Freshwater Fish Supplies - Fish only /Plain Tank

Key Factors 

 Descriptions

Recommended Freshwater Fish Supplies

Aquarium size / Water volume

Actually water volume is very important for keeping good water conditions. Bigger water volume gives bigger tolerance for shift in water conditions.

Choose strong aquarium stands that can safely supporting the weight of your tanks !. Closed storage space is recommended to keep equipment and supplies out of sight - messy accessories and products can make your aquarium become an eyesore. Along with matching Canopies, it can be coordinated with your other furniture.

 Location

Do not put your aquarium into direct sunlight, even only for few hours. It will create algae blooms.

If you can't move the location, you can use car sunshade to reflect sunlight.

Strong Filtration

If you use gravel/substrates, fish waste will hide within it. If bacteria colony working well, waste will decompose, turn into 'dust' and settle in the bottom, some will dissolve.

If you don't use gravel/substrates, you will need sufficient bottom/ mid water flow to bring the waste into filters.

I recommend to use 2 filters : 100% biological filter & 100% mechanical filter.

By dividing 2 filters with specific jobs, we can concentrate on cleaning mechanical filter, while biological filter keeps healthy water conditions and will be cleaned after several months.

Media for Bacteria habitat

Even in plain-tank, you will need plenty of surface area for bacteria habitat within your aquarium s.a : sand, gravels or crushed stone. Good Bio Substrate contains Heterotrophic Bacteria that will rapidly create a natural biological balance which makes cycling in a new aquarium faster and safer.

If you choose to use your own substrates, just make sure that you use limefree substrates. High calcium can increase pH and GH. Lime sand & stone can't be used at all even after you washed it several times.

Driftwoods are are part of aquarium decoration where bacteria can also live, use old sink wood and remove the wood skin to avoid decomposition.

• If you don't want to use any substrates at all, you'll solely depend on Bio Filter Media s.a : Bio Filter Substrates, Bio Balls or Bio Rings.

Add Beneficial Bacteria directly into the water or spread directly on to your filter pad or media to immediately establish biological activity to stabilize aquarium environments.

Bio Substrate contains natural gravels and sands packed with living, water-purifying bacteria, state of the art clarifier, and a complete water conditioner. Tap water is all you need to get started, immediately begins the cycling process, eliminating new tank syndrome, and discouraging nuisance algaes. 

Bio Filter Substrate is high porosity biomedia that encourages beneficial bacterial growth which provides efficient biofiltration for the removal of nitrogenous waste such as ammonia & nitrites.

Bio Balls will enable you to maintain large biological loads within much smaller filter areas. The dramatic increase in surface area is achieved by the unique geometric design of the smaller bio ball.

Bio-rings/ Hollow Ceramic Rings are shaped as smooth, hollow ceramic tubes. This filter media can be used as Biological or Mechanical Filter Media :

• As Biological filter media, it encourages beneficial bacterial growth for optimal filtration within canister filters. Media can be placed directly into the filter (Middle layer filtering), without a bag.
• As Mechanical filter media, it works much like a sieve trapping articulate waste as it passes through the material. This coarse mechanical filter material is to be used as Bottom layer filtering. Its hollow ceramic design creates eddies which disburse the water into many paths. It traps large debris while creating an even flow of water for subsequent layers.

• Natural wood and rocks are commonly used for aquascape, they are also excellent media for beneficial bacteria colonization.
Genuine aquarium wood is not only a beautiful and natural addition to a freshwater aquarium, but it's essential for keeping "blackwater" rainforest tank (where tannins would be naturally present) and for some wood-eater fishes, like plecos and other suckermouth catfish which need a large amount of wood fibre for their properly digestion functions.

• Artificial aquarium wood can give you an authentic, natural look without worrying about tannins.

Aeration

Enough oxygen level is very important for fish, bacteria living and perfect oxidation of ammonia (NH3) & ammonium (NH4).

