Decorations

When setting up your aquarium, it is definitely recommended to add decorations. Your
fish will give you hours of viewing pleasure, and the more natural their environment
look, the greater your pleasure will be since they will display a much wider range of
natural behaviors. There are various kinds of suitable and aquarium safe decorations
available. Your choice is limited only by the amount of money you are willing to spend
and the fish species that you keep.
The primary focus when you decorate your aquarium, besides your fish well being, is to
keep all unsightly equipment well hidden. It is therefore nice to have some sort of scenery
at the back of the aquarium. The décor should be used to hide the equipment that you are
using within the aquarium, so that your aquarium takes on a more natural look. You do
not want wires and tubes peeking from all corners. There are several commercial
backdrops that simulate water, plants etc. They are an excellent buys if you are happy
with the look of these. This makes the fish feel more secure and makes your aquarium
look better. Many of the shy fish feel 'exposed' from all sides, if there is nothing covering
them from behind. Another inexpensive and easy solution is to use colored cardboards as
your backdrop. They are not very hard to make, and can be changed as often as you wish.
There are also more expensive backgrounds that you put inside the aquarium and that
simulate real biotopes in a more realistic way. These are stunning but can unfortunate be
rather expensive.
Painting the glass with your favorite shade is a widely used option, but this has to be done
carefully. Make sure that no paint is spilled into the inside of the aquarium since any
traces of paint in the water after the fish come in can be deadly to them. Also, if you do
not spread the paint evenly, light coming in from the back will show up the bad patches.
Changing the paint once you get tired of it is typically more cumbersome than simply
changing a poster backdrop.
Substrate refers to the material that you use at the bottom of your aquarium, like sand,
pebbles etc. This is not only a form of beautiful aquarium decoration; it will also serve
several purposes in your aquarium. There are some aquarists who advocate putting in
little or no substrate at all, while other can’t imagine an aquarium without it. The
substrate has complex physical, chemical and biological significance and helps keep your
aquarium balanced. Some types of substrates will for instance help to buffer your water
and maintain the right pH in your aquarium. Substrates help in anchoring plants and
decorations to the bottom, aid in the filtration process, and act as catalysts for organicprocesses within the aquarium. There are however a lot of aquatic plants that can grow
even without a substrate.
It is best to use non-coated natural color gravel as substrate in your first aquarium. Care
should be taken while selecting the size of the gravel or pebbles. When under gravel
filtration is used, the gravel size should provide for free flow of water. Sand is therefore
not a recommended aquarium decoration, especially not for beginners. Sand particles
being small, reduces water flow and aeration. Take the kind of aquarium and fish you
want to keep into consideration when you choose the gravel for your aquarium. Some
gravel effect the water values and may make it impossible to keep the water conditions
your intended fish want. An example of this is that gravel containing chalk will raise the
pH level, which can be a problem if you want to keep South American fish from acidic
waters.
As mentioned earlier, using sand at the bottom of your aquarium is generally not
recommended. Sand is very tightly packed and can make cleaning up rather tiresome.
Sand can also clog the filters, and pack away large amounts of waste and debris. But, if
you simply love to see sand in your aquarium, you can of course choose sand and spend a
little more time cleaning your aquarium.
Silver sand is the most commonly available type of sand. Though it is cheap, it packs
more and can therefore be difficult to clean. Aquarium sand is slightly larger than silver
sand, but is also about 5 times costlier. Marine sand comes from corals or seashells that
have been crushed. These look good, but may alter the pH balance of your aquarium.
Beach sand is not a safe option for your tropical aquarium. Beach sand has large deposits
of salt that cannot be totally washed off. Beach sand may also have lots of pollutants that
cannot be treated properly.
Certain substances like seashells, limestone and marbles should not be used in a tropical
aquarium if you are a beginner aquarist striving to keep the water chemistry stable. These
substances may dissolve slowly into the water thus gradually altering its pH balance.
How much substrate should you put in? The amount of substrate you will need depends
upon the size of your aquarium and the set up. Planted aquariums will typically need
more substrate than ones without plants. Aquariums without vegetation of one kind or
another are not as common as planted aquariums, but can function very well and are kept
by many aquarist all over the world. A 2-4 inches / 5-10 centimeter thick layer of
substrate is recommended for plants, since this will help them to establish their root
system. Once you calculate the area of your aquarium, it is easy to calculate the volume
of substrate that needs to go in. Simply multiply the area of your aquarium with the
desired height for your substrate.
Decorating your aquarium beautifully is an essential part of setting it up. Firstly, a
decorated aquarium LOOKS great. Secondly, it also helps the fish in various ways. Many
species need small nooks and crannies to hide from larger fish and to breed. Some fishare also very territorial. Familiar rock formations, plants etc provide these with
boundaries and landmarks which they can use territorial borders.