frequently asked questions
What's the difference between a tropical freshwater and tropical marine aquarium?
Well, apart from the obvious answer that one is salty and the other not, there is also a question of cost. A tropical marine aquarium, even a fairly basic fish only system, far outweighs the cost of a tropical freshwater system. The other marked difference is of course that tropical marine fish are more attractive than tropical freshwater fish.
What's the difference between a marine fish-only and a marine coral reef setup?
There are many differences between the two; live coral is more sensitive to water quality so therefore a reef system should house fewer fish than a fish-only system. Coral also feeds predominantly on light, so lighting generally needs to be of a higher spectrum. Water quality is paramount to the health and wellbeing of a reef system, consequently you will need more equipment than on a fish only system to keep the water quality high.
If I have a freshwater system do I need plants?
Live plants can look attractive in an aquarium and with appropriate care can flourish. This care can range between simple steps such as correct lighting and liquid plant feeds to more complicated additions such as a carbon dioxide system. Also it's worth noting that a true planted aquarium has very few fish and lots of species of freshwater plants.
How large do I want my aquarium to be?
There is no definitive answer to this question. It may be as big as you can afford in terms of space or cost. Usually the larger the aquarium the better the display, but the more care it will require to maintain it. Also worth considering is the weight of the system (see the weight calculator on our home page)
Do I want a community fish tank or a species fish tank?
A community aquarium is basically a selection of fish that will live together peacefully, this is by far the commonest type of aquarium installation. The other type of aquarium is referred to as a species tank, this simply means a tank set up for one or two species of fish where the environment is artificially created to suit their specific needs.
When I have chosen my type of aquarium can I introduce livestock straight away?
Sadly not. Any type of aquarium needs to run in and be stocked slowly. The running in period for a freshwater tank is a week and then stock slowly over the following four weeks. For a marine aquarium this is a much longer process it can take between four and six weeks to mature to the point of introducing livestock, and the point when it is fully stocked should be a longer process than it is for a freshwater aquarium.