Aquarium decoration

Most aquarist wants to keep a beautiful aquarium with healthy fishes. An important part in setting up such an aquarium is aquarium decorations. The aquarium decoration gives the fishes places to hide and fills a series of other important functions for the fishes as well as creating a more stimulating landscape for the viewer. In short aquarium decorations have both practical and aesthetical use. There are a large number of different decorations that can be used in aquariums and I thought I should guide you through a few of them.

Many people have preferences regarding what should and should not be used as aquarium decoration. An example is that many believe that one should not use any unnatural objects such as plastic ships as aquarium decoration but you should choose to use whatever you feel like when decorating your aquarium as long as it not harmful to the fish. It’s your aquarium and you should like it not everyone else.

One of the first things you should choose is a background for your aquarium. Aquarium backgrounds can be very cheap or very expensive depending on what kind of look you want and on your budget. The cheapest choice as background in aquarium decoration is simple painting the back of the aquarium. Another cheap option is printed pictures that you attach to the back of your aquarium. On the more exclusive side you have background that are made to look just as a natural landscape and are put inside the aquarium. They are really beautiful, but unfortunately expensive. Other aquarium decorations for the background include mirrors, pieces of cork and much more.

I should no talk about the aquarium decorations you put inside your aquarium and will start with some of the more natural options that exists.

Stone and rocks make excellent aquarium decorations. A commonly ask question is whether you can use stones you found as aquarium decorations and the simple answer is yes. However there are some catches first of you should never use that can effect your pH levels or stones that might contain toxins. One test you could do is drop a weak acid on a stone and se if it reacts. If it does it is properly not suitable for use in aquarium decoration. If your not sure to the answer to those questions its better if you buy your stone to make sure they are suitable. Rocks could be set to create caves which many fishes will appreciate.

There are also fake rocks that look very much like real rocks. They fill the exact same functions as aquarium decoration and you can use whether to use real or fake stone. Fake stones are however normally much more expensive.

Another good source of aquarium decoration is drift wood and mangrove. Rots like these can be very decorative in an aquarium and some fishes require driftwood to thrive even though they might survive without it. Drift wood should only be used as aquarium decoration in aquariums with soft slightly acid water since wood might lower pH levels and the hardness of the water.

Corals and shells should generally be avoided in fresh water aquariums if possible and especially coral since this are dead corals and the collecting of corals can be harmful to the reefs. In marina aquariums on the other hand corals might be an important part to setup an environment your fishes thrive in. And in this case the coral hasn’t been killed and should hopefully live for many years in your aquarium.

Another living aquarium decoration is plants however I will not write about them here but should rather move on to more unnatural aquarium decorations.

And I will start with different kind of glass marbles. Glass marbles can be used as aquarium decoration but should no that they are not a good bottom substrate out of a biological standpoint since it hard for a good bacteria flora to develop. So if you want to use marbles to add some colour to your aquarium you should preferable have another more functional substrate below and just a small layer of marbles on the top.
Treasure chests, skulls, divers and ships in plastic are all suitable as aquarium decoration and even though the opinion about there attractiveness as aquarium decoration might differ many fishes like them as they would any other aquarium decoration. The fish doesn’t care whether it has a plastic skull or a ceramic pot as aquarium decoration. And since they are not harmful there really isn’t anything wrong with them as long as you like them.

Ceramics are excellent aquarium decoration and most ceramic decorations can be used as aquarium decorations as long as that they not have to sharp edges. Be aware however that it might grow algae on it that might be hard to remove once you finish using it as an aquarium decoration.

Even though I personally think that real plant are superior to fake plants as aquarium decorations there are situations when fake plants might be a better choice like for example when you keep plant eating fish. There are a lot of fake plants that look relatively real today and you would be able to create a beautiful aquarium using fake plants if you for whatever reason do not want to use real plants.

This has only been a short intro to a few of all the aquarium decorations that there are out there and new ones like sand waterfalls and underwater light shows are coming out on the market all the time. So make sure that you decorate your aquarium so that you and the fishes like it. The rest is up to you.

 

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