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Aquarium Science

Aquarium Science

This is a website dedicated to freshwater aquariums.

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Level 2

Guidelines for Beginners.
Then we add a second level of complexity when we discuss three very important topics: chlorine, cycling, and the amount of food

1.1. Aquarium Beginner Guide

This is a series of recommendations as to what to do when one gets a new aquarium.

  • Home Page of Aquarium Science
  • 1. The Basic Aquarium Guide
    • 1.1. Aquarium Beginner Guide
      • 1.1.1. The First Aquarium
      • 1.1.2. A Simple Way to Cycle
      • 1.1.3. Fish Food
      • 1.1.4. Water Parameters
      • 1.1.5. Filters
      • 1.1.6. Filter Media
      • 1.1.7. Aeration
      • 1.1.8. Stocking
      • 1.1.9. “Brown Algae”
      • 1.1.10. Plants and the New Hobbyist
      • 1.1.11. Ich
      • 1.1.12. How to Make Fish Thrive
        • 1.1.12.1. Guideline Example
        • 1.1.12.2. Unimportant Aquarium Parameters
      • 1.1.13. Aquarium Fish Selection
      • 1.1.14. Aquarium Maintenance
    • 1.2. Falsehoods and Myths
    • 1.3. False Marketing Claims
    • 1.4. Sources of Data
      • 1.4.1. Facebook Fake Accounts
    • 1.5. Aquarium Options
      • 1.5.1. Aquarium Examples
    • 1.6. Aquarium Fast Fish Deaths
    • 1.7. Aquarium Slow Fish Deaths
  • 2. Aquarium Cycling
    • 2.1. Fish-less Cycling
    • 2.2. Many Ways to Cycle
    • 2.3. How I Cycle
    • 2.4. Cycling with Ammonia
      • 2.4.1. Dr. Tim’s Cycling Method
    • 2.5. Aquarium Fish-in Cycling
      • 2.5.1. Fish-in Cycling Science
      • 2.5.2. Rapid Fish-in Cycling
    • 2.6. Not Cycling at All
    • 2.7. New Tank Syndrome
    • 2.8. Bacteria-in-a-bottle
      • 2.8.1. Bacteria in a Bottle in Depth
      • 2.8.2. Sludge Removing Bacteria
    • 2.9. Instant Cycling Chemicals
    • 2.10. Nitrogen Cycle
    • 2.11. Inoculate for Cycling
    • 2.12. Beneficial Bacteria
    • 2.13. Cycling Test
    • 2.14. The Mature Aquarium
    • 2.15. Cycling a Planted Aquarium
  • 3. Fish Food
    • 3.1. Insignificance of Food
      • 3.1.1. Fish Food Science
    • 3.2. Fish Diet Specializations
    • 3.3. Amount of Fish Food
      • 3.3.1. Amount in Depth
    • 3.4. Gel Fish Food
    • 3.5. Breaking Up Food
    • 3.6. Dry Fish Food
      • 3.6.1. Dry Fish Food in Depth
    • 3.7. Banned Fish Food
    • 3.8. Food and Malawi Bloat
    • 3.9. Fish Food and Gunk
  • 4. Temperature, pH, KH and GH
    • 4.1. Importance of Water
    • 4.2. Aquarium Temperatures
    • 4.3. Free Floating Bacteria
    • 4.4. Aquarium pH
      • 4.4.1. Aquarium pH is Not Important
      • 4.4.2. Buffering the Water
      • 4.4.3. Carbon Dioxide and pH
      • 4.4.4. Dropping pH
      • 4.4.5. Raising pH
    • 4.5. Water Hardness
      • 4.5.1. General Hardness
      • 4.5.2. Carbonate Hardness
        • 4.5.2.1. KH and Cycling
    • 4.6. Salts in the Water
      • 4.6.1. Trace Additives
    • 4.7. Fish Tolerance to pH
    • 4.8. “Stability” isn’t Important
      • 4.8.1. Rapid Thermal and pH Shifts
    • 4.9. Un-bagging Fish
    • 4.10. ORP or Redox
    • 4.11. Tank Syndromes
  • 5. Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate and Chlorine
    • 5.2. Safe Ammonia Levels
      • 5.2.1. Ammonia in Depth
      • 5.2.3. Ammonia Spikes
    • 5.3. Safe Nitrite Levels
      • 5.3.2. Nitrite in More Depth
    • 5.4. Safe Nitrate Levels
