Types of Aquariums

You are setting out on the freshwater side of the hobby or why else would you be here…right? This site wll go though the processes to set up your aquarium, but before we go to far into freshwater aquariums lets have a quick glimpse what you may want move into after you mastered the basic freshwater aquarium guide.

The aquarium hobby has three basic systems:

1. Freshwater System
2. Saltwater System
3. Brackish System

The fish, plants, equipment, tanks and management will be different for each type of system. We will discuss over the next few articles a brief overview of each type of set up and give you ideas of initial set up cost, difficultly level, space considerations and availability of speices.
Freshwater Systems

freshwater aquariums are the most commonly practiced hobby and ideal for a beginner for a few reasons:

A freshwater system is not quite as expensive as a saltwater aquarium- Saltwater aquariums require additional equipment and genrally larger tanks.

* Freshwater fish are generally cheaper than marine fish- its always better to work wth less expensive fish an buying exensice fish and lsing them.
* Freshwater fish are generally more ready available from most aquarium shops than the marine fish- Marine fish are more sensitive to water conditions than freshwater fish which can have a more varied water conditions and still survive.
* Generally freshwater fish breed more easily- you may have the opportunity to sell yout fih back to your local fish shop.
* You can have more fish- With the same size tank you can keep more freshwater fish than you could mariine fish.

Freshwater systems can come in two types either tropical or coldwater.
Freshwater Tropical Aquariums

A freshwater tropical aquarium offers huge numbers of variety for both fish and plants and will give you endless ideas for your aquarium. Most tropical fish are easy to keep and very inexpensive which is why they are ideal for the beginner hobbyist. There is plenty of ready available kits for sale at your local fish shop which will include, tank,hood,light,filter and heater but these sets will exclude fish,plants and gravel but can be brought seperately.
Freshwater Coldwater Aquariums

These fish will come from colder waters than there tropical cousins, kits can be brought much alike the tropical kit, but they will not have any heater. Tanks or ponds will need to be larger as the fish are largr and consume more oxygen.

When keeping freshwater coldwater aquariums the room temperature they are kept in is important, as a warm room will heat up the tank. Generally getting fish for this setup is difficult except for goldfishsoyou may have to source though the internet to find the fish you want.
Marine Systems

The saltwater used for these type of aquariums is normally made form combining freshwater and a manufactured salt. A good filtration system is required in marine tanks as the fish require higher oxygen levels and lower ammonia levels.

Its recommended before you start out with saltwater aquariums is that you have basic knowledge with freshwater aquariums, you can actually go straight to saltwater aquariums but they are expensive and a little mistake could put you off aquariums for good.

You may want take a look at Saltwater Aquarium Guide to have a better understanding of whats required.
Brackish Systems

The brackish aquarium is the least popular of the three types of aquariums because they are hard to find at your local fish shop and generally they are more expensive than freshwater fish.The water in a brackish aquarium lies some where between the other two in terms of salt content.

The equipment is the same as a freshwater aquarium system but the plants are different as they need tolerate a brackish system.

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