For those who love customs aquariums and the sea world, keeping salt water tropical fish is the ultimate dream. Those “hardcore fish lovers” will want saltwater fish tank at home instead of the more usual fresh water fish tanks which are more easier to maintain and the freshwater fish easier to care for. Having a custom-made saltwater aquarium will give you a better way to enjoy your tropical fish pet.
Here are some tips on how to take care for your salt water tropical fish:
Get a customized fish tank
As the new adage goes, if you have it flaunt it. Admittedly, saltwater fish tank is more expensive that freshwater aquarium, especially if you want a custom-made tank. But what the heck, why hold back on your passion? It has always been the fancy of almost all die-hard fan of the sea world to own a custom aquarium so you have to have the knowledge in choosing the best one for you and one that fits your budget. You can design your own customized fish tank, however, you can also personalize the inside of your aqurium by designing its ornamentation and accessories.
Make sure the tank is clean
After you have your tank, it’s time to clean it up completely. Using freshwater, clean all the ornamentation, accessories and all the parts that will comprise the aquarium before putting your salt water tropical fish in it. This process will make it safe to your fish from any harmful dust or chemical that may have accumulated because of long storage.make sure the tank is clean
Find a perfect spot for your aquarium
Before deciding which part of your room the aquarium will be displayed, please make sure that you find a steady corner or place for your fish tank. Loose electrical cords of the motor, lights, etc of your aquarium is a potential source of accident so give your aquarium a safe distance from the plug outlet and avoid the risk of electric shock, particularly when cleaning the tank or feeding the fish.
Always have a soft dusting cloth near the fish tank to keep condenstion from the saltwater tank under control and prevent any damage to your stand.
Make sure that your fish tank is set on an even level, then test-run all the aquarium equipment using salt water. You can buy saltwater from your local pet store or you can choose to prepare your own solution. Keep the tank equipment running for several days and see that everything is working properly, test the correct salinity of the water, pH level and the correct temperature appropriate for the fish you will put inside the tank.
Landscaping
After your dry run, remove half of the water from the tank and landscape your salt water tropical fish aquarium with plants, corrals and other accessories for other beauty. Line a mark in the tank and the fill it up with saltwater up to that level. Put the saltwater fish tank inside the tank. When you are done, you can start enjoying the view of the fish swimming about your tank.
Filed under Fish and Aquarium Care by on Jan 21st, 2010. Comment. 
Wall fish tanks impart a dramatic and beautiful look to any room. They can be mounted on a partition wall so they can be seen from each room. Even though wall aquariums can be pricier than regular fish tanks and take more expertise to mount you will be very pleased that you made the effort and investment when you see how good your aquarium looks and how much it is appreciated by your visitors. They can, however, be harder to look after than a stand alone aquarium as they are installed in a small area which makes it a bit harder to access the tank for cleaning, feeding and any other maintenance. Many wall fish tanks come with cabinets above or below the tank which should help make access easier.
Many of the newer wall aquariums can be bought as kits with all the accessories and hardware for mounting necessary, so that the pumps, filters etc. are concealed. These kits are simple to mount so you might not need a professional to mount the fish tank for you. On the other hand if you are unsure of your skills in do it yourself, it is probably better to pay a workman to do the mounting instead so that all you have to do is to fill the aquarium and add the fish.
An important thing you should do prior to hanging the tank is to see if there is any electrical wiring or pipes in the wall at the location you are going to place it. You also need to find a load bearing wall and find the wall studs. Aquariums are heavy when you have filled them with water so you need to be confident that the wall will take the weight.You also need to make a decision on whether you are going to hang the tank or build it into the wall.
The next task to do is to measure the area where you are going to place the fish tank and make sure you allow some room for other things such as pumps, filters and lights. You can place the pump some distance away from the tank, and water can flow through pipes to the tank. Admittedly this may be extra work on initially installing it does have the advantage that you will be able move larger amounts of water through the aquarium, which will let you accommodate more fish, and in addition locates the noise of the pump away from the room. One of the problems with wall tanks is that they tend to be narrow so that the surface area is smaller than other types aquariums. This can mean that if you don’t aerate the water very well you will not be able to keep many fish in the aquarium.
If you are going to use the services of a builder to mount your wall aquarium have a chat with him before you go out and buy your fish tank to make sure that he knows what you need to be done. Once your tank is mounted it will need to be set up exactly like any other tank by initially cycling the tank before you should add the fish. The best method is fishless cycling that is quite easy to do and doesn’t cause harm to any fish. When the tank is cycled you can start to buy the fish and plants if you will be using them.
An especially exotic effect can be achieved by making a reef fish tank with brightly coloured reef corals and fish, but this would be, perhaps a plan for an expert fish keeper. A wall fish tank, as previously stated, gives a dramatic center of attention to any room and is sure to be appreciated by all your visitors.
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Filed under Fish and Aquarium Care by on Dec 16th, 2009. Comment.