Sponge filters consist of a piece of sponge or foam with an intake tube for an air pump/aerator  to push water through them.

If you don't want to use any sand / gravel, sponge filters are very useful and strongly recommended. Besides providing good mechanical filtration (sponges are often used as the mechanical prefilter in the powered filters), sponge filters are excellent at biological filtration - it have plenty of surface area for bacteria to colonize.

Water Flow & Water Agitation

Water flow is important for :

• Circulate water to make aquarium water temperature same on the whole.
• Spreading out oxygen and nutrition.
• Bring fish waste into filters.

• Gas exchange. Poor gas exchange can create smelly water problem.
• Prevent surface problems like oil slick and surface scum.

For plain-tank circulation, Turnover Rate depends on size of your fishes (higher rate for larger fishes), usually around 4-6 times per hour. If you fill your tank with 50 gallons of water and Turnover Rate is 6 times in an hour, you'll need a gph pump at 300 GPH (50x6).

It's necessary to get higher gph pump by adjusting the turnover rate by 1 or looking for the next highest GPH rating - especially if you use filters for circulation devices where accumulate waste in filter media will slow down the water flow.

There are various kinds of pumps available :

Circulation pumps provide continuous and powerful water flow which can be directed freely.

Circulation Pumps create high water volume output with low pressure making the pumps energy efficient with low heat emission. They usually include magnet-suction cup mounting system for free positioning in aquarium, easy removal and secure installation.
To simulate natural river and reef currents, they are designed for use with timers and wavemaker systems.

Aquarium Powerheads is small submersible aquarium water pump that usually attach to the aquarium walls using suctions. Some brands provide many attachments like venturi -for aeration-, rotating returns device or wavemakers attachment tube.

Aquarium powerhead doesn't take up spaces, so you can put 2 or more aquarium powerhead at different points to create river-like currents. Remember to adjust the flows at comfortable level for your aquatic organisms.

Lighting

How to choose Aquarium Light for plain-tank? Just check out the :
• Color Temperature, measured by Kelvin ratings (K). Shallow Fish-only tank needs Yellow Spectrum (5,000-6,500°K), while deep water fishes (>20") need White Spectrum (6,500-10,000°K).

• Intensity. Intensity is the ability of the lamp to penetrate water. This factor is partly determine by wattage, but be careful in choosing the bulbs since different types & brands of bulbs differ in intensity even with the same wattage!
Following is the sequence of codes which represent different intensity (highest to lowest) : D(Daylight), ND(Natural Daylight), WD(Warm Daylight), CW(Cool White), UW(Universal White).

Intensity (wattage) for Fish-only tank is 2-3 Watts/gallon of water.

Normal Output (NO) Linear-Fluorescents might be enough for shallow freshwater fish-only tank. T12 (1.5") and T8 (1") bulbs are standard sizes and can fit in the same standard fixtures. Just check out the wattage and Kelvin Rating.

Saltwater fish-only tanks need more intensity than freshwater, use higher intensity bulbs like T5-HO(High Output) and T5-VHO (Very High Output) lamps or Power Compact (PC) Fluorescent.

Use additional actinic bulbs for deeper water (more than 20"), especially for saltwater tanks.

pH Control

Generally, ideal pH is around 6.5 - 7.5.  Drastic & big change in pH can kill your fish.

Aeration increase O2 level, and throw away CO2. But CO2 is needed to stabilize pH. That is why using aeration can increase pH.

It's recommended to check pH level in weekly basis to make sure pH level still tolerable for aquatic life.

You can use pH Test Kit or pH Electronic monitor  for best results.

Please do regular water change to avoid drastic & big change in pH.

 Temperature Control

Ideal temperature is depend on your fish need. Usually around 24 - 29 C.

Increasing temperatures in summer time can cause :

• oxygen level decrease
• % total ammonia increase

Use electronic thermometer to measure aquarium temperature.

If you set the Aquarium Heater in certain degree, it will automatically keep the water temperatures stable when outside temperatures drop.