If you need to give gifts to children, or a professional executive working in an office environment, you could consider a natural aquarium of fresh water. The very first criteria is that It got to be easy to maintain, and it has to be attractive and beautiful as this is a very good way to impress the children, or colleagues, and more important, develop their passion to nature and environment.

Here I will show you how to make an aquarium on your own at home, as well as in the clean office environment. Remember that this will be a simple and non-messy setup.

1. Begin with a fish tank; you can use a twenty gallon one for starters. Make sure the glass lid closes properly.

2. Place a layer of coarse gravel about two or three inches thick at the base of the tank. The gravel should be such that you can grow plants in it. Also keep in mind that the gravel color should be as natural as possible and avoid using the bright colored kinds as you are trying to create an environment close to the natural habitat that fish are so used to.

3. Next, put in some plants. Plants that take up a lot of nutrients from the water thwart the growth of algae so make sure you choose ones that grow pretty fast. There is a whole variety of aquarium plants available in the categories of rosette plants, grasses, ferns and stem plants. Pick ones that have a deep color, stems that are firm and well-developed roots. Take out the plants from the pots, split them from the bunch and untangle the roots. Choose different colors and qualities and make sure you plant the taller ones at the rear of the tank while the smaller ones find place at the fore. The roots of the plants should go below the gravel such that the crown of the aquarium plant is in line with the top surface of the gravel.

4. In the case of this small aquarium, you will not require a sturdy filter that will create plenty of turmoil and exchange of oxygen in the water. A tiny filter that can be submerged and can create a light current is just about sufficient.

5. The aquarium plants which go into your tank come from tropical places, so you will also require a submersible heater to maintain the water temperature at about 78 degrees.

6. Now fill the tank with water leaving about three inches at the top.

7. Select tiny fish that don’t destroy your aquatic plants. Some fish like to feast on them. Platies, guppies and tiny tetras like hatchet and Neons are a few kinds of tough fish. In order to keep the algae down to a minimal level in your tank, you could add some ghost shrimp and catfish that eat algae to your aquarium.

8. Put in the florescent light with the full spectrum. The aquatic plants need light to grow.

9. A natural aquarium does not require much maintenance. Trim plants that are overgrown with a large pair of scissors every now and then and change the water every week. This is really optional - and you could easily slower the plant growth (after it has reached your desired design), but lowering the amount of light shined onto the tank. You could easily do so by placing a non-transparent cover (Could be a plastic piece or a water proof thick card board) on the tank.

Why wait? Go ahead to build on to impress!

David
AquaticMagic - Grow Happiness