The Chasm

Hello MantaChasm! You might not know this about me, but have a great fascination with marine life! I grew up in a family that spent a lot of time both on and around the water: my mother and her father were big boaters and I have many fond memories of going out on my grandfather’s catamarans or his 30-ft sailboat, Kanani. I have a deep penchant for the ocean so much that as a child I grew up wanting to be a Marine Biologist, a desire that drove me into the sciences and had me graduate with a Biology Degree. To this day my favorite animals are octopi and squid and I love going to aquariums or learning new things about marine life, so naturally I’d be inclined to keep an aquarium myself! I had several aquariums to myself through the years but currently I’m responsible for a 55 gallon aquarium at my place of business, a planted freshwater tank with long-fin Tiger Barbs, a few Mollies, some Turquoise Rainbows and a Tire-Track Eel. Oh, and a jerk of a Siamese Algae Eater.

I’ve been fortunate to be able to share my hobby with many different people over the years, helping to spin up different aquariums in various places with each occasion a valuable learning experience for myself and a teaching experience for the client in question. I actually enjoy teaching (I’d intended to continue my college career with a Master’s Degree in Education), so when a coworker asked me to do a short write-up about starting an aquarium I was excited to put everything I’d learned down in a coherent fashion. But what started as a short bullet-point list evolved into a seven-page exposition, and as I kept on writing I couldn’t help but think that the website would be a great place to house such an essay! So without further adieu, here’s “A Short Guide to Starting an Aquarium”!

Adding a colorful aquarium to your home can create quite the stunning feature; placing a clear water-filled vase with a peace lily on an end table would look lovely with a delicate, flowing Beta swimming around for all to see. But what most people forget is that fish are living, breathing animals and need all the comforts of the home we’re removing them from so that we can enjoy staring at them day in and day out. Bringing fish into your home can be a lovely addition, calming and peaceful to watch, and by planning out a few simple things ahead of time you can bypass many “first-time fish owner” problems before they even begin to creep in.

The absolute first thing you need to decide is whether you want to add a(nother) pet to your home. Yes, I said that correctly: a pet. Fish are very much pets—not just another decoration in your home—and with them comes all the work of having an animal depending on you to take care of it. Keeping fish in an aquarium removes most of the “natural” instincts a fish can use to survive: there is no naturally occurring food, there are no natural toilets, and there are no weather patterns or sunlight to refresh their environment. A fish in an aquarium is utterly dependent on its owner to provide all of the things it needs to merely live, and if deprived of these it will die (or throw itself from the aquarium in an attempt to survive, finally resulting in its death, regardless). So, reader, are you willing to put in the effort to keep your fish alive?

If you have made it this far and answered “Yes” to the previous question then congratulations, you can now move on to the next steps! Caring for fish is a fun and relaxing hobby, and there are many exciting things you can do with an aquarium. Maybe you enjoy gardening and would like to try your hand at aquascaping? Aquariums can be your medium for that. Maybe you love a certain species of fish and want to recreate its environment for you and others to enjoy; there are various sizes of aquariums to accommodate nearly any aquarium fish. But whatever your reason, keeping fish in an aquarium is a fun and rewarding task. So, the next step is to decide how much room you have for an aquarium, and where do you want it placed? These are two key questions that have a lot of factors driving them: accessibility, visibility, and support. Obviously you want your aquarium visible (no one would want to hide away all of their hard work!) but where do you have the room for a big box of water? Will this be a living room focal point or a small tank for a child’s bedroom? But no matter the desired location you must consider the other two factors: accessibility and support. You’ll need to clean this aquarium, so where can it live where you’ll have access to most of its sides to clean them? Will you be able to get up high enough to get a siphon in it to clean the gravel? What about re-positioning ornaments and plants, or scooping out remnants of food? It’s important that you have good accessibility to the tank. And finally, support. If you’ve ever lifted one of those gallon-jugs of water from the grocery store you’ve realized that water is HEAVY. In addition to its container a gallon of water weighs 8.3 lb.; that means 5 gallons of water weighs 41.5 lbs., 10 gallons weigh 83 lbs., and 55 gallons weighs a whopping 456.5 lbs.! And this isn’t even including the weight of all that glass, rocky substrate and resin ornaments! With all that extra stuff added up, a 55-gallon tank weighs over 600 lbs., 150 lbs. more than just the water alone. Think about these numbers when you’re eyeballing that delicate end-table for your aquarium stand.
Once you’ve decided on the right place for your aquarium, one that is easily accessible, visible and well supported, you’re ready to decide what size aquarium you want to have (if you haven’t already). Now here we have a bit of advice that seems contradictory to the weight discussion earlier: bigger is better. Now I’m not saying you have to start with a 120-gallon aquarium for your Tetras, but you may want to consider skipping past that 2-gallon aquarium for a 10-gallon. Fish are sensitive to chemicals in their water, and as an aquarium owner you will surely be adding things like water-conditioner, fish food, plant fertilizers, etc. to your aquarium. Just like in humans, overdosing is BAD, but a few extra gallons of water can be the difference between your 1mL overdose ravaging your tank or just being a mild nuisance. A larger aquarium also allows for you to keep more fish, as the “1 gallon of water per inch of fish” rule limits how many of your finned friends you can have in any given tank. It also gives you—the aquascaper—more room to work and decorate, giving you the extra height or depth you need to create that perfect scene. Of course, in the end it’s up to you and the space, time, effort and money you’ve allotted to your new aquarium.

