How To Setup a Healthy Marine Aquarium for Your Marine Creatures

How To Setup a Healthy Marine Aquarium for Your Marine Creatures
Clownfishes, like other beautiful marine creatures, demand utmost care from hobbyists as they are highly sensitive creatures. It’s possible to keep your own marine fish happy and healthy in a home aquarium. However, this requires you to be a conscientious and responsible hobbyist by providing a home to the fish that closely simulates their natural environment. Achieving this is a fun but challenging task that demands a good amount of reading up, lots of time and financial commitment, and patience as well as self-restraint. In this article, the first part of 3 series, I’ll briefly cover the theory and basics of the marine ecosystem and the cycling process of a new tank setup. I also highly recommend reading specialized books on the subject and do some Internet research. Basic Overview of the Marine Ecosystem A marine aquarium environment differs greatly from that of a freshwater tank. The former needs to be regulated to be within very narrow parameters to create the ideal composition that marine life demands. The important components of saltwater are: pH, salinity, alkalinity and calcium levels. Saltwater should also be devoid of toxic components such as ammonia, nitrite, nitrates, and phosphates. These components can only be tested with suitable test kits. Marine Filtration System Natural biological filtration occurs when bacteria of various kinds process toxic byproducts that occur in a marine tank into harmless forms. These bacteria inhabit the internal and external surfaces of rocks and inside sand beds. The Nitrogen Cycle In A New Tank Setup. A new tank lacks biological filtration maturity and livestock will perish once toxic waste accumulate within a very short time. It is essential to introduce the nitrogen cycle to build ample bacteria populations first before the tank can house any marine livestock. What is the Nitrogen Cycle