Modern Aquarium Volumes

2023 Author: Molly Page | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-27 22:49

Once I had a thirty- liter aquarium, and without any technical devices, apart from the illumination of the most ordinary incandescent light bulb … The quality of the water was maintained by weekly changes of 6-7 liters with fresh one. The small population - macropods and three catfish-corridors - simply ignored fluctuations in hydrochemical indicators, and they cared very little about the oxygen content in the water (macropods, it seems, did not care at all).

If you use technology and, in general, "smart things" that fit the life of a modern aquarist, a thirty-liter aquarium can be turned into comfortable housing for … a motley flock of lush-tailed male guppies (my friend had 20-30 of them in such an aquarium, with round-the-clock aeration), or for several pairs of chalk gourami (these will not require oxygen, but they also like pure water), or for characin "little things", or for zebrafish, etc., although mobile fish prefer to have enough space for swimming, and the behavior of family pairs (in fish with territorial habits) are more interesting to observe in a larger aquarium. The most important thing is that if you are forced to densely populate a small reservoir, go broke on a filter of sufficient power and monitor the quality of the water (one does not exempt from the other!).

Anyone who got acquainted in last year's issues of our newspaper with a series of articles by Igor Sedletsky, a member of the Transatlantic Aquarium Society, is familiar with his opinion that the recommended formula for determining the filter power - from 4 to 6 aquarium volumes per hour - is valid only for aquariums with a capacity of over 100 liters. He writes: “However, serious practice has shown that in a 50-liter aquarium inhabited by fish and plants, a 500-liter filter works flawlessly (that is, 10 volumes per hour.” And further I. Sedletsky recommends taking a filter whose power exceeded the recommended (see the recommendations on the packaging of the filter you like) 3-5 times. Then you really have a chance - if there is good aeration - to keep 50-70 small fish in a fifty-liter aquarium, but why? Unless, of course, we are not talking about special-purpose containers, like growing ones,but about the usual decorative aquarium.

If your baby aquarium is sparsely populated, plants work well in it, fish of not too whimsical species and do not overfeed, food residues are removed in a timely manner, and the water is regularly refreshed - you can follow the recommendations on the package. Or turn into a filter soil placed on a false bottom. I can still hear the voices of hydrophyte lovers: "Plants grow worse in such aquariums"! But look at this through the eyes of a novice aquarist: when my tank was planted with mostly undemanding plants, I would be happy if they grew just a little slower! Otherwise, the green jungle threatened to drive out of the small reservoir and fish, and even water.

Discus. © Photo Irina Bakhareva

Aeration is another important factor. For an aquarium that contains little water and, accordingly, has a small area of its contact with air, aeration is vital: firstly, it increases the above-mentioned contact area, and secondly, it mixes the water by leveling the hydrochemical indicators in different corners of the aquarium. One of the interesting mistakes of an incurious "teapot" from aquaristics: the aquarium is intensively aerated during the day, and at night, the compressor is turned off - while the fish are "sleeping". For some reason, I came across such people quite often and was always touched by their childish joy, when finally someone explained to them that it is necessary to focus on the vital activity of plants rather than fish. During the day, the latter very willingly produce oxygen (the process of photosynthesis is taking place in the light), while at night, in the absence of illumination, photosynthesis is turned off,and the oxygen consumption by the plants themselves remained. Therefore, if aeration is not round-the-clock, then it should be turned on in the dark, at least for 8-10 hours.

Related article Measuring and calculating aquarium volumes

But whatever you say in a hundred liters, you can sit much more comfortably than in thirty. Especially if you use a high performance filter, for example Tetra Brillant Super. There are amateurs who have 100 or more fish in a decorative aquarium of such a capacity, but believe me, this is too much - even if you are not a fan of natural aquariums, you will have ripples in your eyes. However, our reader from Novosibirsk can certainly add 30-40 tails of haracin fines to two scalars. It is even better to use the recommendation of TETRA ichthyologists: for every centimeter of the body length of a peaceful fish, there should be one liter of water. This means that only for the scalar, at least 30 liters should be reserved. And if you take. the average length of an adult small fry is 4-5 cm, then from 14 to 17 fish can claim the rest of the volume, a maximum of 20.

Minorki and lanterns are pleasant fish, one of the favorites of aquarists who breed fish of the haracin family. Their homeland is the Amazon Basin. The fact that the owner of the scalar Lucy chose them gives hope that she wants to create an aquarium like a geographic one. The tastes of these three types are quite similar, and they should not cause much trouble.

The flashlight reaches a length of 4.5-6 cm, a minor - about 4 cm. Like scalars, they vote for aeration, filtration and regular water changes (well, you can't get away from this!). Everyone will be satisfied: the water temperature is 24-26 ° C, the pH is close to neutral.

Source: Newspaper "Cat and Dog"