how to decorate an aquarium?

Question

i have bought an aquarium at my home. so want to prepare a natural habitat to the fishes as every one does. so wanna know how to decorate it so that the fishes can enjoy its new habitat. will the pebbles and other such things harm the fishes. plz reply me soon. i wanna prepare it soon so that i can finish by the new year day.

Answer 1

Anything you put in it should be made for an aquarium.Wal-Mart and pet stores usually have a good selection of natural looking items to put in your tank. Don't just go outside and start collecting. If you were to accidentally get limestone or something you would kill all of your fish. If you must, any rocks you collect must be smooth river rock. And you will have to completely clean them with a clean toothbrush and hot water and then boil them for about ten minutes. Never use soap.

Answer 2

The tank decor is more for you than for your fish.

Do you like the natural look? If so, get some small brown pebbles (known as gravel). Get a piece of driftwood - Malaysian driftwood sinks, other driftwood may come drilled to a piece of salt rock so it will sink. You can also get some rocks like lava rock or texas holey rock. Do you want live plants? If you have a fluorescent light, you can get live plants such as anubias, amazon sword, vallisnera, java fern, java moss and pennywort.

OR do you prefer the "toy" look? If so, get gravel in your choice of colour. Get one of those castle ornaments...

Really, just around your petstore and browse. Pick out what you like. Don't use anything that you did not get from a petstore, though, and don't paint anything.

Also, do you know to cycle your tank? It is very important. In the wild, and in established tanks, there are nitrifying bacteria that break down toxic ammonia from fish waste and excess food into less toxic nitrates. In a brand new tank, these bacteria don't exist, so any fish in the tank will produce ammonia, which, not being broken down by bacteria, will kill or weaken the fish. So, it is vital to cycle your tank.
There are a few methods. Do you have access to an established tank? These bacteria live in the gravel and in the filter cartridge, so if you can get some from another tank, you can put the bacteria right into your tank (don't let the gravel or filter cartridge dry out). If you do this, in a day or two, your tank will beready for fish.
Another way is to get Bio-Spira. It is the actual live bacteria in a little pouch, and your tank will instantly be ready for fish.http://fishstoretn.com/bio_spira.html

Other methods, which include putting a source of ammonia in the tank and letting the bacteria build up on its own, or putting a fish in and letting the fish produce ammonia (which borders on animal cruelty, because the fish will suffer from the ammonia in the tank), take 2 to 6 weeks before your tank is ready. If you rush that, any fish you buy may die, so try one of the instant methods I mentioned above (bio-spira or gravel from another tank)

Answer 3

The most innovative and rewarding step is to make a seperator,usually glass strips seperated by a small gap,fixed in a frame of glass strips,made to fit inside the tank, about 1.5 inches from the base, This permits the waste to percolate to the bottom and will not cloud the water when the fish move around...the big pebbles and foilage can be planted on this glass seperator.I have used this system and needed to change the water and waste only twice or thrice a year!!

Answer 4

For most fish, 50-75% cover is appropriate. This means that a lot of your tank will be taken up with decorating material, however, this also means that your fish feel that they have never really left their sanctuary, and if the decorations are properly arranged, you will probably be able to better observe even the shiest specimens. Remember, only edges and fringe areas provide good cover; putting a big rock in the tank may fill half of it, but it provides very little cover.

In a freshwater tank, with the exception of a rift lake cichlid tank, or a tank for other particularly hard-water or high pH fish, I recommend that you avoid real shells and coral skeletons, as well as limestone, as these materials will dissolve slowly in the aquarium, increasing the hardness and pH of the water.

Here are some pointers that may be helpful to you:

Put larger plants and decorations toward the back and sides, and shorter things toward the front. This may seem obvious, but there are many tanks set up where juxtaposition of decorations left the majority of the open swimming spaces out of site.
Use taller decorations or plants to obscure aquarium heaters, lift tubes, air lines, and other unattractive necessities of the fish tank.
Use fewer varieties of items to make the tank look more natural. Use groupings of the same type of plants and offset them them with groupings of plants with a different color or texture to create a more appealing space.
Use smaller plants or rocks to hide the edges of castles, volcanos, water wheels, or other resin, ceramic, or plastic decorations to make them look more natural in the tank.
Select one or two "focal" decorations or plants and place them slightly off-center in the tank. Centered items often look forced or awkward.
Don't forget a background. A background provides a dark, or at least solid, wall for the fish, which can help make them more comfortable. A background will also help hide cords, tubes, pipes, and filters that could otherwise detract from the appearance of your aquarium.
Remember that the decoration of the tank is largely for the viewer, and decorate to your tastes. Live plants are not the necessity that they were once believed to be, so if you are not interested in providing the care required for these additional inhabitants of your underwater environment, stick to their artificial counterparts. Many very high quality artificial stones, corals, coral skeletons, shells, logs, and plants are available in todays pet industry, so don't feel that you need to use live plants, real rocks, and real logs to have a natural-looking aquarium. On the other hand, many striking, but obviously artificial, decorations are also available if those better suit your tastes.