When well maintained, fish aquariums are beautiful pieces of art.
A freshwater aquarium full of clean water, sparkling rocks, and bright active fish makes a very eye appealing centerpiece for a home or office.
However, a fish aquarium that appears to lack maintenance with dirty water, unhealthy fish, and algae can be an eye sore.
While most aquariums are not maintenance free, a healthy aquarium is not a hard goal to achieve.
There are several steps that one can take to keep an attractive aquarium with little effort at all.
The first noticed sign of a dirty aquarium is dirty water.
The fish in your tank do not appreciate the nasty water any more than you do.
Therefore, keeping healthy and fresh water in your tank is important for the health of the fish as well as for keeping your freshwater aquarium looking good.
The easiest way to keep the water clean is with a power filter.
Power filters are designed for most aquariums that contain 10 gallons of water and over.
These filters continuously recycle water in the aquarium clearing the water of debris and other waste products that lead to dirty water.
Most filters clean with carbon.
While a power filter works well with little daily attention from you, there is a need to ensure that the filter cartridges are clean.
In most cases, they need changing about once a month.
Another often unsightly and very noticeable sign of a freshwater aquarium in need of maintenance is algae.
Algae can quickly take over the sides and ornaments in a tank by covering them with a green slimy film.
Once again, the solution is fairly simple.
Some fish enjoy devouring the algae that grows in an aquarium.
> Purchasing one of these algae eating fish, such as a Plecostomus, is usually the easiest solution.
The size of your tank will determine the size or number of Plecostomus that are needed.
It is also important to keep in mind that once the tank is clean, you may need to actually add algae pellets to ensure that your Plecsotomus has food for feeding.
When your tank does need a refreshment of water, it is best to use an aquarium siphon to vacuum debris from the rocks at the bottom.
Using a siphon is much more effective at removing dirty water than scooping water out from the top.
Only about 20% of the tank capacity of water should be removed at one cleaning.
This ensures that your fishes' natural environment is not completely turned upside down.
Add fresh, clean water back to the tank to replace the water that was removed.
Be cautious about the temperature of water that is placed back into the tank and be careful about chemicals that come from your water tap.
You will likely need to add aquarium drops to remove chlorine from the water that is added.
Once you get your aquarium in good shape, it is fairly easy to maintain.
It is much more practical in regards to time and money to maintain your freshwater aquarium regularly.
This will prevent dirty water, algae, and odor rather than waiting for them to occur and then trying to address the problem.