Hi, welcome and great to see you here on my blog. I will be sharing some information on how I keep my favourite freshwater pets. These will include water management tips and the equipment related to fresh water fish keeping. It a pleasure to share my passion here with you. 

So...stay tune and enjoy your stay here !


Maintain the quality of the water - The basic.
Before you begin your quest for exotic fish, may it be a juvenile fresh water stringray, Asian Arowana,  Spotted Gar, Peacock bass or other exotic fish, there are plenty of things you need to consider before jumping into this hobby. The most important aspect of fish keeping is to know how to keep your water at its best condition. As the saying goes.... " If you look after the water, it will takes care of your fish". 


Take care of your water - The Nitrification process.
Fishes eat and defecate within the confined space of the aquarium. Overtime, the quality of the water will deteriorate. Having a effectively well maintained filtration is a must to keep the water quality prolong. 


What does a filter do? As a hobbyist, one should understand the nitrogen cycle. The nitrogen cycle take place in the filter where fish waste, uneaten food or dead fish are broken down by bacteria. This reaction creates a chemical called ammonia which is extremely toxic for live inhabitants in your tank. During nitrification, Nitrosomonas are microbes that feed on oxygen and ammonia. It is broken down to a less harmful chemical called nitrite. In the same cycle, another bacteria namely Nitrobacters which help to further convert nitrite to nitrate. However Nitrobacters are anaerobic, require less or no oxygen condition to survive. The end result is nitrate which is basically fertiliser. A good option is to introduce some plants in the tank to absorb nitrate. Do not put too much concerns as the amount is not excessive.


In regardless of a small or big aquarium, nitrification happens. These bacteria harbour and thrive onto rough porous surfaces. To cultivate a healthy colonies of these bacteria, there should be sufficient living space, oxygen and food (fish waste) for them. Simple equation, more fishes or big tank busters in a tank, the more bacteria living space needed. Here is where filter media come in play. Some quality filter media like Biohome Plus, sintered glass ceramic rings, Bacteria House are a few choice of preference.


Tips on cycling new tank.
It would be ideal to have a well cycled, matured tank for your fishes. What does this mean? A well cycled, matured tank is where a plentiful of established nitrification bacteria readily to perform the biological nitrification process. Before you can achieve this, let's begin at the starting point.

1. Place a small amount of fish depend on the size of your filter system.Too many fish in the cycling process produce a lot of waste (ammonia). Insufficient Nitrosomonas bacteria in the filter system to react will result ammonia spike.
2. Use healthy fish for cycling. This ensure that disease is not transmitted to the aquarium.
3. Use sufficient media in filter system for bacteria to thrive.
4. Kick start the cycling with commercial bacteria enhancer. The usual cycling process takes about 6 to 8 weeks for the nitrification bacteria to establish. Commercial bacteria enhancer speeds up the cycling process rapidly. A good product does not come cheap.
5. During cycling, you probably will notice that your water in the tank cloudy. There is nothing to be alarmed. This is call bacteria bloom. Basically, the bacteria colonies establishing are multiplying in a tremendous rate to handle the ammonia. Eventually, when a imbalance on the biological filter established, the cloudy water disappeared.
6. When the tank is fully cycled, fishes are ready to be introduced.

Take care of your water - Regular consistent water change.

Once we have introduced fishes in the established tank, this is where we start admiring their beauty and observing their growth. Constant feeding is required and so is consistent water management. To maintain good water, I would recommend at least once a weekly water change, usually will have 30 % to 35% of the tank volume. High bio-load is a term used to express the filtration system is taking a beating in coping up the nitrification with the excessive amount of ammonia in the water. Perhaps twice weekly water change are required for those keeping big tank busters! Big fish releases incredibly a huge amount of waste. 


The end product of nitrification is nitrate, as known as nitric acid which reduces the water alkalinity causing water PH to drop. Reduced PH alkalinity will cause fish to be unhealthy, lost of appetite and eventually dying off. Overtime other trace minerals are depleted too resulting in general hardness (GH) drop. In between water change, phosphate a naturally produced from fish waste will rise. Though it does not directly harm the tank inhabitants, elevated level will cause algae blooms which is unsightly and algae green water robs the fishes of oxygen which can be deadly. 


The trick is to keep a small amount of fish within a reasonable size aquarium and with consistent regular water change regime in hand,


Happy fish keeping.