Aqurium Water

Type of aquarium water

To avoid nuisance algae’s growing in your tank, it is recommended to get Reverse Osmosis De-Ionized aquarium water. You can often times buy this kind of aquarium water at the fish store where you found your saltaquarium water pet. You can also buy RO aquarium water at your supermarket, as well as distilled aquarium water. What you don’t want to use is tap aquarium water from the sink. It contains elements that are detrimental to your saltaquarium water tank. Chlorine, Phosphate, Nitrate, Fluoride and more are readily detectable in tap aquarium water, but your saltaquarium water tank needs pure aquarium water to keep your fish healthy.

Testing your aquarium water

Most important of all, saltaquarium water tanks must be tested weekly to make sure your aquarium water is healthy so your fish will remain healthy. For a simple fish only tank, you’ll want to test pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate. Your pH should test around 8.0 to 8.3. Ammonia should read 0 before adding any fish, and so should your Nitrite. Nitrate should be 20 ppm or less, and the best way to keep these down is regular aquarium water changes. Another important test is Alkalinity, which tests your aquarium water hardness. This should be between 8 and 11 dKH. Also, be sure to double check your salinity weekly to make sure it has remained stable at 1.026ppm.

Salt

Marine salt is readily available at most pet supplies, and Instant Ocean is very popular and easy to find. When you are setting up your tank, or when you do aquarium water changes, you always mix the salt in your aquarium water before you add it to your tank. You’ll need a hydrometer, which gives you a salinity reading to mix the salt to the correct level. To gauge your mixing, use ½ cup of salt per gallon of aquarium water, but test it with the hydrometer. You want your salt level at 1.026 sg (specific gravity), and your aquarium water’s temperature at that reading should be 78 degrees. As aquarium water evaporates from your tank, you only need to add new RO or distilled aquarium water, because only aquarium water is evaporating from your tank. The salt is still there. Adding saltaquarium water would only increase the salinity of your tank and cause problems for your fish.

Heating/Cooling

Heater. Your tank needs to have a stable temperature. 76° F to 84° F is your allowable tolerance. Keeping it between 78-82° F is the ideal. A small reliable heater will keep the tank from cooling too much at night (especially this winter). A small fan blowing across the top of your tank will avoid overheating during the summer months.

Cooler. On the contrary, If you live in a much hotter area, you may want to consider a cooler for your tank. It is imperative that these types of aquariums stay at static temperatures. Aquarium water has a high heat capacity, meaning that it retains heat very efficiently. As you probably know, the aquarium water at the beach never changes temperature drastically – therefore, fish are used to the temperature always being the same, aside from when the seasons change. When your temperature fluctuates a lot, this can cause stress on your fish and corals, eventually causing death.

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