Aquarium and Pond Care with EcoBio-Block

Quarantine tank with EcoBio-Stone S

When one of your fish falls ill it may only be a matter of time before the disease spreads to your other tank inhabitants. For this reason it is extremely important for you to keep an eye out for the early symptoms of disease. If you catch the disease early enough you will be able to quarantine the sick fish in a hospital tank to ensure a speedy recovery and to prevent your other fish from falling ill. A hospital tank, or quarantine tank, is a fairly basic set-up and it is generally easy to maintain.

Setting Up the Tank

Because you will usually keep just one fish in the hospital tank at a time it does not need to be large – 10 gallons is a sufficient size. The bottom of the tank should be kept bare of gravel or other substrate to facilitate easy cleaning and to prevent the build-up of disease-harboring bacteria. Do not over-decorate the tank – simply provide a few plants or an overturned terra cotta pot to give your fish places to hide. Hospital tanks have very few requirements other than clean water and adequate filtration but you need to choose wisely when selecting a filter for your tank. Power filters that have a low setting are generally recommended for hospital tanks because they provide both chemical and mechanical filtration without creating a current powerful enough to disturb your sick fish.

Using a Hospital Tank

When you notice the symptoms of disease beginning to manifest in your tank, set up your hospital tank as quickly as possible. Use as much water from the original tank as you can when filling the hospital tank in order to decrease the amount of stress your fish experience in switching tanks. Use an in-tank thermometer to monitor and control the water temperature in the tank and administer whatever medications your fish require on a regular basis.

Other Tips for Hospital Tanks

If you have a large tank with many fish, it may be wise to set up a permanent hospital tank. By doing this you can rest assured that if one of your fish happens to fall ill you will not be putting the rest of your fish at risk by delaying the removal of the sick fish from the tank. A hospital tank can also be used as a quarantine tank when you bring new fish home from the pet store. To prevent the spread of disease you should always quarantine new fish for at least seven days. This will ensure that the new fish do not pass an existing illness on to your other fish.

A quick and easy way to ensure that the water in your hospital tank stays clean and clear is to use an EcoBio-Stone. EcoBio-Stones are made from porous volcanic rock and cement block and they are infused with nutrients and beneficial bacteria designed to keep your tank healthy. Once introduced into your tank, these beneficial bacteria will multiply and work to speed up the nitrogen cycle, keeping your tank water clean and clear. Not only do EcoBi0-Block products help keep your tank healthy, they also reduce the amount of routine maintenance required.

No matter how careful you are in caring for your aquarium fish, the chances are good that you will eventually experience the outbreak of some kind of disease. By acting quickly in setting up and utilizing a hospital tank, however, you can effectively curtail the spread of this disease. Learning how to set up a hospital tank, and then putting that knowledge to use, is a simple way to ensure that your sick fish recover quickly and your other fish do not fall ill.

Aquarium bio-filters

If you are new to the hobby of aquariums, you may have run across the term “biological filtration” quite a few times while you read about and researched your leisure pursuit choice. If that is so, you have probably wondered why biological filtration is important to the health of your freshwater fish. You may already have a biological filter on your freshwater tank. If you have chosen an under-gravel filter or a wet-dry filter, then guess what is filtering your aquarium water? That is right – a biological filter!

Aquarium filters all do the same thing. They have the job of removing any sort of decaying organic matter from the water. This could be leftover fish food, chemicals, live plants that have died, or waste products that are passed by the fish. There are two other types of filters that can be used along with a biological filter. These are mechanical filtration and chemical filtration. Mechanical filtration can be used to keep the water crystal clear. Chemical filtration can help to remove toxins that may be in your tap water, or any form of medication you may have placed in the tank.

Biological filtration can definitely help the aquarium lover keep a well-maintained tank without a lot of effort. With biological filtration, you are introducing bacteria into the tank water. These are friendly bacteria that help to change the waste products produced by the fish into substances that are not as toxic to the fish. Without this type of filtration, no one would be able to keep fish without very frequent water changes, which would be quite time consuming. The toxins would build up in the water otherwise, and your fish would die off, one by one.

One biological filtration product that is effective and easy-to-use is the EcoBio-Block. Simply place a block in your tank, sit back, and watch as your tank water clears up and stays clear. Marvel as you check your tank’s ammonia and nitrate/nitrite levels, and find the amounts are so low that that they are practically non-existent. You will find that the need to vacuum the gravel in the bottom of your tank has lessened considerably.

