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An aquarium works as a wonderful accent feature that can become a star attraction of your home. For many, aquariums inject a sense of calmness and serenity into a space. I feel a little time spent in front of the aquarium reduces stress levels and decreases anxiety. According to vastu and feng shui, an aquarium with fish is effective in attracting good luck and fortune.

Choose a location
Place the aquarium strategically within a common area of your home, such as the living room, dining room or entrance lobby, to ensure maximum visibility. Make sure that the selected position is convenient for aquarium maintenance, feeding the fish and changing the water. Avoid placing the aquarium on a shelf or desk; during maintenance water may splash from the tank onto the table.

Check the size
Aquariums come in a variety of shapes and sizes; they can also be customised into any shape to fit into a particular space. The main concern of an aquarium is that the supporting stand, table or wall-mounted shelf should be able to handle the weight of the aquarium when it is fully filled.

Select the type of fish
One needs to choose mainly between a freshwater aquarium with tropical fish that are cheap and easy to handle and a marine fish aquarium that is very costly and needs to be professionally handled. Although marine fish are more attractive and colourful than tropical fish, they require special care and expertise.

It is best to contact the pet store for some guidance and valuable tips on buying fish. Don’t forget to check how big the selected fish will grow and only mix them with such species of fish as get along with them.

Get the right aquarium equipment
For a good and a healthy aquarium, you have to install equipment such as an aquarium heater to maintain a steady water temperature and a thermometer to constantly monitor the water temperature.
A standard aquarium will require three stages of filtration:

• Mechanical filtration to trap fragments of natural plant leaves and uneaten fish food.
• Chemical filtration to absorb any dissolved pollutants that are present within the water and may contaminate it.
• Biological filtration to decompose the toxic ammonia that is produced by the fish.

 Aquascape the aquarium
Create a beautiful aquascape with gravel, plants and decorations.

First, you need to lay a half-inch bed of gravel that will form the base of the fish tank. Gravel comes in a variety of shapes, colour and sizes; ensure that the gravel selected is safe for the fish.

Next, you can fix artificial plants onto the gravel or introduce natural aqua plants that are sturdy, such as Java fern (Microsorum pteropus), Amazon sword (Echinodorus amazonicus), Brazilian micro sword (Lilaeopsis brasiliensis), water wisteria (Hygrophila difformis) and so on. Live plants help to sustain the ecosystem of the aquarium by changing oxygen and carbon dioxide levels. Artificial lighting is essential and is a must-have to help the growth of these aqua plants.

Now comes the fun part of decorating the aquarium: install eye-catching accessories within the gravel to make your aquarium stand out. These accessories provide the fish with interesting places to hide.