Setting Up An Artificial Aquatic Ecosystem

Creating an artificial ecosystem might sound like a very strange concept but if you really think about it for a moment the best way that you could in your own home set up your very own artificial aquatic ecosystem is by setting up a……. Fish tank!

Yep, a fish tank has everything you need to set up your very own ecosystem and it doesn’t even have to cost a lot of money.

The first tip that you are going to want to consider is that the bigger the fish take you get, the easier it will be to keep clean and healthy. Most people who get a fish tank for the first time make the mistake of getting something small and it becomes unmanageable rather quickly and almost without warning. To avoid making this mistake you want to get something with at least 50-75 gallons of water so that whatever is going into the water is diluted enough to not cause issues to the wildlife you will eventually have inside the fish tank.

When you decide to get a fish tank the first thing you need to understand is if you are getting a fresh water tank or a salt water tank once you’ve made that decision then you can focus your attention to the rest of the details. The first thing you are going to want to do is pick out a tank which you feel comfortable with, most starter tanks come in a sort of rectangle shape and are rather heavy but they have all shapes and sizes to pick from. Just pick one that fits into your homes décor. Then you want to buy rocks, stones, gravel or glass for the bottom of the tank. This in no way really effects the tank ecosystem in any way it’s about aesthetics and hiding the fish’s waste and uneaten food that will fall to the bottom. It makes it a bit difficult to vacuum out the tank later but it’s much nicer to look at. Pick something that you are going to be happy with because once your fish move in it will be hard to move them around to change things in the tank later.

Now, you put in the water, and no matter if it’s fresh water or salt water you need to gain a balance of pH in the water so the fish that you choose will not go into shock when they hit the water in the tank. You do this by buying a pH kit and testing the water until you’ve reached the right levels. I always get an algae eating fish no matter what sort of fish tank that I have had because it helps to keep the fish tank clean and also helps the life of the other fish around it. Once you pick the fish you want and you’ve put them in well then you have your very own aquatic ecosystem because the fish will eat the food, they will make their own air and the algae eater fish will do the rest. It’s a very relaxing and wonderful thing to do for the whole family.