Marine Aquarium Do's and Don'ts for beginners

Written by Doug Kamp


Continued from page 1
The Don’ts •Don’t overfeed. This is most probably one ofrepparttar most common mistakes for a beginner. Fish always appear hungry and it is very tempting to feed them often but this can cause all sorts or problems –repparttar 147492 most common being poor water quality. If nor corrected this can lead to sickness and death of your fish and inverts in a short time. If you are going to very often then ensure you only feed small amounts and that it all gets eaten immediately. Also test your water quality often (eg test ammonia, nitrite and nitrates at least a couple of times a week). •Don’t overstock you tank. This is also one ofrepparttar 147493 most common mistakes for beginners. Tanks can only successfully support a certain amount of life in them and this is based upon a number of factors. Some of these are volume, surface area, aeration, circulation, filtration (mechanical and biological), maturity, quantity and frequency of water changes, flow, number of fish and inverts etc etc. It is better to start slow and small and build your way up. Talk to your local marine aquarium retailer for advice on stocking levels. •Don’t rushrepparttar 147494 maturation of your new aquarium. This is another one ofrepparttar 147495 most common mistakes for beginners. Sea water is a complex living thing. It contains thousands of elements, compounds, minerals and organisms that are all reacting together. When setting up a new aquarium it takes time to mature enough to sustain higher order living animals such as fish and inverts. Generally it can take up to eight weeks forrepparttar 147496 nitrogen cycle to complete andrepparttar 147497 sea water stabilise enough to allow forrepparttar 147498 addition of fish. A good idea is to stick to one or two hardy fish initially and then slowly add more fish over a period of time, allrepparttar 147499 time keeping a very close eye on water conditions. I would be testing daily for pH, salinity (SG), ammonia, nitrites and nitrates during this phase. After six months or so if everything is going all right I would then consider basic, hardy invertebrates such as soft corals, algae’s, shrimps, anemones, star fish, urchins etc. After these have been living successfully for a while (after about one to two years) I would then considerrepparttar 147500 more sensitive inverts such as stony corals, clams etc. •Don’t mix inhabitants (fish or inverts) without some research of your own and/or advice from your local marine aquarium store - they don’t all get on together – even if they look weird or wonderful and you just have to have it! •Don’t change any critical aquarium conditions too drastically - stability is your friend. The main ones include salinity (Specific Gravity or SG), pH and temperature. •Don’t use water from your tap without treating it and testing it. Some local water supplies have unwanted chemicals such as copper (Cu), Iron (Fe), Ammonia (NH4), Nitrites (NO2), Nitrates (NO3) and heavy metals in them. They all have chlorine and chloramines in them and need to be removed before being added torepparttar 147501 aquarium (or even mixing salt in - removerepparttar 147502 chlorine first). •Don’t use fly sprays, air fresheners, incense etc inrepparttar 147503 same room as your fish tanks as they may well poison your inhabitants •Don’t userepparttar 147504 cheap types of hydrometers to measure your Specific Gravity (salinity) as they are inherently inaccurate! These include your common floating type (they quite often also contain a thermometer in them as well) andrepparttar 147505 floating needle types that stick to your glass and a little plastic needle floats inrepparttar 147506 water indicating your SG! These types are also affected by temperature and may be giving an incorrect reading is not used correctly. I findrepparttar 147507 most accurate is a refractometer and they are not too expensive (approx $100) •Don’t use only one powerful heater in your aquarium. It may save you a little money but if it breaks (turns off, or even worse gets stuck on) you could lose everything. Preferably use two smaller heaters so that if one breaks you have a back up and if one gets stuck on it won’t cook your fish. Aboutrepparttar 147508 Author Doug Kamp has been keeping aquariums for 30 years,repparttar 147509 last 15 of those being mainly marine aquariums. Doug isrepparttar 147510 proprietor of Aquariums Online which is an online mail order business based in Perth Australia. This article, and others can be found at www.aquariumsonline.com.au

Doug Kamp has been keeping aquariums for 30 years, the last 15 of those being mainly marine aquariums. Doug is the proprietor of Aquariums Online which is an online mail order business based in Perth Australia


Signs You Might Be A Cat

Written by Michael LaRocca


Continued from page 1

You feel an irresistible urge to get inside a cupboard as soon as it's open and remove any articles of clothing from their hangers.

You love climbing into any drawer that those fools carelessly leave open.

You know how to open an inkjet printer and watchrepparttar black plastic things move, even though you haven't quite been able to bat one yet. But one day, you know you will.

Bug hunt! C'mere Daddy! Bug hunt!

You like it when people knock on your head.

You have an amazing variety of sound effects that cannot be reproduced phonetically.

When you are watching birds outrepparttar 147449 big window, they try to attack you.

You haverepparttar 147450 uncanny ability to vanish whenever you want. And nobody can find you no matter how hard they try, ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!

You can eat allrepparttar 147451 tins you want. All! Just say meow and more food magically appears.

You talk whenever one of your pet humans goes torepparttar 147452 toilet. You feel an obligation to yowl on their behalf, same as you do when using your own facilities, because for some strange reason they lack this ability.

The computer is a friendly animal that purrs when you cuddle it.

You attack funnel web spiders onrepparttar 147453 television screen.

Sometimes you stop talking inrepparttar 147454 middle of a sentence and wash your leg or your naughty bits.

You are always right, no matter how bad you are.



Michael LaRocca's free weekly newsletter, WHO MOVED MY RICE?, is not about cats. It's about his life as an English teacher in Shaoxing, China. But it does include many stories about Picasso, the lovely Calico cat he rescued from the Hong Kong SPCA. http://www.chinarice.org


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