FRESHWATER FISH TANK IDEAS FULL

What makes this route even more appealing is that it also opens you up to the possibility of using non-aquatic plants like terrarium plants !Įven though we know a heavily planted tank is the way to go, plants are only able to help us if they are kept in the proper conditions. To accomplish this layout, you could simply build the substrate in the back high enough towards the top of the tank for plants to start growing above the surface of the water.

Click here for the best plants to grow emersed AND submerged.

Most aquatic plants can be grown emersed. Plants that are grown out of the water typically grow at a much faster rate, which would further assist in nitrate removal. Preferably plants that grow fast like stem plants or floating plants, since the faster they grow, the more nutrients they will absorb.Īn interesting route you could take would be to incorporate traits of a paludarium and have some of the plants growing emersed.

FRESHWATER FISH TANK IDEAS FULL

So ideally, the layout of this tank should be full of plants. The main idea is, if you have enough plants growing in the aquarium, the need to do water changes lessens because they’re doing the work for you. Two notable ones to mention are ammonia and nitrates, the chemical compounds that are a danger for fish and other livestock. As previously mentioned, when plants grow, they absorb nutrients out of their environment. A build like this will need a lot! This is because plants are a natural filter. The first and most important part of this setup is plants. In other words, the goal of a self-sustainable aquarium is to replicate nature in our fish tanks. To do this, we would need to create an ecosystem. Now that we know a bit about how the waters in both aquariums and in nature are kept clean enough for fish to live in, we can try to create our own self-sustainable setups. There’s also a denitrification process that can happen in these natural sources for aquatic life that we will go more into later. Nitrates are one of the nutrients that plants need to grow, so they uptake it through their roots and out of these bodies of water, thereby cleaning the water. Meanwhile, freshwater lakes and rivers usually have plants growing in or on the edges of the land surrounding them. How can this be? For the most part, oceans have such a vast amount of water that the nitrate levels are probably insignificant. There’s no one performing water changes on large bodies of water like oceans, lakes, and rivers, yet fish are still able to live in them. By doing this, you’re replacing half of the “dirty” water with clean water. For example, if your aquarium reaches 40ppm of nitrates, you can do a 50% water change to get it down to 20ppm. The reason we do water changes is to remove some of the nitrates out of the aquarium.

A large buildup of nitrates can cause the fish to get stressed, and if high enough, can kill them. Nitrates are tolerable to fish and shrimp in low amounts. Bacteria (known as “beneficial bacteria”) living on/in the filter media, substrate, and any other surface in the aquarium, will convert ammonia into nitrites and then eventually nitrates. Ammonia is toxic and will kill the livestock in the tank. To try to put it simply, fish waste and other decomposing organic matters like decaying plants or uneaten fish food will release ammonia into the water. Probably one of the most important topics to learn in the aquarium hobby is the nitrogen cycle. So what if there was a way to reduce the amount/frequency we water change to possibly never having to do it at all? That is the topic we will be discussing in this blog post!īefore we dive into the “how”, we need to first understand some principles of aquatic life. Having to drain and fill many aquariums every week can take up more time than we would like. Especially those that have multiple planted fish tanks. While some find tank maintenance therapeutic, others may see it as a hassle. If you could change one thing about the aquarium hobby, what would it be? A common answer might be: the need to do water changes. Written by: Tammy ( ) and Team Buce Plant

Freshwater fish tank ideas