Tropical Fish for Beginners
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AC Tropical Fish (http://www.aquaticcommunity.com) Presents William Berg's Tropical Fish A Beginners Guide Copyright © 2005 William Berg & AC Tropical Fish All materials contained in this e-book are the property of William Berg & AC Tropical Fish (aquaticcommunity.com). The following rules apply to reproduce, modify, distribute or republish materials contained in this book. Aquarium organizations We welcome aquarium organisations to republish printed versions of this e-book if they wish to distribute it to their members. We do however ask that you send a copy to AC Tropical fish and if possible post a link to AC Tropical Fish (http://www.aquaticcommunity.com) on the organizations web site. Contact [email protected] for the address to which to send the copy of the print. Aquarium organisations may not modify the content, alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of content without or written permission. If aquarium organisations wish to give their members a digital copy of the e-book, it must be offered via a link to Ac tropical fish main page or to the download page where each member can download their own copy. Fish stores Fish stores, pet stores and other commercial entities may produce printed copies of this e-book or section thereof as a free service to their customers. You are not allowed to charge the customers for reprints. You may not modify the content, alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of content. Websites and Internet use You may not reproduce any part of this e-book on your website or otherwise online without our permission. If you want to share this e-book with other aquarists, please send them a link to the download page from where they can download their own copy of the e-book. You are also very welcome to post a link to AC Tropical Fish (http://www.aquaticcommunity.com) on your homepage, blog, or in aquarium forums. You may not reproduce, modify, distribute or republish materials contained in this book without our written permission in other situations than those mentioned above. Please contact [email protected] if you would like permission to use the e-book or parts thereof in another way than those described above. Pictures: The pictures used on the front page of this book are public domain or released under the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2. Tropical fish - a beginner's guide Tropical fish - a beginner's guide is made available for free download by AC Tropical Fish (aquaticcommunity.com). By offering this comprehensive guide to successful fish keeping for beginners, we hope to increase the number of happy successful aquarists – and healthy fish! All aquarists are welcomed to download their own free version of Tropical fish - a beginner's guide from our website. And we would like to ask you to help us to spread the word about this guide to all prospective beginner aquarists out there. We are planning for this e-book to be the first in a series of free e-books written to help aquarists give their fish a good home and allow them to get the most out of their hobby. The work on a second book in the series about Betta fish (Siamese fighting fish) has already begun. The future of the series is however partly dependent on the success of the first two books since their will be little meaning for us to devoted the considerable time required to write and edit an e-book like this if no one are interested in reading it. We would therefore like to ask for your help to spread the word of this e-book by linking to it from your blog or homepage and by telling your aquarist friends on forums and your offline friends about the e- book and the fact that it can be downloaded from AC Tropical Fish (aquaticcommunity.com). You can find codes that you can use to link to our site and thereby supporting our work below. You are of course welcome to use any other code to link to us as well. HTML code suitable for blogs and homepages, including Livejournal / Blogspot, MSN Spaces, MySpace, The Facebook and Yahoo 360 / Xanga: <a href=”http://www.aquaticcommunity.com”> Tropical fish – a beginners guide </a> <a href=”http://www.aquaticcommunity.com”> Free Tropical fish e-book </a> BBCode to be used in forums: [url= http://www.aquaticcommunity.com] Tropical fish – a beginners guide [/url] [url= http://www.aquaticcommunity.com] Free Tropical fish e-book [/url] Chapter 1............................................................................................................................. 7 How to set up an aquarium ............................................................................................. 7 Choosing a spot for your aquarium................................................................................. 8 Choosing an aquarium .................................................................................................... 9 Acrylic or Glass Aquarium ......................................................................................... 9 Putting the aquarium in place ....................................................................................... 10 Choosing equipment ..................................................................................................... 10 Lighting..................................................................................................................... 10 Heating...................................................................................................................... 11 Filtration.................................................................................................................... 11 - Mechanical filtration............................................................................................... 11 - Chemical filtration.................................................................................................. 12 - Biological filtration................................................................................................. 12 - Other types of filtration .......................................................................................... 12 Air Pumps ................................................................................................................. 13 Decorations ................................................................................................................... 13 Plants............................................................................................................................. 15 Water test kit................................................................................................................. 16 Setting up the aquarium ................................................................................................ 17 Water chemistry............................................................................................................ 19 Conditioning water........................................................................................................ 21 Cycling.......................................................................................................................... 22 Adding Fish................................................................................................................... 23 Stress in your aquarium ................................................................................................ 26 Water problems and their solutions .............................................................................. 27 Tropical fish aquarium problems.................................................................................. 28 Vacation care for your fish ........................................................................................... 29 Safety ............................................................................................................................ 30 Chapter 2 – Plants ............................................................................................................. 33 Choosing plants for your aquarium............................................................................... 33 Factors that affect plant growth .................................................................................... 35 Water......................................................................................................................... 35 Lighting..................................................................................................................... 36 Substrate.................................................................................................................... 36 Nutrients.................................................................................................................... 37 Filtration.................................................................................................................... 38 Suitable plants for beginners......................................................................................... 38 Caring for plants ........................................................................................................... 39 Propagating plants......................................................................................................... 41 Algae............................................................................................................................. 42 Chapter 3 - Fish................................................................................................................. 44