Water Quality in the aquarium

Water Quality in the aquarium

Water Quality is the single most important element you have in maintaining a health aquarium of any kind. Weather you have a Salt water reef tank, a cichlid tank and yes, a planted aquarium. I like to relate water quality in the fishtank to a party scene.

Say you are at a house, (your fishtank) and in that house there are a bunch of people (your fish). The more fish you put in there the dirtier the house is going to become. Sometimes house parties get carried away and way too many people show up. This causes the house to get trashed. Note that while it might be a good time while you are there afterwards it is still a mess.

The same a holds true with an aquarium. The more fish you put in it, the more you are going to have to clean it out. Unlike the party scenario, these fish don’t leave after they make a mess. They stick around and make more and more of a mess. The mess or waste factors growth is exponential because there is never a break from making a mess. (You aren’t taking the fish out so there is constantly a mess growing)
So what is the solution to this?

There are a few options…..

The first option is to not have a big party or a bunch of fish in your tank. It sounds simple, but you have no idea how often people over stock their fishtanks There are rules that loosely say one inch of fish per gallon, but I live way under that rule. Personally I keep my tanks lightly stocked. The reason for it is simple. If you have less fish you have less waste production in your tank. Typically when you are dealing with a lot of fish you are running your tank at a “higher RPM” The tank can run, but you need to keep up with it. It pains me to hear about all of the novice fish keepers who try keeping fish but don’t stop constantly adding new fish.

Adding new fish to a crowded tank only adds more waste. It also brings on more stress to all of the other fish in the tank. There are exceptions, but most fish don’t like to be crowded. Adding other new fish might make your current tank mates unhappy. What happens when fish get unhappy, they get sick.

So by crowding your fish you are stressing them both physically and mentally. Physically, with more waste, and mentally with more fish to worry about at feeding time and when looking to rest.

There are options to keeping a heavily stocked tank however. One option is to get a bigger tank. You can’t go wrong with more water volume. The bigger the tank; the more room for error. I try to practice this with my tanks. I am fortunate to have a knack for finding larger aquariums pretty cheap. My average tank size is a 75. If you don’t have the space, then you don’t have the space. Then the option is to add another additional tank

The biggest thing you can do is water changes. The more fish you have the more water changes you are going to need to be doing. When in doubt, change the water out!