Aquarium 101: What To Know Before You Buy

Aquariums are so awesome to look at (especially when they're in the form of R2D2). You can buy almost any shape you can think of and fill it up with brilliant looking fish.

Then many people will notice their fish are sickly and a few have died. The water is cloudy and there's a build-up of some weird brownish-green stuff. So they give up and the once loved aquarium sits in the basement until it is finally sold in a garage sale or on craigslist.

I started out with a 5 gallon and 5 guppies back in 2005 and guess what? You guessed it, they all died. I wasn't about to give up. I studied for hours on what could have possibly gone wrong. I then got my water tested at PetSmart and there it was. Ammonia poisoning. All I did wrong was skip a water conditioning treatment. So 2 dollars could have prevented the death of 12 bucks worth of fish. What a simple and easily preventable problem.

Don't let this be you! Instead read some basic information on what you need to have a successful aquarium. Here is a great article that gives you the basic run down on having an aquarium: Aquariums for Beginners