A Salt Water Aquarium Needs Filtration, Have You Decided What Kind?
If you are not used to having a salt water aquarium at home or whether you’ve been doing it for years, occasionally problems show up. The trick is to get the issues resolved before your fish have issues. Here are a couple of the most typical problems aquariums run into and the way to fix them.
Have you got brown algae growing inside your tank? Some systems grow brown algae regardless of how often you are cleaning your tank. This issue is generally brought on by extra nutrients within the water which can be brought on by over feeding or from nutrients present in your water. This issue can be solved by introducing a reverse osmosis water system or by using a protein skimmer to remove excess nutrients.
Maybe you have had your fish’s gills turn red or purple? If that’s the case, you might have been coping with a case of ammonia poisoning. This sometimes happens when a new tank has been set up or when too many new fish are introduced at once. You will have to begin reducing the ammonia immediately by reduction of the pH of the water. In particularly bad cases, adding a chemical to reduce the pH can help.
Some tanks occasionally experience algae that turn water green. This could be brought on by too many fish in a tank creating a lot of excess nutrients. When this happens, blocking light from your tank can help slow the speed of the algae growth. A diatomic filter can help remove the algae.
Oil slicks occasional form on the top of a tank. This has many possible causes including oils from your hands, cooking oil from the air, fish waste or decomposing dead fish. Although the oil on the top of the surface isn’t an immediate problem, it can reduce the oxygen within the water. To eliminate the oil, turn off any pumps and skim the oil from the the surface of the still water.
In a long heat spell, water temperatures of a tank might eventually reach a point that may reduce the amount of oxygen in the water. Although not mandatory, some ways to help reduce the temperature of the water are to turn off the aquarium lights, move the tank out of any sunlight, place a fan that blows directly across the water, or float icepacks within the water. Make sure not to cool the tank too rapidly.
In case your fish’s gills turn brown or tan or perhaps is gasping for water on the surface, your tank might be struggling with nitrate poisoning. To prevent your fish from dying, add a half ounce of salt per gallon of water in your tank. Increase the aeration within the tank until the nitrate levels go back to zero.
Keeping an eye on your fish tank will help you catch these common issues before they cause damage to your fish. As you obtain experience with your live rock aquarium, dealing with common problems will seem like second nature.
