盐水水族馆不只是一个家庭项目;they’re living, breathing ecosystems that require more care than simply filling a tank with some water, adding a few plastic trees, and letting your salt water fish inhabit this new, alien landscape. Saltwater aquariums require strategic planning, maintenance, and a passion for life, a natural oceanic wonder, and the love of a caregiver.
水族馆, although they sit somewhere in our own homes, serve as a window into a world unknown to us. And in fact, that’s exactly what makes them such an appealing endeavor. They give us the ability to observe the unobservable, to see into a world that is unique, lively, vibrant, and prosperous. Our oceans hold the true secret to life itself; the crystal clear waters of the Caribbean, the magnificent coral reefs, and the rich waters of the north Atlantic can all exist in your own little ecosystem. However, it’s most certainly up to you to maintain your aquarium, keep it clean, healthy, and safe for your sea creatures, and ensure that your window into the world unknown reveals a habitable ecosystem that allows your sea creatures to flourish as if they were in their natural habitats.
Now, before we get into the right tips and tricks to keep your aquarium clean and ensure that your ecosystem is healthy, let’s take a look at some of the most common mistakes that aquarium builders make when first attempting to create a window into the unknown.
不要夸张你的手
The most important piece of advice we can give you when building your own aquarium is not to overplay your hand – in other words, don’t move too fast. As we mentioned earlier, saltwater aquariums aren’t just a home project that you can simply throw together in a matter of a few hours. It takes time to learn the basics about saltwater tanks, how they function, how to maintain them, and how to provide a habitable space for your sea creatures.
像任何新的努力一样，花点时间了解您要做的事情与这样做一样重要！实际上，在这种特殊情况下，这一点更为重要，因为您现在拥有鱼，珊瑚和海胆的生命。由您确保他们能够在新空间安全地生活。
除了简单地学习如何建立可居住的盐水环境外，确保您不会超负荷系统是关键的第一步。First-time aquarium builders like to see those bright and vibrant saltwater colors that they’re so familiar with right out of the gate, but by cramming too many fish, creatures, seaweed, and coral into your new aquarium all at once, you could find yourself with a big problem.
新坦克综合征
新的坦克综合征是在盐水水族馆中发生的一种情况，在该水族馆中，氨是由含有系统上的生物负荷产生的。盐水水族馆实质上是通过消耗氨的基于氮的细菌群来清理自己，但是当过多的氨开始出现时，亚硝酸盐也会出现在您的水族馆中，并可能威胁到您的整个生态系统。
Being sure to avoid adding fish, plants, and coral too quickly, overfeeding your inhabitants, cleaning up and removing uneaten food from the tank, and general monitoring and maintenance would be the best precautions you could possibly take to avoid New Tank Syndrome.
To start, we’d recommend adding only one to two new livestock at any given time, but only when there is a zero percent measurement of ammonia and nitrite present in your aquarium. From there, it would be best to wait at least 2 weeks before adding any new livestock to your ecosystem, including additional fish, plants, or coral.
In addition, monitor the food intake of your fish throughout that two week period. Be sure to notice any leftover or uneaten food that seems to accumulate at the bottom of the tank, clean it up and remove uneaten foods when necessary, and even consider reducing the amount of food provided during each feeding, or limiting the frequency of feedings to ensure that your fish are healthy and are living with satisfied appetites, but are not overeating or leaving decaying food in their home.
水循环
Water circulation could be a complicated process for new aquarium builders. However, it is a critical process that will ensure the success of your new ecosystem. While there are a number of different filtration and circulation methods to choose from, you need to understand the biological load of your tank prior to choosing the right solution for your specific aquarium.
整个水族馆中的强大水流将有助于增加溶解的氧气，防止粘液和其他类型的藻类的积聚，等等。此外，始终最好确保您的水流通系统受到电涌设备的保护并充分发电，以便即使发生电力故障，您的生态系统也将保持安全和合理。
For example, you could invest in a powerhead, which is an electrical unit that features a sealed motor for full submersion capabilities. Powerheads offer a world of benefits that include water circulation, oxygenation, increasing water quality, enabling the transportation of food to stationary animals, and even stimulating the activities of the animals in your ecosystem.
As a relatively inexpensive water circulation solution, the biggest mistake that many first-time aquarium builders make is avoiding the use of a powerhead. In our opinion, the minor investment is well worth it – especially if you want to see a vibrant and flourishing ecosystem.
