🐠 Pet Aqua 3-Step Guide

🐟 Planning Your Stock

Before buying fish, use our Stocking Calculator to work out how many fish your tank can hold. Overstocking is the most common cause of water quality problems.

• Start with hardy fish. Danios, Rosy Barbs and Black Widows are good first choices.
• Add fish in small batches. With a week between each batch.
• Research compatibility. Not all fish get along. Ask at Pet Aqua if unsure.
• Consider the adult size of the fish, not the size when you buy them.

🚗 Bringing Fish Home

• Float the sealed bag in the tank for 15-20 minutes to equalise temperature.
• Open the bag and add a small amount of tank water every 2 minutes for 10 minutes. This acclimatises the fish to your water chemistry.
• Net the fish out of the bag and into the tank. Do not pour the bag water into the aquarium.
• Dispose of the bag water down the sink.
• Keep the light off for the first few hours to reduce stress.

🍽 Feeding

Overfeeding causes more problems than underfeeding. Fish always act hungry. That does not mean they need more food.

• Feed once per day. That is enough for most community fish.
• Give only what the fish can eat in 2 minutes. Remove uneaten food with a net.
• Vary the diet. Flakes or pellets as staple, with occasional frozen or live food.
• Skip feeding one day per week. Fish benefit from a rest day.
• Do not feed on the day you add new fish. Let them settle first.

🧪 Continued Use of Water Conditioners

Keep dosing Seachem products during the first weeks after adding fish. The biofilter is still establishing.

• Seachem Stability: Continue dosing daily for the full 7 days after adding fish. Then dose with each water change and when adding new fish.
• Seachem Prime: Add with every water change. If ammonia or nitrite shows on a test, dose Prime every 48 hours until levels return to 0.
• Seachem Pristine: Dose weekly to break down waste and keep water clear. Use the maintenance dose (5ml per 80L).
• Seachem Neutral Regulator: Add with water changes if you are in a hard water area. Dissolve in the new water before adding to the tank.

👀 Checking Your Fish

Spend a few minutes each day watching the fish. Look for signs of trouble early.

• Check all fish are swimming normally. Clamped fins, hiding, or gasping at the surface are warning signs.
• Look for white spots, fungus, or damage to fins. These indicate disease or aggression.
• Check the water is clear. Cloudy water can mean a bacterial bloom or overfeeding.
• Bring a water sample to Pet Aqua for testing during the first month. We test in store for free.

🔄 Water Changes

Regular water changes are the single most important maintenance task. They remove nitrate and replenish minerals.

• Change 20% of the water weekly. This is the Pet Aqua standard.
• Use a gravel cleaner to siphon waste from the substrate during the water change.
• Add Seachem Prime to the new water before it goes in the tank. This removes chlorine and chloramine instantly.
• Match the temperature of the new water to the tank. Cold water shocks fish.
• If in a hard water area, dissolve Seachem Neutral Regulator in the new water before adding it.

🔧 Filter Maintenance

The filter holds the beneficial bacteria that keep your fish alive. Clean it properly or you risk crashing the tank.

• Never clean filter media under tap water. Chlorine kills beneficial bacteria. Always rinse sponges in a bucket of old tank water removed during a water change.
• Squeeze the sponge gently in the old tank water to remove debris. Do not scrub or wring it out aggressively.
• Do not replace all filter media at once. Replace half at a time, keeping some old media to seed the new.
• Clean the filter every 4-6 weeks, or when the flow reduces. Do not clean the filter on the same day as a water change.
• Mechanical pre-filter sponges can be rinsed more often. Biological media should be disturbed as little as possible.
• After cleaning, add a dose of Seachem Stability to replace any bacteria lost.

💡 Lighting and Temperature

• Keep the aquarium light on for 8-10 hours maximum. Use a timer. More than 10 hours promotes algae.
• Do not place the tank near windows. Natural light is uncontrolled and causes algae and temperature swings.
• Check the temperature daily. Most tropical fish need 24-26°C.
• Check the heater weekly. Heaters fail. A failed heater in winter can kill fish quickly.
• Consider a second small heater as backup for valuable fish.

🧪 Regular Water Testing

Test your water weekly. Catching problems early prevents fish deaths.

• Bring a water sample to Pet Aqua for testing. We test in store for free.
• Test for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and pH.
• Ammonia and nitrite should always read 0 in a healthy tank.
• Nitrate should stay below 40ppm. If it rises, increase water change frequency.
• If ammonia or nitrite appear, dose Seachem Prime immediately and do a 20% water change.

🧬 The Nitrogen Cycle Explained

The nitrogen cycle is the biological process that keeps fish alive in an aquarium. Understanding it is the difference between success and failure.

Here is how it works:

Why Beneficial Bacteria Matter

Beneficial bacteria are the engine of a healthy aquarium. Without them, fish die in their own waste.

• Fish produce ammonia through waste and respiration. Ammonia is highly toxic, even at low levels.
• Beneficial bacteria live on surfaces in the filter, gravel, and decorations. They do not live free in the water.
• The bacteria convert ammonia into nitrite (also toxic), then into nitrate (much less harmful).
• Nitrate is removed through regular water changes and absorbed by live plants.
• It takes 4-6 weeks for bacteria colonies to establish naturally. Seachem Stability speeds this up significantly.
• If the bacteria colony is damaged (by cleaning with tap water, medications, or switching off the filter), ammonia and nitrite spike and fish die. This is called "New Tank Syndrome."
• This is why we never clean filter media under tap water, and why we dose Stability after filter cleaning.