Freshwater

Chapter 6: Equipment and Other Technical Stuff
Fan-cooled hoods
Fan-cooled hoods have built in fans to make sure that you have optimal temperature
in your tank while providing proper lighting. The fans help to
increase the longevity of the lights as well.
Hanging lighting
You can purchase lights that hang above the tank, which provides one of the
best lighting schemes available. These lights are usually halide, and are suspended
by wires that are usually included with the lights.
Reflective lighting
You can experiment with hanging lights to achieve reflected lighting (lighting
that is bounced off another surface such as a wall or ceiling).
The sky is the limit, so have fun creating new lighting schemes. Make sure
that whatever you do is safe, secure, and provides your fish and plants with
the light they really need.
Hot rodding your aquarium
Hey, we’re fish nerds, and naturally we have a
few toys. Car nerds get expensive hubcaps and
awesome paint jobs, so we get our own little
wish lists, too. In fact we wish we had more of
the equipment on the following list.
Ultraviolet (UV) sterilizers kill parasites and bacteria
in your aquarium water. These units contain
an ultraviolet lamp, which you need to
change two or three times per year. The UV unit
sterilizes non-beneficial bacteria and parasites
(that are harmful to your fish) so that they
cannot reproduce.
They can be expensive, like more than $100.
Beware: Looking at an UV light can damage
your eyes! Be careful when installing this unit!
Pump timers allow you to hook up several
aquarium pumps to the device so that you can
control the output of each to create the type of
low wave patterns you want.
Carbon block CO2 units/fermentation units
release CO2 into your live plant aquarium without
using chambers or any type of bottle gas.
You can set the unit to release the amount you
want. You can also purchase units that use
sealed fermentation canisters to create CO2.
These units have a buffer that protects them
from extreme temperature changes that can
effect the production rate.
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