“Change the Water
I think the most important factor to be successful in keeping fish in aquarium is a regular partial change of water. I must admit that I have an advantage over many aquarists in this regard, because I have my own independent water supply, with no addition of chemicals to worry about (rainwater collected from the roof and stored in a 2.5 meter concrete pocket Cubic), many of you will be thinking “”rainwater? Full of pollution! “”, But here in Australia, we have not had, at least until now, this problem. The rain that falls here (and we are only 40 miles northeast of Melbourne) is still very pure. However, in these days when many people rely on their municipal water supplies, supplemented with their companions, chemical additives,
Either way, the reason for partial water changes on a regular basis, (and I routinely make water changes of 50% weekly in all my aquariums), is simply to remove as much waste of dissolved matter as possible. Ideally, you should do a hundred percent water change on a daily basis if you want to simulate a natural system more exactly, so 50% weekly should be enough (and, in practical terms, more than enough).
Filtration
The whole purpose of filtration is to remove debris from solid matter from water, and my philosophy is to “”get the waste products out of the system as soon as possible.”” For this reason, I prefer to use the “”backpack”” type external power filter since the media in these filters can be cleaned or changed for one or two minutes, which should be done as often as possible. One of my favorite power filters is the WhisperTM. This filter indicates when the filter pads should be rinsed or replaced by a simple spill, as the system is not pressurized, then, as soon as the filter medium becomes clogged, it indicates spilling back into the aquarium that is already clogged. Power filters also create strong water flows, which,
By the way, I have only used pure mechanical filtration methods (ie without coal, chemicals, etc.). I make my own filter media, very cheap, using acrylic fiber (delcrón), which I obtain by square meters in the craft stores or supermarkets, and which I cut to the desired size and lace in the sewing machine. I also use foam rubber (available from various sources) as a filter medium. In this way I can afford to frequently replace the filter medium and therefore maintain an optimum filtration performance.
Varied diet
It is my belief that we must feed our fish with as wide a variety of food as possible. Again, it is pure common sense that the greater variety of foods that an omnivorous animal eats (and most fish are basically omnivores), the greater the opportunity for them to get all the essential nutrients they need to stay on top of their Health (by the way, this also applies to humans). Basically that’s it. Feed your fish with live, frozen, commercially prepared dry food”