      • 5.4.1. Nitrate in Depth
    • 5.5. Chlorine and Chloramine
      • 5.5.1. Chlorination in Depth
      • 5.5.2. Chloramines
        • 5.5.2.1. Ammonia in Chloramine
      • 5.5.3. Water Conditioners
        • 5.5.3.1. Ammonia Detoxifying
        • 5.5.3.2. Prime and Safe
          • 5.5.3.2.1. Prime, Safe and Ammonia
          • 5.5.3.2.2. Prime, Safe and Cycling
          • 5.5.3.2.3. Prime, Safe and Sodium Dithionite
          • 5.5.3.2.4. Prime, Safe and Chloramine
          • 5.5.3.2.5. Prime Concentration
          • 5.5.3.2.6. Safe Cannot be Made into Prime
        • 5.5.3.3. Conditioner Chemistry
        • 5.5.3.4. Cost of Conditioners
        • 5.5.3.5. Conditioner Testing
        • 5.5.3.6. Review of Conditioners
      • 5.5.4. Stress Coat Products
  • 6. Filtration
    • 6.1. Mechanical Filtration
      • 6.1.1. Cleaned Mechanical Filtration
      • 6.1.2. Uncleaned Mechanical Filtration
    • 6.2. Biofiltration
      • 6.2.1. Detritus Explained
      • 6.2.2. Brown Gunk
      • 6.2.3. Cloudy Water
    • 6.3. Over-filtration
    • 6.4. Crystal-Clear Water
      • 6.4.1. Crystal-Clear Water in Depth
      • 6.4.2. Polishing Filtration
    • 6.5. Water Flow Rate
      • 6.5.1. Flow Function
      • 6.5.2. Substrate as a Filter
    • 6.6. Aquaponic Filtration
    • 6.7. Nitrate Factory
    • 6.8. Thorough Cleaning
      • 6.8.1. Filter Cleaning Tests
    • 6.9. Tap Water Rinsing
  • 7. Filter Media
    • 7.1. Review of Media
      • 7.1.1. Cost of Filter Media
      • 7.1.2. Media Function
      • 7.1.3. Filter Media Test
        • 7.1.3.1. Ammonia Oxidizing Test
        • 7.1.3.2. Water Clarity Test
    • 7.2. Individual Media List
      • 7.2.1. Polyester Floss
      • 7.2.2. Foam Media
      • 7.2.3. K1 Media
      • 7.2.4. Pumice Perlite
      • 7.2.5. Gravel
      • 7.2.6. PP EVA Pads
      • 7.2.7. Bio Balls
      • 7.2.8. Pot Scrubbers
      • 7.2.9. Lava Rock
      • 7.2.10. Growstone
      • 7.2.11. Ceramics
      • 7.2.12. Matrix
      • 7.2.13. Clay Balls
      • 7.2.14. BioHome Filter Media
    • 7.3. Media Volume
    • 7.4. Chemical Filtration Media
      • 7.4.2. Activated Carbon
      • 7.4.3. Ion-Exchange Resins
      • 7.4.4. Zeolite
      • 7.4.5. Phosphate Remover
      • 7.4.6. Purigen
      • 7.4.7. Poly-Filter
      • 7.4.8. Chemi-pure
    • 7.5. Denitrifying Media
    • 7.6. Media Surface Area
  • 8. Review of Aquarium Filters
    • 8.1. Review of Filters
      • 8.1.1. Filter Test
    • 8.2. Hang-on-the-back Filters
    • 8.3. Canister Filter
      • 8.3.1. Canisters in Depth
      • 8.3.2. Do-it-yourself Canisters
      • 8.3.3. FX Series Canister Filters
    • 8.4. Sponge Filters
    • 8.5. Under Gravel Filters
      • 8.5.1. Under-Gravels in Depth
      • 8.5.2. DIY Undergravel Filter
    • 8.6. Sump Filters
      • 8.6.1. Sumps in Depth
      • 8.6.2. Static Sump Filters
      • 8.6.3. Trickle Filters
      • 8.6.4. Wet-Dry Filters
      • 8.6.5. Fluidized Beds
      • 8.6.6. Do-it-yourself Sumps
      • 8.6.7. Foam Sump
    • 8.7. Other Filters
      • 8.7.1. Sand Filters
      • 8.7.2. High Performance Filters
      • 8.7.3. Hamburg Matten Filter
      • 8.7.4. Diatomaceous Earth Filters
      • 8.7.5. DIY Bottle Filters
      • 8.7.6. Small Filters
      • 8.7.7. Bottom of the Tank Matten
      • 8.7.8. Small DIY Filters
    • 8.8. Filter and Media Design
      • 8.8.1. Sizing Filters in Depth
