This is a chapter dedicated to aquarium hardware. This includes the UV units, substrate, pumps, plumbing, heaters and decorations. Each product will have its own article.
There are many myths about equipment, substrates and decorations parroted around social media. Some of these are:
- Since UV units don’t filter, they can’t give crystal-clear water.
- Aquarium UV units require one watt of power for every gallon of aquarium water to kill ich and other tough-to-kill pathogens.
- Aquarium UV units require decent water residence times in the units to be effective.
- Heaters are absolutely essential to a tropical aquarium.
- Sand or gravel substrates must be stirred to prevent poisonous gas from being produced under anaerobic conditions.
- Substrates will go anaerobic and allow the reduction of nitrates to nitrogen gas to occur.
- Gravel substrates should be frequently cleaned of all the horrid brown gunk that accumulates.
- Limestone rocks (rocks that bubble in vinegar), shells and coral decorations are dangerous as they raise pH too much.
- There are many rocks, crystals and gems found in nature which are toxic to fish so caution must be exercised when adding these materials to an aquarium.
- Never boil rocks as they can explode.
- There are types of driftwood that are toxic to fish.
- One must boil driftwood to get rid of pathogens and pests in the wood.
ALL these myths are false
Further Links on Equipment
In addition to filters (covered elsewhere) there are a host of other pieces of equipment used in the aquarium. There are also a host of substrates and decorations used in the aquarium. These are covered in these links:
14.1. UV Sterilizers
14.1.1. UV in More Depth.
14.1.2. Selecting a UV Unit
14.2. Substrates
14.2.1. Sand
14.2.2. Gravel
14.2.3. Buffering Substrates
14.2.4. “Anaerobic” Substrates
14.3. Rocks
14.4. Lights
14.5. Piping
14.6. Pumps
14.7. Overflow Devices
14.8. Heaters
14.9. Wavemakers
14.10. Wood
14.12. Silicone Rubbers
14.13. The Cost of Electricity in an Aquarium
14.14. Cleaning Old Aquariums
14.15. Aquarium Aesthetics
And there is one topic that comes up with aquariums frequently, namely the idea that fish can easily be electrocuted. This is a myth per this link:
14.11 Fish Electrocution
Startpage Aquariumscience
Source: Aquariumscience.org – David Bogert
