Fish Tank Facts from Schmeg.com

   

Fish Tank Facts:

Household Cleaning kills fish?
Sorry, this is not an excuse to stop cleaning your house. Just advice on a common fish killer that is used when cleaning.

Do you know what the number one household fish killing cleaner is? Did you guess Windex? If you didn't, you should have! In fact, Windex, right on the front label in big bold print announces that it is filled with fish killer. It says on my bottle "With Ammonia-D". When you "spray" Windex, you effectively put huge amounts of ammonia into the air - the smell in various cleaners is there to hide the caustic ammonia smell. If you have a fish aquarium stop using Windex within 10 metres of your aquarium(s). Indeed, don't use any of the other brands that contain ammonia. Unfortunately, most of the cleaners that don't tell you what they use so many others can kill too. The best is to keep them away from the tank, and if you must use them, turn off the air pumps on the aquarium and make SURE the tank is covered well - perhaps even use a plastic wrap like Seran wrap until all the residual smell has been gone for awhile. The very best cleaner from an aquarium perspective is the widely venerated "vinegar and water". Ideally use distilled water with the vinegar to get the best results on windows.

But I used Windex and my fish didn't die...
Well, that may be true. Indeed, you as a human can ingest some poisons in small dosages and not die, but most of them will harm you. And it is true, Ammonia in very small dosages won't kill fish either after all, your fish create ammonia & it is your bio-filters that convert the ammonia in two steps to the less harmful nitrates. But if the levels of ammonia in your aquarium become "noticeable" - and that is easy using Windex nearby, your fish will be harmed, and they will have trouble breathing, even if it is only a slight problem. And when fish are weakened, they are less resistant to other diseases. So, you may get away with using Windex for a long time, and your fish may survive, but doesn't it make more sense to do whatever you can to keep them as healthy as possible? And besides, vinegar in distilled water does just as good a job as Windex 99% of the time, and it works better than Windex occasionally, so why not use Vinegar in distilled water first, and only use Windex those rare times that it does a better job? Free tip: While I'm at it ... there is still advice in household cleaning books that you should use newspaper to clean the windows with the vinegar and water. This worked fantastic years ago, unfortunately, the ink used in most newspapers today is not as stable as it was years ago (cost cutting measures.) So some (most?) newspaper now leaves black streaks on your windows. It won't hurt the fish, but you might stop using vinegar & water if you also use newspaper at the same time.

All but the ugly ones died...
My oldest and 3rd oldest children (my 2 girls) think that most catfish are ugly. Others like the owners of this company happen to disagree and think that they are very handsom. However, as much as we like them, we know that some people think they are ugly. So why is it that the mature catfish will often be the last ones to die - acting like there is nothing wrong when the other fish are belly up due to the ammonia? Simple. Ammonia kills by preventing the gills from absorbing O2, but many catfish can take (or MUST take) O2 in from gulps of air, and their organs (like their gut) still absorb O2 from air even if there is ammonia in the water.

A different way to quick way to kill most of your fish: Bleach.
Take a sponge. Dip it in dilute bleach. Rinse it out very carefully in well aged (or worse, fresh chlorinated) water until you are sure there is no trace of the bleach left. Now take a piece of the sponge and dip it in your aquarium. Get your net ready to scoop up all the dead fish. Bleach is essentially chlorine. Chlorine kills fish faster than ammonia. It kills in much the same way - the gills can't absorb the O2. And it takes a surprisingly small amount of bleach to kill fish. It is OK to use bleach to sterilize hard objects - like plastic spoons, and then wash them in water, then dry them completely, then use them in the aquarium again, but items like sponges and cloths are extremely difficult to get rid of the bleach. At a minimum, we recommend you completely dry it before using it in the aquarium - after carefully washing it repeatedly, and wash it again before using it. Note: We have never done this "sponge test", we heard about it from an unfortunate experienced aquarium keeper who reported that she was sure she had rinsed the sponge multiple times, but realized too late that she had not risned it enough.

Cleaning Aquarium glass:
We start with plain water, then we use vinegar on a cloth to remove more stubborn stains. The trick is to make sure you don't get the vinegar directly into the tank. Vinegar is a mild acid and it is used in aquariums "on purpose" so a little bit is not going to cause a problem, but you want to make sure that you are putting it in on purpose and not by accident. But the little bit from the fumes (yes humans can smell it easily) isn't going to hurt your fish unless they are already stressed and already at the most acidic they can handle.

Activated Charcoal - a non-renewable resource?
Although in most aquariums we recommend Activated Charcoal not be used continuously, some people have a concern about using Activated Charcoal at all on the grounds that it comes from coal - a generally considered "non-renewable" resource. If that is your concern - fear no more! Activated Charcoal comes from Coconut shell and various other organically grown products as a rule! So, Activated Charcoal really does grow on trees.

Reef tanks: Trickle? DSB? UGF's? Plenum Sand Beds? Bio-Balls? Bio-Wheel? Bio-Bits? What is the best Bio-Filter/Bio-Solution?
Since 1975 we have been studying this debate, starting with literature written in the 1930's on. In 1975 many of the choices above didn't exist - or more correctly, hadn't been thought of or tested back then. You'd think that after a quarter century, we would finally know the best choice.

1970's: In the 1970's the industry as a whole really didn't have a clue. Yes there were a few people that knew some and had good ideas, but as for the books and magazines and people in the aquarium hobby industry as a whole, I think it is safe to say that most of us didn't have a clue how to keep reef tanks and salt tanks going. Indeed, we were only starting to even understand the nitrogen cycle in fresh water let alone marine! UGF's: Undergravel Filters were used without really understanding how they worked. Indeed, it is fair to say that they work in spite of us not because of us.