So, now that we talked at length about some of the biggest mistakes that first-time aquarium builders make when designing their tanks, let’s take a look at some of the tips and tricks of the trade that we think you’ll find most valuable – especially if you want to establish a clean, healthy, and habitable ecosystem – which we’re certain that you do!
提示＃1：水族馆骑自行车过程
Arguably the very most important aspect of setting up a new aquarium is fully understanding the cycling process, why it’s needed, what it does, and how to move on after you’ve completed the process. Now, luckily for us, the cycling process is almost entirely automated and requires little work on the behalf of the aquarium builder other than a steadfast dedication to waiting, remaining patient, and t rusting the process to do its job.
在本文中，我们讨论了一些损害，试图与尚未完成骑自行车过程的水族馆合作，以及在给定时间，过度喂养和添加太多牲畜的潜在含义以及潜在的含义。例如，除了新坦克综合征的发作。
With that said, let’s take a deeper look at the cycling process.
Nitrogen cycling is a process in which the water in your tank goes through a number of biological changes prior to having any living creatures or entities inhabiting it. The main goal of this process is to ensure that the water in your tank is chemically balanced and prepared to sustain life prior to introducing it. And while we know you’re more than likely super excited to watch your ecosystem develop right before your eyes, we’ll quickly bring up one of those big mistakes that we mentioned earlier – patience!
这个过程非常慢，可能需要几周才能完成。但是，这是一个关键的过程，需要100％确保幸福健康的生态系统。有多种不同的方法可以骑自行车，但我们今天的细节并没有太多细节。取而代之的是，我们会让您尽可能地进行尽职调查，因为请记住 - 了解建造可持续盐水水族馆的努力与实际建立它一样重要！
Tip #2: After Cycling – Your Next Moves
And here it is again – we really can’t overstate how patient you need to be throughout and after the cycling process. Moving slowly is the key towards ensuring a successful startup of your saltwater aquarium. So, once your cycling process is finally complete, it’s time to prepare the newly established biological filter base by increasing the bio-load carefully to ensure that the new bacteria have enough oxygen and food to survive.
As soon as your cycling process is complete, you need to perform a water change, but before you do that, there are a few small, light, and easy housekeeping processes that you should do first. For instance, cleaning off the interior tank walls, removing organic waste that has settled near the bottom of the tank, and being sure that all rock formations are free from organic matter.
完成这些任务后，该更换水了。
Now, we do not necessarily mean that you have to dump out all of the water in your tank and fill it with tap water – quite the contrary! Instead, you’ll be performing a light siphon to remove some old water and make way for new, clean saltwater.
You should perform a 20%-25% water change to ensure that you receive a number of benefits like the replacement of essential sea water trace elements, pH corrections, alkalinity restoration, and the like, and a general overall improvement of the water quality.
Once your tank is refilled and you’ve performed a water change, it’s time to bring patience back into the picture. After you’ve removed all mechanical water filtering materials, cleaning tools, and related components, it’s time to let your system do its job yet again. Now, similar to the cycling process, you would want to wait a few days to allow your system’s filters to clean the water naturally.
But remember, all of this should be doneafterthe cycling process is complete!
Tip #3: Treading Slowly With New Additions
We talked earlier about the damage that can be inflicted on your system when you rush to add livestock without allowing for some ample stabilization time. So, now, let’s talk a bit about the process of adding new additions to your tank – and once again, patience is going to play another major role!
因此,系统运行后几天without any livestock, you’ve given it ample time to stabilize itself, and you’ve performed a 20%-25% water change, it’s time to add some livestock to your tank and begin creating a sustainable saltwater ecosystem.
在添加任何特殊的鱼类或生物之前，最好先添加一些主要的硅藻和大藻类。考虑一下刺痛，绑住的蜗牛，寄居蟹或其他清洁鱼类，以帮助从一开始就可以建立您的生态系统。从那里开始，最好让您的系统重新稳定这些新的生活和呼吸！
After you’ve let your system run for several weeks, and you’ve been sure to carefully monitor wastes, pH, alkalinity, and ammonia and nitrite levels, you can continue making new additions to your ecosystem. And with each new addition, be sure that you test the water daily for any traces of ammonia after each new addition is made.