    • 8.9. Anaerobic Reactors
      • 8.9.1. Biocenosis Reactor
      • 8.9.2. A Feasible Reactor
      • 8.9.3. Assimilatory Denitrification
  • 9. Aeration
    • 9.1. Aeration in Depth
    • 9.2. Turbulence and Aeration
    • 9.3. Air Stones
      • 9.3.2. Cleaning Air Stones
    • 9.4. Skimmers and Spray Bars
    • 9.5. Aeration and Temperature
  • 10. Diseases
    • 10.1. Diseases in General
    • 10.2. Skin Protozoans
      • 10.2.1. All Protozoans
      • 10.2.2. Ich
        • 10.2.2.1. Ich in Depth
        • 10.2.2.2. Ich Immunity
        • 10.2.2.3. Ich Medication
        • 10.2.2.4. Ich Medications in More Depth
        • 10.2.2.5. Ineffective Ich Medications
        • 10.2.2.6. Filtration of Ich
        • 10.2.2.7. Ich and Heat
      • 10.2.3. Velvet
      • 10.2.4. Epistylis
      • 10.2.5. Chilodonella and Costia
      • 10.2.6. Tetrahymena
      • 10.2.7. Cryptobia
    • 10.3. Bacterial
      • 10.3.1. Skin Ulcers
      • 10.3.2. Mouth Rot
      • 10.3.3. Duck Lips
      • 10.3.4. Fin Rot
      • 10.3.5. Saddleback
      • 10.3.6. Red Blotches
      • 10.3.7. White Eyes
      • 10.3.8. Popeye
      • 10.3.9. Red Gills
      • 10.3.10. Red Mouth in Goldfish
      • 10.3.11. Treating Bacteria
    • 10.4. Fish Tuberculosis
      • 10.4.1. Fish TB in Depth
      • 10.4.2. Mycobacteriosis in Humans
    • 10.5. Hexamita
    • 10.6. Flukes
    • 10.7. Fish Saprolegnia
    • 10.8. Lymphocystis
    • 10.9. Anchor Worms
    • 10.10. Black Spots
    • 10.11. Tapeworms
    • 10.12. Nematodes
      • 10.12.1. Camallanus
      • 10.12.2. Capillaria
    • 10.13. Pests
      • 10.13.1. Hydra
      • 10.13.2. Detritus Worms
      • 10.13.3. Planaria
      • 10.13.4. Aquarium Leeches
      • 10.13.5. Bryozoans and Stentors
    • 10.14. Fish Lice
    • 10.15. Dwarf Gourami Disease
    • 10.16. Graphite Disease in Bettas
  • 11. Fish Disease Symptoms
    • 11.1. Hole in the Head
      • 11.1.1. Hexamita and HITH
      • 11.1.2. Spots on Head
    • 11.2. White Poop
    • 11.3. Malawi Bloat
    • 11.4. Dropsy
    • 11.5. Hollow Belly
    • 11.6. Swim Bladder
    • 11.7. Shimmying
    • 11.8. Twirling
    • 11.9. Spinal Deformities
    • 11.10. White Skin Blotches
    • 11.11. Red Skin Blotches
    • 11.12. Neon Disease
    • 11.13. Slime Coat
    • 11.14. Scaly Skin
    • 11.15. Fish not Eating
    • 11.16. Aggression
    • 11.17. Black Death
    • 11.18. Black Head Syndrome
    • 11.19. Gas Bubble Disease
  • 12. Treatment
    • 12.1. Basics of Treatment
    • 12.2. Treatments Summary
    • 12.3. Quarantine Tanks
    • 12.4. Ineffective Medicines
      • 12.4.1. “Natural” Aquarium Medications
      • 12.4.2. Salt
      • 12.4.3. Aquarium Dyes
      • 12.4.4. Formalin
      • 12.4.5. Antiseptics
      • 12.4.6. Furan and Sulfa
      • 12.4.7. Quinine
    • 12.5. Fish Don’t Drink
    • 12.6. Sterilization
    • 12.7. Making Medicated Food
    • 12.8. Euthanizing a Fish
    • 12.9. Avoiding Disease
    • 12.10. The Shotgun Approach
  • 13. Stocking
    • 13.1. Stocking Opinions
    • 13.2. Calculating Stocking Ratio
    • 13.3. Lifespan of a Fish
  • 14. Equipment
    • 14.1. UV Sterilizers
      • 14.1.1. UV in Depth
      • 14.1.2 Selecting a UV Unit
    • 14.2. Substrates
      • 14.2.1. Sand
      • 14.2.2. Gravel
      • 14.2.3. Buffering Substrates
      • 14.2.4. Anaerobic Myth
        • 14.2.4.1. Anaerobic Science
    • 14.3. Rocks
    • 14.4. Lights
