If you are looking to customize your aquarium to be self-cleaning, there are a few considerations you need to make. Cleaning your aquarium is one of the most important things you need to do to maintain the health of your fish collection and ensure your aquarium is constantly looking fresh and clean. Self-cleaning tanks are not necessarily fully self-cleaning, and they will still require some maintenance and upkeep on your part.
No matter what type of aquarium you choose to go with, there will be maintenance involved. Just as you can find dogs that require less exercise, they still need to be taken care of and the same goes for aquariums. You won’t find an aquarium that doesn’t require limited maintenance, and it is important to remember that self-cleaning does not necessarily mean self-maintaining self-cleaning. It just means the water is filtered naturally through the plant life you place within the aquarium.
While some species of fish create more waste than others, there are also certain types of fish you can add to your aquarium that can help keep it clean, free of waste and algae buildup. According to this article, there are some great ideas to keep in mind when choosing your fish and aquarium to be self-cleaning. Building an aquarium is like building a small, self-contained ecosystem in your home and you need to engineer it to meet the requirements you are setting out to achieve.
The idea of a self-cleaning aquarium is a difficult idea for many people to process, as much of the time aquarium upkeep is described as intensive and difficult, but this doesn’t have to be the case. There are ways to ensure that your aquarium upkeep is minimal, and you can let the fish and plant life you choose for your aquarium do the majority of the work.
Self-cleaning aquariums are filtered by plants, with the waste being cleaned by the fish you choose. It is important to remember that the plant life will be doing the majority of the cleaning, and it is also important to remember that these tanks don’t necessarily look like the standard fish tanks, but rather are a unique mixture of plant life and fish life.
Self-cleaning aquariums use the plants to filter the water and remove the majority of the waste from the water supply. You can purchase pre-built self-cleaning tanks, or you can engineer your own if you so choose, the possibilities are endless.
It is important to remember that self-cleaning and no maintenance are two different things. Even if you have a self-cleaning aquarium, you still need to be checking the water quality, and ensuring the habitat is safe for your fish, you can’t just set it and forget it, as this is not a viable option.
Self-cleaning tanks are meant to filter the water and waste through the plant life, leaving you with less cleaning to do manually, but this might not be sufficient to get rid of all the waste. Choosing algae and waste-eating fish in addition to having your water cycle through plant life for cleaning can help reduce the maintenance your tank needs, but will not eliminate the need for maintenance.
Self-cleaning fish tanks are limited in size, and if you are looking at having a grand aquarium display, then you may be a bit disappointed. Self-cleaning tanks are a combination of small tanks that filter waste through plant life whose roots are exposed to the water. IF you want a large aquarium, a self-cleaning tank probably is not the way to go. For a large tank, you would need an immense amount of plant life to sufficiently cycle through the waste produced by a multitude of fish, and this is generally not possible. If you are looking for a smaller tank, with just one or two fish within it, then self-cleaning tanks may be an option for you.
If you are looking for a large or creative aquarium display, you will still definitely need to put in the required maintenance and cleaning. While a self-cleaning tank is a great idea, it is more of a cute way to showcase plants and fish life on a smaller scale. If you are looking for a small-scale aquarium, a self-cleaning one can be a good choice. But if you are looking for a standard aquarium or tropical and want to have a lot of fish, you may want to reconsider this type of aquarium.
Aquariums are ecosystems and the fish within them are living creatures and will always require feeding, cleaning, and care. Don’t bite off more than you can chew by installing a large tank and expecting it to be self-sufficient, as that, unfortunately, is not the case. While you can lower the amount of maintenance in your fish tank, by choosing waste-reducing plants and fish, you will not be able to create a fully self-cleaning and self-maintaining tank, so be prepared to still provide upkeep for your fish and tank for the years to come.