12 mistakes that could RUIN your aquarium

Keeping aquariums can be one of the most satisfying hobbies when things are going well. When things aren't going well, it is super frustrating. Follow along today. I'm gonna cover 12 of the biggest mistakes that I see my clients and customers make. Hopefully this will help you. What up, fish friends? My name is Michael. I own an aquarium cleaning business, and I've worked at plenty of fish stores through the years. I'm basing these 12 issues in today's video off of my past experiences with customers and clients. I know that these are topics that people struggle with or don't even consider when they're buying their first aquarium. So follow along today. Hopefully they help you. If you're a seasoned aquarium keeper, this might not be the video for you. Number one, this truly is the most important thing that so many, so many people seem to struggle with when they first have a fish tank. It's the nitrogen cycle. So I think the biggest issue with this is when people start researching, it's often explained in complicated scientific, biological, and chemical terms. So I'm gonna break it down for you in a really simple way to understand. So basically the nitrogen cycle is just a process that these microbes undergo in your aquarium. The way it works is you have a fish in your tank and it poops. Now that poop gets broken down by microbes, like decomposing microbes, and it produces ammonia as a waste product. Where these beneficial microbes come in is they convert that ammonia to nitrites and then to nitrates. Nitrates are a less harmful waste product and plants can use it as fertilizer. It takes a while for these beneficial microbes to get established in your aquarium, anywhere between two to six weeks. So if you get fish right away before allowing these beneficial microbes to establish a colony in your aquarium, you're gonna have problems with toxic chemicals in your tank. So that ammonia I talked about, that they're converting into nitrates, without these microbes, the ammonia can just build and build and build in your tank. So it's very important to wait. If you get fish before this process happens, you're likely to see death. If you wanna expedite the cycling process, the time in which it takes your tank to establish these colonies, then you can buy a product called Quickstart or Seed. Every company makes a different product which essentially does the same thing. It puts these beneficial bacterias into your tank. The next topic is cleaning your fish tank. Owning a fish tank is fun, but not everyone likes to clean it. Cleaning your tank is super important because it removes a lot of waste compounds from the water column. So really all that happens, besides the fact that your tank isn't fun to look at when you don't clean it, is that these waste compounds build up and it can be toxic to the fish. Some other things to think about is that if you're not cleaning your filter out, it's not gonna be trapping like the suspended particles in the water column. That's gonna make your tank look kind of crummy. And then there's also no point in running a filter if you don't clean it because it's not able to trap any more debris. So make sure you stay on top of cleaning your tank, usually every two to four weeks is a good point for most people. Not doing the research on fish can be a big mistake. It's fun to go to the fish store and see something cool and new and decide that you wanna get it. But in my opinion, you should always have a plan before going into the fish store. I personally don't even like to bring in my credit card because I know I'm gonna go out with more than I planned on. So do a little bit of planning. Think about what type of fish you want in your tank and then go to the store looking for those fish. If you buy fish that aren't compatible, then it's likely that one will outgrow the other and eat it or it will pick on the other. Some fish need to be in schools. They're very shy fish for lack of better words. And if you keep one of them, they'll get lonely, I guess, and stress out and will be susceptible to illness. Some fish actually don't do well when you keep them in groups. Some species will bully other fish of the same species, but be okay living with other types of fish. So it's a very, very dynamic field when you're looking at stocking your tank. And it's important to make sure that all your fish will get along. You can always ask the people at the fish store. They usually know a lot about it and they're happy to advise you on that matter. The next one is getting appropriately sized fish. I know that's pretty similar to doing research on your fish, but I thought I'd put this in as its own category because a lot of people are under this idea or misconception that fish will only grow to the size of the tank. And while that's kind of true, it's not a healthy mindset to be in for your pets. Let's say you buy a little goldfish that could end up growing to be about this big. If you put it in a little tank like this, obviously it's never going to grow to be this big because it's just not physically possible. That doesn't mean that the fish is gonna live a healthy life staying dwarf and stunted. They should all have the opportunity to reach their full size potential. So make sure that you get fish that fit your size aquarium and you're not pushing the boundaries with that at all. Another pro to letting your fish grow out to its full size is it's gonna display all of those vibrant colors and behavioral patterns. Letting them grow to their full potential is such a fun way to enjoy them. If you don't want to buy a big tank, then just keep small fish. There's so many beautiful small fish that are really fun to watch. People love to overfeed their fish. And this can be bad for a few different