Maintaining a Friendly Saltwater Environment for your Aquarium
For a lot of people, having a saltwater aquarium as part of their lives adds up to their relaxation and can become a hobby in due time although, maintaining the beauty of your aquarium can be daunting sometimes. You need to give some time and attention in order to gain the welcoming environment that you and most especially your fish’s needs. Indicated below are some of the basics on caring for a saltwater aquarium.
1. Prepare your equipments. You would need an aquarium scraper or scrubber and an aquarium siphon or vacuum.
2. Unplug all cables and wires that are attached to your tank. Make sure that when you touch anything inside your tank, everything is turned off.
3. Start by wiping the inside of your tank. Make slow and steady motions with your scraper or scrubber and be sure that you won’t frighten or touch any of the fish. It would be more suitable if you move the fish from one space to another so that you can have a thorough clean-up of the inside. Make sure that the water inside the place where you’ll be putting your fishes are of the same temperature from where they came from because a sudden temperature change can affect greatly and may cause them to get ill.
4. Mix the gravel located at the bottom of the tank by moving most of it at the back part of the tank that will create a lower spot in front. Fish waste will eventually stir with the level of the water so let it naturally settle. Most of the waste will fall to the lower spot that was made in front.
5. Siphon or vacuum from the low area. You have to eliminate at least 75% of the soiled water together with the fish waste. Once the water and waste are removed, you can spread back the mound of gravel that you made in order to arrange it aesthetically. Rearrange any decorations that where disarranged in the process of vacuuming.
6. Start refilling the tank with treated fresh water with salt in accordance and make sure that the water being refilled has a close temperature with the current water inside the tank. You have to take note that you only have to add chemicals and salt to the water that was added and not the whole volume of the saltwater aquarium. You can wipe all unnecessary spillage and reassemble everything inside the aquarium. Plug all equipments.