但是，我们始终建议您在储罐中添加新动物时保持谨慎，因为归根结底，您让系统运行并完成工作的时间越长，从长远来看，它就会越好。允许您的系统在添加之间进行更长的时间运行，从而使细菌成熟并繁殖，这最终将使您的生物过滤器更强大。
Tip #4: Maintenance, Maintenance, & More Maintenance!
虽然我们可以进入深入的提示、技巧和st practices on how to ensure that your saltwater aquarium is clean and that your new ecosystem is healthy, it really all comes down to outlining a clear and simple strategy for maintaining it! Like anything else that you put work into, anything else that undergoes biological and chemical changes, or anything else that deals with living animals, constant maintenance and monitoring is always going to be required to ensure that everything is operating at peak performance, that your living animals are healthy, and that you’re getting the absolute most out of your investment.
为了帮助您开始，请考虑一个最适合您的时间表。不幸的是，我们不一定会推荐维护策略，因为每个水族馆都不同。但是，我们当然可以建议您每周，每两周，每月或更长时间至少进行例行维护和监视 - 但这完全取决于任务！
Things like monitoring the pH levels, ammonia and nitrite levels, routine cleaning, and so on should all be performed more regularly and more frequently than tasks like water changes, new livestock additions, mechanical component maintenance, and so on. At the end of the day, you’ll know best which procedures should be performed more frequently than others.
一切都随着时间而来
We like to believe that time is the best way to learn how to manage, monitor, and maintain your saltwater aquarium. As time progresses, your tank will mature, the bio-filter will mature, and you’ll be in a better position to determine an appropriate maintenance schedule for your unique system because you’ll begin to gain a deeper understanding and an extensive expertise of the intricacies ofyouraquarium.
From there, it’s up to you to develop the proper routine, determine the best monitoring and maintenance methods, and ensure that your aquarium is clean, your ecosystem is healthy and flourishing, and that your system is sustainable for years to come!
Expanding Your System
为了获得奖励，让我们尝试在这里设想未来一分钟。假设您花了一年的时间构建系统。您密切关注我们在文章前面指出的每个初学者的错误，并且您一定会遵循我们上面为您概述的每个提示。到目前为止，您的系统干净，健康并且当然可以宜居，您正在寻找扩展系统。
现在，当我们使用“扩展”一词时，我们不一定指的是新的牲畜添加。取而代之的是，我们谈论的是搬到一个更大的水箱上，带有生命的珊瑚礁，植物生命，甚至先进的照明的更复杂的海景。我们在本文中讨论的所有技巧和窍门仍然对您带来巨大的好处！
Essentially, the basic fundamental processes never change; they just simply increase in scope and scale. And while there will be new considerations that you’ll have to be well-aware of with a larger tank and a larger ecosystem, the best thing we can recommend is that you do your research again, remain just as patient (if not more) than your first aquarium, and be prepared to watch a real ecosystem unfold right before your eyes.
简短回顾
Before we wrap it up and send you on your way towards building your new saltwater aquarium, let’s take a quick look at everything we discussed today. First, here are the mistakes that you最肯定不会做when building you aquarium:
- 不要夸张你的手– Keep it simple, do your research, and learn before doing.
- 新的坦克综合征 - 知道是什么原因导致它，如何避免它以及如何修复它。
- 水循环– Determine the right water circulation/filtration solution that works for your system.
Now, let’s take a look at the tips that we provided to help ensure that your build is successful:
- The Aquarium Cycling Process – Remain patient, complete the process, and don’t add any livestock until it’s complete, you’ve checked all necessary levels, and you’re certain that you can move on.
- After Cycling/Next Moves – Perform a water change and allow new saltwater to stabilize in your system prior to adding livestock.
- Treading Slowly With New Additions – Take time before each new addition to allow your system to stabilize itself and constantly monitor all levels.
- Maintenance, Maintenance, & More Maintenance! – Determine the proper routine maintenance schedule unique to your individual system.
那么，您是否准备好建造自己的盐水水族馆？尽管这些技巧和技巧无疑是一个不错的开始，但请务必进行大量的研究！请记住，每个水族馆都是不同的，每个建筑商都有自己的喜好，没有两条鱼会对新系统做出相同的反应。确保您在行动之前就知道事实是我们可以提供的最简单建议。
So, if you’re ready to give it a shot – go for it and tackle this endeavor head on. Let us know how it turns out, and be sure to ask us any questions that come to mind. We’re always ready to help our fellow aquarium builders ensure that their ecosystems are safe.