      • 14.4.1. Light Spectrums
      • 14.4.2. Obsolete Standards
    • 14.5. Piping
    • 14.6. Pumps
    • 14.7. Overflow Devices
    • 14.8. Aquarium Heaters
    • 14.9. Wavemakers
    • 14.10.Wood
    • 14.11. Fish Electrocution
    • 14.12. Silicone
    • 14.13. Aquarium Electric Cost
    • 14.14. Cleaning Old Aquariums
    • 14.15. Aquarium Aesthetics
  • 15. Planted Aquarium
    • 15.1. Planted Aquariums in Depth
    • 15.2. Fish
    • 15.3. Fish Limitations
    • 15.4. Types of Planted Tanks
      • 15.4.1. Planted Aquarium Examples
    • 15.5. Aquarium Fertilizing
      • 15.5.1. Ready Made Fertilizers
      • 15.5.2. Fertilizer Programs
      • 15.5.3. Estimative Index
      • 15.5.4. NH₄ and Tabs Fertilizer
      • 15.5.5. DIY Epiphytic Fertilizer
      • 15.5.6. Fish Food Fertilizer
      • 15.5.7. DIY Fertilizers
    • 15.6. Carbon Dioxide
      • 15.6.1. Low Tech CO₂
      • 15.6.2. KH pH CO₂ Relationships
      • 15.6.3. High Tech CO₂ Systems  
      • 15.6.4. CO₂ From Food
      • 15.6.5. Liquid CO₂
      • 15.6.6. Measuring CO₂
    • 15.7. Plant Substrates
    • 15.8. Walstad Aquarium
    • 15.9. High Tech Planted Aquariums
    • 15.10. Hybrid Planted Aquariums
    • 15.11. Many Fish Many Plants
    • 15.12. Propagating Plants
    • 15.13. Hau Planted Aquariums
    • 15.14. Low Tech Planted Aquariums
    • 15.15. Sterilizing Plants
    • 15.16. Natural Aquarium
  • 16. Aquarium Algae
    • 16.1. Algae Biology
    • 16.2. Controlling Algae
      • 16.2.1. Algae in Fish Only Tanks
      • 16.2.2. Algae in High Tech Tanks
      • 16.2.3. Algae in Low Tech Tanks
      • 16.2.4. Algae Eaters
      • 16.2.5. The Algae War
      • 16.2.6. Chemical Algae Control
      • 16.2.7. Chihiros Doctor
    • 16.3. Thread Algae
    • 16.4. Blue-Green Algae
    • 16.5. Black Beard Algae
    • 16.6. Staghorn Algae
    • 16.7. Aquarium Green Water
    • 16.8. Brown Algae
    • 16.9. Green Spot Algae
    • 16.10. Water Mold
      • 16.10.1. White Fuzz
    • 16.11. Slime Mold
    • 16.12. Red Spot Algae
    • 16.13. A Few Oddities
  • 17. Aquarium Fish Selection
    • 17.1. Native Water Chemistries
    • 17.2. Biotopes
      • 17.2.1. Blackwater Biotope
    • 17.3. Blackwater Fish
    • 17.4. Lake Malawi Cichlids
      • 17.4.1. Malawi Aquariums
    • 17.5. Goldfish
      • 17.5.1. Types of Goldfish
      • 17.5.2. Size of Goldfish
      • 17.5.3. Stocking Goldfish
      • 17.5.4. Goldfish Care
    • 17.6. Guppies and Livebearers
    • 17.7. Aquarium Bettas
    • 17.8 Oscars
    • 17.9. Nano Aquarium
    • 17.10. Aquarium Shrimp
    • 17.11. Discus
      • 17.11.1. Discus Husbandry
      • 17.11.2. Filtration for Discus
      • 17.11.3. Water for Discus
      • 17.11.4. Food for Discus
      • 17.11.5. Discus Pheromones
      • 17.11.6. Breeding Discus
      • 17.11.7. Discus Photos
    • 17.12. Axolotl
  • 18. Aquarium Maintenance
    • 18.1. Aquarium Water Changes
      • 18.1.1. Water Changes in Depth
      • 18.1.2. Aquarium Water Change Math
      • 18.1.3. Water Change Water
      • 18.1.4. Softened, RO, DI, TDS
    • 18.2. Drip Water Changes
    • 18.3. Cleaning the Substrate
    • 18.4. Cleaning a Filter
    • 18.5. Heavy Stocked Maintenance
    • 18.6. Old Tank Syndrome
    • 18.7. Sick Tank Syndrome
  • 97. Author
  • Werkgroep vertalen
    • Vertaling stijl gids
    • 96. How to translate
    • Fish en plants missing pages
    • Vertalers gezocht