Your test results will reassure you that those frequent partial water changes are no longer needed for your aquarium. Cycling a new freshwater tank is a breeze with an EcoBio-Block product! This is possibly one of the easiest aquarium products you will ever use. There is no measuring, no mixing of chemicals. All you do is place an EcoBio-Block in your aquarium. They are made to be unobtrusive, and look like actual rocks while they are working for you. One EcoBio-Block can last up to two years before it needs to be replaced.

Instead of buying all sorts of things to clear the water and normalize the water chemistry of your tank, let biological filtration do its thing in your tank! Seeing is believing and once you see the difference in how your aquarium looks, you will understand why biological filtration is important.

Green water is a nasty problem in many aquariums; one day you have a gorgeous, crystal-clear tank and the next day you wake up to an aquarium of opaque green. This condition is caused by a free-floating algae bloom, and it really can go from no problem at all to being able to see absolutely nothing inside the aquarium overnight. So what do you do about it?

As with most things, the best cure is prevention. Green water occurs when an aquarium is overstocked or has too much decaying organic matter in it. This process creates an excess of nitrates and other nutrients that feed the algae. Once all the right environmental factors are in place, the algae takes over quickly and mercilessly. The key is to keep nitrates down and the water parameters healthy for the fish.

You can start by ensuring you’re not over-feeding your fish. A fish in the wild can never be certain where its next meal is coming from, so its metabolism has adapted into that of an opportunistic eater. Healthy fish will always be hungry, so you can not simply feed them until they stop eating. Give your fish just enough that it takes them about two minutes to eat all the food twice a day (three times if you have juveniles); if you see uneaten food get to the bottom, cut back a little.

Next, make sure you have good mechanical filtration and a well-aerated tank. For additional preventative, you can use a time-released water maintenance product such as EcoBio-Block. These blocks last up to two years apiece and ensure that the water in the aquarium stays perfectly balanced by breaking down the toxic ammonia and nitrites from waste and excess food, as well as re-supplying essential minerals in the water as they’re used up by the fish.

Many aquarists believe that direct sunlight is the main cause of green water and this is not true. While direct sunlight should be avoided because of its effects on the water temperature, algae can not bloom without quite a bit of excess nutrients in the water. It is true that algae can not grow without light as well, but the algae requires very little light for its photosynthesis; once it’s started, any tiny bit of natural light that reaches the aquarium will be sufficient to continue its growth.

Live plants are great for helping get rid of excess nitrates and there are many hardy varieties that will use up a lot of the spare nitrates that algae blooms feed on. In most cases you’ll want to keep an eye on the plants so dead pieces can be removed before they start to decay, however this is not a problem if you have an EcoBio-Block or adult P. bridgesii (a type of apple snail commonly sold in pet stores), or “brigs”. Brigs grow to about the size of golf balls, lay their eggs above the water line so population control is easy, and as adults never eat healthy plants. Be certain you have an adult before you introduce it into a planted tank, though, because the juveniles are still able (and very willing!) to eat healthy plants. If you decide on snails, do a little research first. P. canaliculata, or “canas”, can look very similar to brigs if you aren’t familiar with them, and canas grow to the size of a softball and will always have a voracious appetite for live plants.

Regular partial water changes are required to keep the nitrates down and remove organic material from the aquarium. Again, if you have a time-released product such as EcoBio-Block this is not necessary, though occasionally stirring your substrate to get rid of potentially harmful gas pockets and to send organic materials through your mechanical filter is recommended. If the water is kept in pristine condition, you will not have a problem with green water.

Finally, once you have green water it is difficult and time-consuming to get rid of. You can begin by restricting light, even covering the outside of the aquarium with paper to keep additional light out, and do a partial water change to get rid of some of the excess nutrients. Note that the water changes in themselves will do nothing to get rid of the algae, it reproduces quickly and can only be gotten rid of through “starvation”. Cut back your fish’s food and leave the tank light off for the duration of the clearing time. It may take a couple of weeks to clear up.

As soon as the tank is clear, immediately take some of the preventative measures outlined above to avoid re-occurrence. I especially recommend ensuring that you have a good mechanical filter, plenty of aeration to keep beneficial bacteria healthy, and a time-released maintenance product to ensure the water is always as close to perfect as possible.

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