Test Your Aquarium Knowledge

The history of the aquarium dates back to the 19th century, when the chemist Robert Warington developed the aquarium principle, explaining that plants added to water in a container would give off enough oxygen to support animals. The aquarium craze was launched in early Victorian England by Philip Henry Gosse, who created and stocked the first public aquarium at the London Zoo in 1853, and published the first manual, The Aquarium: An Unveiling of the Wonders of the Deep Sea in 1854. An aquarist owns fish or maintains an aquarium, typically constructed of glass or high-strength acrylic. Aquaria are made of glass or acrylic and come in a variety of shapes and sizes, from small glass bowls to immense public aquariums with otters, dolphins, sharks, penguins, seals, and whales. The aquarium hobby has the strongest following in Europe, Asia, and North America, with an estimated 9.6 million US households owning an aquarium in 1999. Over time, there has been an increasing appreciation of the usefulness of access to an aquarium to provide potential stress reduction and improvement of mood in people observing aquatic life. Glass aquaria are more scratch-resistant than acrylic, while acrylic aquaria are generally stronger than glass, weigh less, and provide temperature insulation. Large aquaria might instead use stronger materials such as fiberglass-reinforced plastics or reinforced concrete. The MacQuarium is an aquarium made from the shell of an Apple Macintosh computer. A kreisel tank is an aquarium shaped like a horizontal cylinder that is designed to hold delicate animals such as jellyfish and newborn seahorses. The biotope aquarium is a popular setup that recreates a specific natural environment, such as a river or a lake.Aquariums: Size, Components, and Maintenance

• Aquariums range in size from small glass bowls to immense public aquaria that house entire ecosystems.

• Small, unfiltered bowl-shaped aquaria are now widely regarded as unsuitable for most fish and should contain at least two forms of filtration: biological and mechanical.

• Aquariums can contain freshwater, brackish water, or saltwater, with saltwater being the most alkaline.

• Home aquarists typically use tap water supplied through their local water supply network to fill their tanks, but this water must be treated with a suitable water conditioner.

• Aquariums must be maintained regularly to ensure that the fish are kept healthy, and this includes daily and weekly maintenance as well as monitoring water conditions.

• Aquariums need to be heated or cooled to maintain a consistent temperature suitable for the particular species of fish that live in the aquarium.

• Water movement can be controlled via aeration from air pumps, powerheads, and careful design of internal water flow.

• The nitrogen cycle is of primary concern to the aquarist and involves managing waste produced by an aquarium's inhabitants, which is metabolized by bacteria known as nitrifiers.

• Nitrite is toxic to fish in high concentrations, but another type of bacteria converts nitrite into nitrate, a less toxic substance.

• Aquatic plants also eliminate nitrogen waste by metabolizing ammonia and nitrate.

• Hobbyist aquaria often do not have sufficient bacteria populations to adequately denitrify waste, so activated carbon filters and biological filters are used to enhance bacterial colonization.

• Fresh water has to be matured before stocking them with fish, and there are three basic approaches to this: the "fishless cycle", the "silent cycle" and "slow growth".Aquarium Management and Classification

• Fishless, silent, and slow growth cycling are methods for establishing a healthy bacterial colony in an aquarium.

• Biofiltration is essential for aquariums, and filters must be cleaned carefully to avoid disturbing the biological balance.

• The biological load, or bioload, should be carefully managed to avoid upsetting the aquarium's equilibrium.

• Aquarists estimate the number of fish that can be kept in an aquarium based on mass and size rather than just length.

• Other factors affecting capacity include differences between fish, oxygen availability, filtration processing, and waste density.

• Aquaria can be classified by salinity, temperature range, species selection, and biotope.

• Public aquariums offer a range of aquatic and semi-aquatic animals, including those too large for home aquariums.

• Virtual aquariums are computer programs that use 3D graphics to reproduce an aquarium on a personal computer.

• Virtual aquariums offer a range of fish and objects that can be added and rearranged.

• Virtual aquariums can also include features that allow the user to interact with the fish and objects.

• Careful management of an aquarium is necessary to maintain the health and well-being of its inhabitants.

• Good filtration, appropriate feeding, and monitoring water quality are essential to keeping an aquarium healthy.