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About Aquarium Science

This is a website dedicated to freshwater aquariums. It is based on SCIENCE AND LOGIC, not on parroted internet “advice”, anecdotal “It worked great for me“, or the marketing hype of some profit-driven marketer.

The listing of some eighteen chapters either below or to the right side leads to over four hundred articles on all aspects of keeping tropical fish. These articles have NO links to profit-making sites and are thus unbiased in their recommendations, unlike all the for-profit sites one will find with Google.

License

Note that the entire website is “open” in that any written material can be freely quoted and used without regard to copyrights.

The photographs on this website are taken free from the internet without regard to copyright or credits. Copyright does not apply to “fair use” sites. “Fair use” are sites where the author does not receive any payment for their work in any way. The site and the usage have to be for educational purposes only. And the amount of material used has to be “reasonable” and “limited”. This website meets all those criteria.

The author

The author, David Bogert (LaBelle, Florida), has kept aquariums of all sorts and fish of all sorts for over 56 years. He typically had ten large and many small aquariums. But note he is NOT an “expert” on ANY of the aspects let alone all of the aspects of keeping aquariums. The chemistry and biology of an aquarium are far too complex for anyone to be a true “expert” in ANY of the various aspects.

The author, has a BS in chemistry, something which is useful only in the sections on chemicals like water chemistry, rocks, silicones, conditioners, and fertilizers. He has some 43 patents, largely in the field of medical devices. This ability to invent things only helps with some DIY designs. But he has also worked for much of his life as a research scientist doing literature searches, data analysis, statistics, and a little-understood field called “design of experiments” or “DOE”.  This experience is very applicable to ALL of the fish-keeping science.

The original website of David Bogert can be found here : Aquarium Science

Links

AquaInfo is the website with information about keeping fish, shrimp, crayfish, crabs, aquatic plants and of course the aquarium itself.


FishBase is a global biodiversity information system on finfishes. Its initial goal to provide key facts on population dynamics for 200 major commercial species has now grown to having a wide range of information on all species currently known in the world: taxonomy, biology, trophic ecology, life history, and uses, as well as historical data reaching back to 250 years.


aquariumwereld is the official organ of the Belgische Bond voor Aquarium- en Terrariumhouders vzw. (BBAT) and, since its first publication in 1947, has represented an unprecedented source of information for the members of the Association.

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