Maintaining Aquarium Water

The water in your aquarium has to be maintained at a certain level to ensure that the fish have perfect living conditions. It is important to change the water once in a while to make it clear and improve the aesthetics but also for the fish’s sake. Ensuring that the water is in the right state for survival for the fish is a key aquarium maintenance practice. During aquarium maintenance a major practice is to have fresh water pumped in and old water pumped out using aquarium pumps. In some cases this is done simultaneously so as to maintain the water at a certain level. This shows how much maintaining the right properties of the water is.

You can get aquarium test kits which are good in checking the state of the water. This helps you know certain chemical and physical properties of the aquarium water during aquarium maintenance. This will be useful when you want to improve the state of the water so that you know what you need to change and what needs to remain as it is. These aquarium test kits help keep the water chemistry in check. There are different parameters that are checked such as ph, alkalinity, nitrates, ammonia, organics, magnesium, phosphates, iodine, boron, oxygen and other parameters that affect the fish directly or processes such as reverse osmosis. Saltwater aquarium requires that the salinity be maintained at a particular level so that the fish have a habitat close to their natural one.

Another key aspect of aquarium maintenance is having water filtration. This involves use of aquarium filters. These help in recycling the water in the aquarium so that you do not have to change the water all the time which may prove to be expensive after a while. There are three types of filtration which can be used in maintaining the water chemistry and condition is using mechanical filtration, chemical filtration or biological filtration.

Apart from maintaining water chemistry, it is equally important to maintain the temperature of aquarium water. This is because at certain temperatures then even the chemistry of the water can be compromised. For example at very high temperatures the oxygen will be less than what is needed and will create an unfavorable environment for the fish because they will not be able to breathe freely. To maintain temperatures in the aquarium at optimum levels use aquarium heaters to increase the temperatures, and aquarium chillers to reduce the temperatures. These have to be controlled at the right temperatures so that the aquarium does not over heat or become to cold.

The water also needs to be maintained at certain oxygen levels. This is done by use of aquarium air pumps which add air into the water so that the fish can have enough oxygen. The pumps can be operating all the time for very huge aquariums since they need more air. However for smaller aquariums it is common to have the aquarium pumps programmed to pump air after certain periods of time.

Fisher is the author of this article on Aquarium Air Pumps. Find more information on Dosing Pumps here.