reasons. The biggest reason that I don't like to see people overfeeding is because it fouls up the water quality. Even if you have all these beneficial bacteria colonies that we talked about, they are probably not gonna be able to handle tons and tons of food. You're gonna get some ammonia spikes and extremely high levels of nitrates, which even large amounts of water changes are gonna have a hard time compensating for. So what exactly does overfeeding look like? If your fish aren't able to eat what you're feeding them in a two minute window and food is falling on the bottom of your tank, going uneaten, getting mold on it, that is overfeeding. Every bit of food that goes in your tank needs to be eaten. Most fish are fine eating once a day and you can even skip a meal once a week. It's pretty good for them to kinda let things flow through their gut and clear out. Another downside to overfeeding besides water quality is fish can get constipated and experience a symptom called bloat. It may sound a little funny, but bloat isn't something that can be resolved by passing gas. Bloat is something that can actually kill fish. So make sure that you're not feeding them so much that they just look fat and obese after every meal. Using the right substrate is extremely important. So if you're just planning on setting up a tank with some plastic decor for some really hardy species, then picking the right substrate isn't as big of a deal. But if you have a specific goal in mind, like you wanna keep live plants, then you need to use substrate that provides those plants with the right type of nutrients. Or if you're doing an African cichlid tank, then it's a good idea to use some sort of substrate that buffers the pH in the tank. You can also think about substrate beyond the water parameter side of things. Like a lot of catfish, Cori catfish, for example, will suck sand up and then spit it through their gills like they filter it that way. And using a really fine sand will allow them to do that. If you have a really coarse, sharp sand, which is hard to see visually, you need to look at it under a microscope or a magnifying lens to see all these jagged angles, but that can essentially get stuck or scrape up the gills of a fish. Or Coris have the little barbells in front and it's such a cute part of watching these fish to have these little whiskers. But if you have them in really sharp sand, it's gonna rip up the whiskers. Make sure that you pick the right type of substrate for the right species of critters that you have. Chasing water parameters is a full-time job. I see a lot of clients struggle trying to achieve exactly the correct pH, GH, KH, nitrates, blah, blah, blah. And that's gonna drive you crazy. So the first thing to note about aquarium water is that it's not static. It's constantly changing. So even if you achieve those perfect parameters right after you test, the next day they could very well be different. It's always good to have some sort of goal with regards to water parameters because we know that fish in the wild live with certain conditions and we wanna replicate that in our tank to some degree, but we're never gonna get it exactly the same. A couple things in particular that I look at are GH and KH because I live somewhere with really soft tap water. I like to add some minerals to the water, GH and KH, to boost that before going into my tank. And that kinda helps to regulate or maintain a stable pH. What I would absolutely advise against is using pH up and pH down. Dropping in chemicals like that is never gonna help you get the exact water parameters you want. So make sure to check out this GH, pH, KH video that covers this topic in extreme detail because it is kinda complicated and not gonna go into that right now. But just something to keep in mind that aim for a ballpark figure, make sure that your water isn't full of pollutants like nitrates and ammonia, but don't beat yourself to death with pH, GH, and KH. Just try and get it close. Quarantining your fish can be a very good thing to do if you are struggling to keep a healthy tank. I'd say that over 95% of the deaths that happen in my clients' tanks happen after buying fish in that first one to two week window. And so even a fish that looks healthy at the store can maybe get sick on the way home or get stressed out. And then when it enters a new tank, the current tank inhabitants are picking on it and it gets even more stressed and develops an illness. And then that illness passes to everyone in the tank. So it's really a terrific idea to have some sort of quarantine or hospital tank. It gives you two weeks or four weeks opportunity to monitor this fish, make sure that it doesn't have any bugs or other issues that could potentially be transmissible to the inhabitants of your tank. Patience. Patience cannot be overestimated when it comes to keeping a fish tank. I've already talked about some things like cycling your tank and then doing the research to find fish. There's so many different parts of the hobby where patience is essential. Watching your fish grow big and mature. When you buy a fish at the store, it's likely gonna be in its juvenile form and not show all the vibrant colors that it will eventually show. When you buy plants, they're gonna be dwarf little stubby things and eventually will grow into big lush colonies of plants. But every component of keeping an aquarium requires patience. What I tell clients when I set them up with a planted tank is this tank isn't gonna come into maturity until roughly six months down the road. So make sure that you get your mind straight and are ready to exercise some patience. Even if you're a really rich person and you're hiring someone to set up your tank, there are some things that money can expedite, but at the end of the day, patience