had poured a glass of milk into the aquarium.  Depending on the amount of dissolved organics available for the bacteria to use, this can become quite dense and very cloudy. The unchecked growth of the bacteria in the water is termed a bacterial bloom.

As mentioned, this is a common problem for many new aquariiums where the water that has been added carried with it considerable amounts of dissolved nutrients for the bacteria to grow.  It is also the limiting factor, when the food finally runs out under the weight of biomass of geometric replication, the bacteria will die of starvation.  Depending on the situation in the aquarium, that might take quite a while if too much added food is available on an ongoing basis – the used foods can be replaced by the feeding regime of the aquarist and the the problem becomes perpetual.

The “New Tank Syndrome” will occur with or without fish.  The bacterial cells are much too small to be captured by any ordinary filter, so this is not the fault of choosing a bad filter.  If the tank clouds before you add fish, simply do nothing.  The cloud will dissipate on its own as the fight for survival at the bacterial level, one of the most fiercely aggressive levels of living organisms, occurs with each individual requiring food to survive.

Cloudy water can occur much later in the aquarium’s life cycle.  Here it is most like from overfeeding or excess organic materials accumulating in the aquarium.  Once again this is a case where the dissolved organics in the water column rise to a level where they are no longer a limiting factor, and the bacteria bloom out of control.  The most basic cure is to reduce the amount of organic material wastes in the aquarium.  Since the aquarist is ultimately responsible for what is entering the aquarium, the cure is to reduce the input.  Always examine the aquarium for dead fish or decaying material, perform a proper water change and use the exiting water to drive a gravel cleaner through the substrate to ensure the worst debris is being removed from the aquarium.

Once the aquarium is back into better hygienic shape, stop feedng the aquarium for at least three days.  Chances are the original cause was overfeeding, and this forces the fish to go looking for a meal rather than being handed one at the surface.  The fish will look harder if they are hungry and they will help clean the tank a bit.  As the three days pass, the bacteria will begin to remove the organic overload as the population continues to expand and hopefully die back again to invisible.

This is not the filter’s fault, the bacteria are much too small to be trapped by the filter media in most cases.  The only way to help the filter capture this small an organism is to make it clump together.  There are clarifier products on the market that ionically force the bacteria to coagulate into large clumps that the fiter can trap.  The problem here is that the result is a gooey mess that is quite difficult to clean away.  Whenever you decide to use a floculant – a product that clumps all particles together, you should not use standard filter materials.  The best to use if Poly Wool, Filter Floss or sometimes it is termed Angel Hair. This is a very fine threaded product that is quite cheap and is purchased to be disposed once it has been used.  It will trap the clumps quite readily, and is easy to dispose.  Don’t use expensive standard media or cartridges, you are only going to have to throw them away right after use.

One final word of warning, if you do decide to use a floculant, be very careful in your doses.  This is one product where more is definitely not better.  An overdose reverses the ionic effect and the water gets even more cloudy and difficult to clear.  It is a one time thing, not something you can depend on often.  Reducing the amount of food going into the aquarium and ensuring anything that dies is removed as fast as possible will help keep the tank clear and cloudless better than any medication or chemical treatment.