noob with so.many.questions
These are really general questions about terminology that I've encountered while researching keeping an aquarium. I'm stuck in rural Georgia for a few weeks so I'm trying to get thoroughly familiar with the apparatus of the hobby before I start looking at tanks/equipment/paraphernalia in LA.
I occasionally have read references to "air pumps" as being entirely different from "filters." My understanding of the aquarium filter was that it used some sort of mechanically supplied force to propel water across its various filtration devices - i.e. the bacteria-holding medium, the strainer, and some activated carbon. Under what circumstances does a filter require an extra air pump - or is an air pump useful separately from a filter?
Also: when web sites give their various "minimum tank size" estimates for a given species, does that mean that that volume of water can only hold one individual of that species, or that individuals of that species simply need that much room in general, and that you could put other animals in? Let's say I have a 55g tank and I'm interested in a species that needs at least 30g minimum size. Is it going to be all right to put five minimum tank size 30g individuals in the tank? Or does 2 x 30 = 60 mean that only one can fit in that tank, and any other individuals had better not have a total minimum tank size larger than 25g?
Another more practical less technical question: With sinking pellets, how do you avoid overfeeding bottom dwellers? I've always been a fan of catfish and it was the catfish exhibit at the aquarium that really gave me the bug for keeping an aquarium. I know that you can feed a bunch with flakes and time how long it takes all your animals to scarf up the flakes, but do the bottom dwellers just run up on the pellets and swallow them? Are bottom-dwellers harder to keep? Is it possible to keep bottom dwellers with other animals?
Finally: plants. If I eventually wanted a planted tank, should I start out with living plants and then try to have fish live in the tank? The opposite? Are plants too difficult to keep for a beginning aquarist?
Thanks in advance, and thanks for the warm welcome after my last post.
I occasionally have read references to "air pumps" as being entirely different from "filters." My understanding of the aquarium filter was that it used some sort of mechanically supplied force to propel water across its various filtration devices - i.e. the bacteria-holding medium, the strainer, and some activated carbon. Under what circumstances does a filter require an extra air pump - or is an air pump useful separately from a filter?
Also: when web sites give their various "minimum tank size" estimates for a given species, does that mean that that volume of water can only hold one individual of that species, or that individuals of that species simply need that much room in general, and that you could put other animals in? Let's say I have a 55g tank and I'm interested in a species that needs at least 30g minimum size. Is it going to be all right to put five minimum tank size 30g individuals in the tank? Or does 2 x 30 = 60 mean that only one can fit in that tank, and any other individuals had better not have a total minimum tank size larger than 25g?
Another more practical less technical question: With sinking pellets, how do you avoid overfeeding bottom dwellers? I've always been a fan of catfish and it was the catfish exhibit at the aquarium that really gave me the bug for keeping an aquarium. I know that you can feed a bunch with flakes and time how long it takes all your animals to scarf up the flakes, but do the bottom dwellers just run up on the pellets and swallow them? Are bottom-dwellers harder to keep? Is it possible to keep bottom dwellers with other animals?
Finally: plants. If I eventually wanted a planted tank, should I start out with living plants and then try to have fish live in the tank? The opposite? Are plants too difficult to keep for a beginning aquarist?
Thanks in advance, and thanks for the warm welcome after my last post.