is the only way to achieve that awesome, awesome looking fish tank. A lot of people diving into the hobby think that spending big bucks on all the fancy equipment is gonna help them set up a really nice tank. Truth of the matter is, a lot of that fancy equipment is really hard to use and can kind of backfire on you if you don't know what you're doing. For example, really strong lighting for a planted tank looks good if you know how to balance CO2, nutrients, and lighting, but if you don't do that properly, it's gonna turn into an algae farm. Even using a canister filter or a overflow with the sump can be a little bit challenging for a first time aquarium owner. So I suggest that people just forego all that crazy expensive stuff, buy a used tank or go to one of your big box stores and get one of their kind of all-in-one aquariums and piece things together that way. Once you learn how to use the basic equipment, like a hang-on bag filter or a sponge filter, then it's gonna be a lot easier for you to kind of graduate to the next level. You know how to acclimate your fish, you know how to cycle your tank, you know how to do a lot of the things that I've talked about in this video, and you know what not to do as well. So I really can't stress that enough. I see so many people buy a ton of equipment for their first aquarium, and most of it just sits around. Same with fertilizers. You can spend money buying your iron, your potassium, your calcium, your nitrates, phosphates, all that stuff, or you can get an all-in-one. Oftentimes, there is a long route in aquarium keeping and a short route, and it usually doesn't have to be the complicated way. Buying plants for a tank that's not set up for plants. A lot of people will get a very basic tank and then later on decide that they wanna do plants and just get some and throw them in, and then they don't do well. They start to grow algae or deteriorate. Plants do have needs, and it's not that complicated, but if your tank isn't set up for them, then they're not gonna do well. So just to lay it out for you really, really quickly, there's four basic needs for every plant. One of them is water, and if you got a fish tank, you got that covered already. The other three, light, and so with light, you need to make sure that it's the right type of light, not the stock light that comes with a big box aquarium kit that usually will not do so well. So you can either look at the spectrum or you can go for the color of light. Color's a little bit easier. 6,500 to 7,500 Kelvin is the color range of light that plants grow well in. If you have like an inert gravel, then sticking plants in there is not gonna really provide them with much nutrients, and they're not gonna grow to their full potential, if at all. Basically, you can get some sort of soil or root tabs. You can even use liquid fertilizer to give plants the nutrients they need, but nutrients are absolutely something that plants need. The last thing that plants need is CO2, and CO2 is a little bit controversial, unfortunately, in the aquarium world. Fact of the matter is, plants can get CO2 from fish that are respiring or from the atmosphere when it kind of dissolves or diffuses into the aquarium water. CO2 is absolutely essential for plant growth. Whether or not you buy a cylinder and inject it into your tank, your plants are using CO2 if they're growing. So anyways, that's a quick, quick rundown of what plants need to grow. You can do a ton of research. I'll leave some links to other videos that talk about plant growth. But yeah, gotta do at least a little bit of planning. If you wanna get some plants, don't just willy-nilly throw them in your tank and expect them to do well. If they start to die, then they're gonna rot, decompose, and your tank's gonna start to look dirty. So if you're not prepared to grow plants, that's okay. There's plenty of nice-looking plastic plants or SpongeBob decor, whatever you like. You can even set up a natural-looking tank with fallen leaves, wood, and rocks, and stuff, and not have any plants in there and still get a really cool aesthetic. Last but most certainly not least is don't freak out when things go slightly wrong. Two of the biggest things I see people freak out about are pest snails and algae. So your aquarium initially is just this synthetic box. It's completely sterile. There's no life in there. But then you start to buy some plants and some fish, and before you know it, you got some hitchhikers. Snails and algae. And the funny thing about people freaking out about the snails is that they actually help to control algae. I actually love keeping little hitchhiker snails, bladder snails, or ram's horns in my aquariums because they are such good cleaners, and they're usually the first sign of life in my fish tank. There's no point in getting rid of them. If you have an overabundance of them, chances are that you're overfeeding your tank. And then the other thing, algae. Algae's gonna happen sooner or later. We see all these incredible videos of epic fish tanks online, and people usually aren't zooming into their algae patches, but I guarantee that any of those tanks that have been set up for more than six months are gonna have some signs of algae in them, even if it's very, very minor bits of algae here and there. What did I miss today? Are there any major mistakes that you've made that people should know about? Feel free to share your stories in the comments. I always love hearing about that. Thanks so much for watching. I appreciate your support for this channel. It means a lot to me, because I do put a lot of effort in. If you wanna continue to support my channel, check out some other videos, like, subscribe, all that stuff, all completely free ways to support my channel. Thanks so much. Until next time, see ya.