How to Create and Maintain a Minimal-Maintenance Aquarium

13 Easiest Fish to Take Care of in a Low Maintenance Aquarium

The larger the tank, the smaller the chance of mistakes having a huge impact. Use the bucket with the siphoned water to give the filter a good rinse. You’ll need the bucket for the water you’ll be siphoning out during water changes. In low levels, nitrates are not harmful for your fish, but high levels are toxic. Once ammonia and nitrite levels are no longer detectable and you can detect nitrates, it means the cycle is completed. This ammonia is highly toxic for you fish, so what you need to do is perform a fishless cycle.

Understanding Aquarium Salt

Betta fish would also need hideaways, which are easily achievable with the help of a couple of live aquatic plants. This is thanks to their unique labyrinth lungs, which allows them to breathe atmospheric air. For this reason, some people do not see the need for a filter in an aquarium with a Betta fish.

Cleaning Equipment for Maintaining Your Aquarium

• Ensure your filter is clean, and don’t forget to monitor the health of your fish and plants.
• Weekly maintenance tasks involve slightly more hands-on cleaning and water changes to maintain optimal water quality.
• You could possibly skip the heater if the tank doesn’t fall below 70 degrees and goldfish tanks don’t need a heater at all because they are hardy fish.
• You can get tanks as small a 1-gallon all the way up to over 200 gallons.
• However, their solitary lifestyle doesn’t detract from their beauty or the joy they bring to an aquarium.

The Platy is a small, colorful livebearer that can tolerate a wide spectrum of water conditions and is perfect for easy-care aquarium installations. As social fish, Platies are stunning additions to community tanks, and their adaptability to water temperatures (70-80°F) and pH levels (6.8-8.0) makes them an aquarium favorite. Species of platies (platyfish) are great fish to build up your community aquarium with friendly tropical fish.

You can even mix and match some of the fish to create healthy, happy community tanks. Just ensure you do all your research on the needs and care of any fish before you bring it home. Another type of livebearer, Mollies are larger and more full-bodied than the more streamlined Guppy.

To add to their appeal as low-maintenance fish, they are omnivorous and can subsist on a diet of most store-bought fish flakes. Parents need not worry about obtaining specialized food or having to isolate the neon tetras in a separate tank. Their hardiness also makes them resilient against any mistakes that might be made as part of the learning curve. Did you know that 2 million Neon Tetras are sold in the US every month?

Being a cold-water fish, the White Cloud Mountain Minnows can comfortably carry on in an aquarium even if it has no water heater. Having floating plants in the tank will give even more confidence to the fish, which in turn makes their behavior super entertaining. The Lambchop Rasbora fish do not require very soft water, but they do come from a habitat that’s a little on the softer end. These aquarium kits are beginner-friendly and come with almost all the needed equipment to start (except a heater).