Common Problems in Aquarium

You have finally have your aquarium set up. The fish and plants seem to live in joy. But wait.. a few days later everything turn to disaster..Fish starting to die, those green plants seem like dying, or is it..can't be sure about it.
Here is list of some known mistakes in setting up aquarium and solutions for them.

• Use of chlorinated water. Chlorine is an extremely toxic substance to aquatic inhabitants. 

Symptoms: fish are floating in the surface

Solution: In emergency cases, move your fish to some jar with pure distillate water or any other water that you can be certain do not contain any chlorine or other hazardous material. Provide aeration to the jar and let your fish heal. Do not feed the fish at this point.
Leave the filter on in your tank. Chlorine will be disappear on its own after some time around 24 hour and good water circulation will fasten the process. After 24 hour, the chlorine in the tank water should be gone, and if your fish in the quarantine jar is already healing,  you can safely put them back to the tank.

To avoid future problem,  allow chlorinated water to settle for at least 24 hour in a container before use for the tank. There are also agents sold at pet store to dechlorinate water. With this agent use, you can safely use chlorinate water to your tank. Just make sure you put in the right dosage, usually listed in the product.

•   Mixing different type of fish

There is nothing wrong in putting in different species of fish. However, you must be caution that certain fish are very territorial. Also some fish is very aggresive. Make sure you select the right species that can live along well. 

• Putting in a bunch of fish directly

Buying fish is very exciting. You might want to buy as much as fish your aquarium can hold. But this will cause a burst of ammonia that overcome that capacity of the tank biological filtration system.
It is better to put in the fish gradually.

• Overfeeding

Fish actually does not need to be fed very often. Don't worry about it.  There are a whole lot more fish die due to overfeeding than starving. 

• Overwhelming algae

Green..green..Algae seem to exist in every possible surface in the tank.  You can try to manually remove them but soon they reappear again.
Solution. See if your tank is getting direct sunlight. Direct sunlight will fasten the alga growth in several folds. If possible move your tank to place where it does not exposed by direct sunlight. Also do not leave on the lights in your aquarium all day long. You should cycle the lights on and off periode. There is timer for lights sold in the pet store.
If you are using fertilizor for your plants, use them with great care and not doing it excessively as any excess in nutrient that is not taken by the plants will be used by the algae.