Made of SeaClear sparkling acrylic, this show aquarium combines a modern design with the benefits of acrylic construction. It’s less than half the weight of comparably sized glass tanks and its exceptional clarity allows unobstructed views of the underwater world you create.Acrylic is 17 times stronger than glass and other commonly used aquarium materials.SeaClear Aquariums are all acrylic, with no degradable sealers. Seams are molecularly bonded and heat polished, not joined with glue or sealers. This means your SeaClear Aquarium will be virtually leak and breakproof.Because acrylic is impervious to the corrosive effects of saltwater, SeaClear Aquariums are safe for both fresh and saltwater use.This aquarium is manufactured to fit stands and canopies from other manufacturers.Includes a UL listed fluorescent light fixture (bulb not included) and manufacturer’s lifetime limited warranty.
Filed under Bowfront by on Jul 11th, 2009. Comment.
Among the most spectacularly colored dwarf angelfish, the flame angelfish (Centropyge Loriculus) has become the most recognizable and the most popular member of the genus centropyge. Like the queen angel, almost everyone in the marine aquarium hobby has at one time either owned a flame angel or at least considered getting one. A true testament to the beauty this angelfish possessess.
The genus centropyge contains 33 species that have been found thus far, making it the largest genus within the marine angelfish complex (Pomacanthidae). Our fish of interest goes by the scientific name Centropyge Loriculus. Its common name is the flame angelfish, so named because it is colored a bright red-orange with vertical black lines down its body. The tips of its anal and dorsal fins are accentuated with neon blue patches.
The flame angel is a little on the high side in terms of price so expect to pay between $40 and $50 US dollars for a specimen. While this may seem like a lot for an ornamental fish, it pales in comparison with rarer angelfish such as the golden angelfish. Considering the effect it has on most onlookers I’d say the price is a steal.
While commonly thought to hail from Hawaii, they are actually collected around the Marshall and Christmas Islands instead. True Hawaiian flame angelfish are colored slightly differently and are very hard to find. They are uniformly red without any orange throughout their bodies and their black vertical lines are always thin.
As with all members of the genus centropyge this angelfish can be aggressive towards other tank mates. They are particularly hostile towards members of the same species. Putting two flame angelfish together in a small tank is generally a bad idea. The same goes for housing two members of the same genus together. Such an endeavor should only be attempted if the marine aquarium in question is large enough, 75 gallons or larger.
The flame angelfish should be kept in an aquarium no less than 50 gallons. Ideally, you’d want something like a 75 gallon or larger aquarium for them. The added space keeps issues stemming from territory to a minimum. This is assuming the tank isn’t already full of fishes. They require caves and holes throughout the rock scape so your live rock arrangement should reflect this.
Like all members of the genus centropyge, the flame angelfish has been known to nip on corals in a reef aquarium. There is no telling when such behavior will happen. I’ve heard stories of flame angels that have never bothered corals for years only to begin sampling them overnight. This is how it is with all dwarf angelfish. No exceptions. Unfortunately, once they start nipping, it is highly likely that such behaviour will continue.
Flame angelfish are grazers in the wild. They constanty feed off the substrate and rock that surround their territory. Their food items mainly consist of tiny crustaceans and algae.
Ensure they are given a varied diet within a marine aquarium. Provide a good mix of algae based foods along with meaty foods. Nori, spirulina, frozen mysis shrimp and other meaty or algae gel cubes should be part of their everyday diet. A good dry food for flame angels are new life spectrum, formula one and formula two pellets. A great food that contains everything they find in the wild is the pygmy angel formula gel cubes by ocean nutrition. They are only available in frozen cubes.
In the wild, flam angelfish form harems, a single male will dominate up to 7 females. Females maintain a seperate territory within the males territory. Every evening the male approaches each female in his harem until he chooses to mate with one of them. He then assumes courting behavior. Fins are flared, he darts around the female in circles and assumes mating colors.
Courting ensues anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes until they finally spawn. The male nudges the female up in to the water column until they are perfectly positioned to release eggs and sperm at the same time. The actual mating process takes no longer than half a second. Having mated, they disappear into the rocks.
While there have been many cases of flame angel pairs spawning in the home aquaria, there have been no cases of their larvae being raised to adulthood. Dwarf angelfish have only been successfully raised on a commercial level by companies with a lot of money backing them. And even then, success came not more than 7 years ago.
The biggest breakthrough in angelfish breeding happened in Hawaii around 2002. It was found that the key ingredient to raising dwarf angelfish larvae was in finding an appropriate food for them. The food item had to fulfill 3 criteria. It had to be nurtitious enough for the larvae, small enough for them to eat and it had to move in a specific manner as to elicit a feeding response.
Frank Baensch of Reef Culture Technologies along with three others collaborated to find this food, and they were successful. What followed was the captive breeding of not just the flame angelfish but of rarer species such as the bandit angelfish, colin’s angelfish and the Japanese pygmy angelfish. All very expensive fishes in the hobby. The breakthrough food is reputed to be an undisclosed copepod nauplii.
Such success has not been achieved by hobbyists or even small scale breeders. Baby brine shrimp and rotifers are the mainstay of home breeding but both of them do not seem to elicit a feeding response from dwarf angelfish larvae. As a result the larvae usually starve to death. The challenge lies in finding an appropriate food that will work on this species. Until then, we are left with buying wild caught flame angelfish or even the occasional captive bred ones.
Filed under Fish and Aquarium Care by on Jul 8th, 2009. Comment.
The easiest way to create a breathtaking fresh or saltwater aquarium set-up is with the SeaClear System II Aquariums.
Filed under SeaClear by on Mar 7th, 2009. Comment.