And now that we’ve breached the subject, let’s discuss that: money. Keeping fish is not cheap, no matter what sale you find on your supplies. It will cost you to keep a fully-functioning aquarium stable, whether it’s in the up-front costs of the equipment and decor, the ongoing costs of food and chemicals, the astronomical price tag of certain fish species, or in the increase in your electricity bill to keep it all running 24/7. That being said, sales and discounts can be found and the ongoing costs are not exorbitant for a modest aquarium.

In the context of a freshwater tropical aquarium the absolute minimum you need to begin your aquarium is the aquarium itself, a heater, and a filter. You can usually find these three things included in bundles at your local pet stores for a decent price, and they’re a great way for a new fish owner to get started with budget equipment. Does this make for a pleasant life for your fish? No. Will it be appealing to look at? No. So, the next two things you’ll need are substrate and a light source. Substrate is the bottom layer of “stuff” in your aquarium, usually gravel, sand, or dirt. This creates an environment for beneficial bacteria to grow in, as well as creating a more natural environment for the fish. It also looks better, too. The light source adds lighting to your aquarium so you can actually see the lovely colors of your new pets, as well as giving the fish the appreciation of a day/night cycle when you turn off the lights at night. These two additions will make your aquarium look better and make your fish happier, which in turn makes them healthier.

Another addition you can make that your fish will GREATLY appreciate you for is the addition of plants (fake or live) or ornaments. A fish in a glass cube full of water is a scared fish: there is movement all around (“most definitely predators!” is what it’s thinking) and it doesn’t have anywhere to hide to protect itself. Simply adding an ornament or two or some plants will offer your fish great relief as it can hide from danger. And surprisingly, the more places a fish has to hide the bolder it will become, coming out into the open more often as it feels confident that it can hide if necessary. So add the plants, add the caves, add the funny little shark sitting in the beach chair: every one of these things is a place your fish can retreat to and feel secure.

Once your aquarium is all set up with substrate, the heater, a filter, a light source, ornaments, plants and—of course—water, you’ll need to condition your water with a water conditioner. This removes the dangerous Chlorines and Chloramines the water treatment facilities put into our tap water to sterilize it for us which are actually toxic to fish. Follow the directions on the bottle to appropriately dose your water but don’t worry, this is the one chemical you don’t have to be too concerned about overdosing!

Make sure your pump and filter are on and run it all for a good 24-48 hours to let the aquarium cycle. This is a process that allows the beneficial bacteria we mentioned earlier to establish themselves and better scale when you finally add fish. You can buy products that contain these bacteria from the pet store and add them directly to your tank, but I would still wait the 24-48 hours to properly cycle. If you don’t want to purchase the bacteria, take a small pinch of fish food and drop it into your tank: this will break up in your water and degrade, giving the trace amounts of bacteria something to feed on and grow. This is usually enough to begin the cycling of your tank. Many of the problems in new aquariums arise from not properly cycling the tank and are grouped under the condition known as “New Tank Syndrome”, the symptoms of which include sudden death of new fish, sickly fish and widespread diseases and parasites (Ich), and brown algae. None of this is good, but most if not all of it can be avoided by properly cycling your aquarium!

I’m going to stop here and split the remaining article into another post. This half does a good job of setting you up with planning and hypotheticals; the second-half will begin with deciding on fish species and tank-mates and then continue on to the actual set-up and maintenance of your new aquarium. Thank you so much for hanging out here and I’ll see you next time! Bye!