1980's: In the 1980's it became well known science that ammonia and nitrites kill most vertebrate animals (ie fish). We learned how to use UGF's and Trickle filters with various Bio-Thingies to convert ammonia to nitrite and then nitrite to nitrates. We didn't know what to do with the nitrates or whether they were even a problem. By the end of the 1980's we learned the reasons we didn't want UGF's in marine aquariums. Yes they were better than nothing, but it was known that they were the "worst" of several good choices. But UGF's didn't die a quick death, indeed, even some authors of books written in 2000's seem to be writing using 1970's science - and salesmen in a couple of our local stores apparently haven't read any of the 1980's let alone 1990's or 2000's science. It takes a long time for an old idea to be replaced with a far better choice. In the 1980's the best advice commonly available was Trickle filters, a huge step forward.

1990's: In the 1990's DSB's - Deep Sand Beds - came on the scene as did Plenum based Deep Sand Beds and Bio-Wheels (and continued "best ever bio-thingies for your trickle filter"). The Ph.D. holding grandfather of DSB's insults heavily anyone that suggests any solution other than his DSB's as knowing nothing. By the end of the 1990's the industry had more or less accepted that UGF's were not the way to go (but see my comment in the 1980's section.) Plenum based systems and DSB's are the two heavyweight contenderds, but by 1999, the oldest Plenum based systems are only 6 years old and the oldest DSB's are only 5 years old - both running fine according to their supporters. The debate is hot and heavy. Everyone has agreed that Plenum based systems with shallow sand just don't cut it - and neither do DSB's. Many conclude that since the plenum system doesn't work using shallow sand, it must also fail with deep sand. And, although Trickle filters are still being sold for marine and reef aquariums, it is now accepted by almost everyone that isn't selling them, that trickle filters are best left for freshwater or fish-only-marine and brackish water aquariums. But there is a hint in literature that adding live rock to fish-only-marine is a good idea. And it is still.

2000's: In 2001 a DSB book by the PhD. holding grandfather is scathing to anyone who would consider any other choice. The oldest DSB's are 6 yrs old, Plenum based are 7 yrs old. The industry was extremely interesting in 2002 when the Grandfather of DSB's was making extremely nasty comments in April 2002 about alternate systems.He went so far as to say that anyone without his specific Ph.D. has no right to comment on such systems. Would his arrogance prove to be correct? (Being arrogant doesn't mean you are wrong!) Then in November 2002 he admitted that for the past 2 or 3 years his oldest systems had started to crash badly and finally everything died. It now appears that while he was writing his comments in his 2001 book and other writings and comments, he knew his systems were crashing, but wanted to get published and receive noteriety. It is truly sad when a publishing scientist hides the truth to keep his pet hypothesis alive. However, to save face, ignoring the longer term success of Plenum based systems that he has been bashing for several years, he concludes that no marine system can operate in a closed environment for more than 4 or 5 years the time at which - in 1998/1999 his systems started to crash. Humility and honesty does not appear to be part of Dr. Shimek's repertoire.

Today: Today the current "best" technology, based on scientific tests, is clearly to be "correctly installed Plenum Based systems with sand of the correct texture and depth with a Protien skimmer and a sump for collecting waste to be syphoned out". The most common used is a 4" bed, but depending on the coarseness of the sand, it may need to be thicker to work properly. While it is almost equally easy to create Plenum based systems as DSB's once you understand them properly, what is interesting is that DSB's are "easier" to create correctly if you don't know what you are doing. This means that a "thrown together" DSB is more likely to work for a few years than a "thrown together" plenum system. Marine aquariums, especially reef aquariums, require very careful setup, and there are still a lot of unknowns.

Tommorrow: There are a lot of "unkowns" still. While DSB Plenum based systems deal effectively with Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates and a couple other compounds, there are still plenty of minor compounds that are not fully dealt with. In the future it would not suprise us at all if an alternative to the Plenum based systems turn up that handle all the problems the Plenum based systems did plus some new ones. Remember - the plenum based system replaced trickle filters because, while trickle systems dealt with ammonia & nitrites, plenum based systems dealt with those plus nitrates and a couple other compounds. So it is completely feasible that a new system might handle ammonia, nitrites, nitrates and many other compounds. And just like a Plenum system doesn't work properly with a trickle filter, the new one may or not work with a Plenum. On the other hand, based on current discussions, Plenums are here to stay: One of the ideas being floated right now (Dr. Moe Jr.) is using very specific frequencies of light to "target" specific hardful chemicals and convert them into safe chemicals. If this happens, plenums are here to stay for a long time since they can handle the "high concentration" problems of ammonia, nitrite and nitrate and leave the new technology for these other chemicals. There is at least one other idea floating around that appears interesting - we'll watch and perhaps participate in evaluating it - this idea is nice because it supposedly works for FRESH water too. At this time no one knows whether it will be 5 years, 10 years or longer before this new technology is available for sale.

A quick note for Fresh water: The problem is not as severe for most freshwater because the pH is lower. I know that may be technobabble, but the result is that most filters with a bio-chamber of sorts are adequete for most fresh water systems. There are exceptions (rift lake cichlids, heavily stocked tanks) but certainly the problem is no where near as severe for fresh water fish as it is for salt water fish.

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