Essential Guide for New Fish Keepers: Building a Healthy Aquarium from Scratch
Update time: 25-03-07 Views: 29
Fish keeping is an extremely interesting and charming hobby. Watching fish swim freely in the aquarium is like having your own underwater world. However, for beginners, setting up an aquarium for the first time can be overwhelming. Don't worry, today we will guide you step by step on how to build a healthy and beautiful aquarium from scratch, and we will also recommend a series of highly practical filter materials —— AC filter media products.
I. Preliminary Planning: Choosing the Right "Home" and Setting the Direction
Before getting an aquarium, you need to determine its placement. Avoid direct sunlight to prevent excessive algae growth, and stay away from heat sources like radiators to avoid large fluctuations in water temperature. Next, you can choose the type of fish tank. There are various materials available on the market, such as glass and acrylic. Glass tanks have high transparency and good hardness, while acrylic tanks are lightweight and come in various shapes. Choose according to your home decoration style and personal preferences. At the same time, you need to decide what kind of fish you want to keep, whether it's gentle tropical fish, ornamental koi, or lively marine fish, as this will affect the subsequent water quality adjustment and filter material selection.
II. Basic Setup: Creating a Landscape and Preparing Equipment
After bringing the fish tank home, thoroughly clean and disinfect it to remove dust and impurities. Then you can start creating a landscape. Spread a layer of fine substrate, arrange variously shaped stones and driftwood to create a well-organized and natural habitat for the fish. Once this step is completed, it's time to install the filtration system. The filtration system is like the "kidney" of the aquarium, capable of purifying water quality and maintaining ecological balance.
When it comes to filter materials, our company's AC filter media product series is not to be missed. It includes freshwater series, koi series, and marine water series, suitable for various fish-keeping needs. AC filter media uses advanced technology and has a super large specific surface area, providing ample attachment space for beneficial bacteria, and efficiently breaking down harmful substances such as ammonia nitrogen and nitrites produced by fish waste and leftover food, keeping the water quality clear for a long time.
Hollow Bio Beads: This is especially suitable for beginners who keep small tropical fish and can easily handle daily water quality purification. For example, if you keep a few guppies, adding an appropriate amount of AC freshwater series filter material can effectively filter out the waste they produce, maintaining clear water quality and allowing the guppies to grow comfortably and display their beautiful colors. The Hollow Bio Beads has the following features:
- A specific surface area as high as 508m²/L, providing sufficient attachment space for beneficial bacteria.
- Unique hollow design, effectively adsorbing harmful substances and improving biochemical efficiency.
- Made of neutral alkaline material, with a pH value stable at 7-7.5, more suitable for the reproduction of nitrifying bacteria.
- Made by 1200-degree high-temperature ceramic firing, it has a long service life and is not prone to powdering and shedding.
3D Filter Media PLUS: This is designed for fish with large excretion such as koi, with strong filtration effect and stable water quality. Koi are large in size and have a big appetite, producing a lot of waste. The 3D Filter Media PLUS, with its powerful filtration performance, can effectively break down this waste and maintain stable water quality. Even if you keep a group of colorful koi, you don't have to worry about water quality problems. They can swim freely in the clear water and show their elegance. The 3D Filter Media PLUS has the following features:
- Adopting a new biomimetic hexagonal design, it has stronger bacteria attachment performance and higher water flow efficiency when placed evenly.
- Ammonia nitrogen removal capacity increased by 32%, quickly removing toxic substances such as ammonia nitrogen and nitrites within 24 hours.
- The average pore size of the filter material is increased, with good permeability, more bacteria cultivation, and a large amount of nitrifying bacteria attachment.
- The filter material replacement cycle is extended by 50%, with improved structural strength and a longer service life.
SINTERED GLASS RING: This is tailor-made for marine aquariums and can withstand the high salinity environment of seawater, helping to create a perfect marine ecosystem. If you are keen on keeping marine fish such as clownfish and angelfish, the SINTERED GLASS RING is the best choice. It can work stably in high salinity seawater, filtering out impurities and harmful substances in the seawater, and creating a home close to the natural marine environment for your marine fish, allowing them to live freely and comfortably. The SINTERED GLASS RING has the following features:
- Classic ring structure, ensuring a larger contact area between the ring and the water body, more pores, faster water flow, reduced water pressure, and less clogging.
- High porosity and strong bacteria cultivation ability, it is an ideal place for various beneficial bacteria and algae, can quickly cultivate bacteria, reduce ammonia nitrogen in the fish tank, and prevent algae growth and fish death.
- Neutral mineral filter material, it will not change the pH and GH values of the water quality, will not cause water quality fluctuations, and is made of natural minerals by firing, safe and harmless to fish.
III. Water Quality Management: Testing Water Quality and Stabilizing Parameters
Fish are very sensitive to water quality. Different types of fish have their own suitable water temperature and pH value ranges. Beginners should prepare water quality testing tools and regularly test indicators such as water temperature, pH value, ammonia nitrogen, nitrites, and nitrates. Generally speaking, tropical fish prefer a water temperature of 22-28℃ and a pH value of 6.5-7.5; koi have stronger adaptability, with a water temperature of 5-30℃ and a pH value of 7-8.5; marine fish require precise control of salinity, water temperature, and pH value, with seawater salinity of 32-35‰, water temperature of 24-27℃, and a pH value of 8.1-8.4. Once the water quality deviates from the suitable range, it needs to be adjusted in a timely manner, such as by water changing, adjusting the heating rod, adding water quality regulators, and other methods. The AC filter media will continue to play a filtering role in this process, helping you adjust the water quality to the ideal state.
Alkali 3D Filter Media: If the water in the fish tank continues to be acidic, using this product can raise the pH from acidic to neutral or alkaline. The increase in pH is gentle and stable, avoiding the impact of large fluctuations in pH value on the health of the fish tank organisms in a short time. The three-dimensional pore structure, with rich continuous three-dimensional through-holes and interconnected micropores, creates a huge surface area for the colonization of billions of beneficial bacteria.
IV. Daily Maintenance: Observing Carefully and Caring Meticulously
In daily fish keeping, it is necessary to develop the habit of observing the fish, checking whether they are swimming actively, whether their appetite is normal, and whether there are any abnormal body colors or floating objects attached. Regularly change the water every week, with the water change amount controlled at 1/3-1/4. When changing the water, use a fine net to remove garbage from the water surface and clean the physical filter materials such as filter cotton. At the same time, feed the fish reasonably according to their food intake and growth status to avoid overfeeding leading to water quality deterioration. When cleaning the filter equipment, pay attention to gently cleaning the AC filter materials to preserve the beneficial bacteria on them and maintain good filtration effect.
For beginners in fish keeping, as long as you master these key points and choose reliable products like AC filter materials, you can easily create a thriving and healthy aquarium, embark on a wonderful fish-keeping journey, and enjoy the peace and beauty from the underwater world.
