14. Equipment

This is a chapter dedicated to aquarium hardware. This includes the UV units, substrate, pumps, plumbing, heaters and decorations. Each product will have its own article.

There are many myths about equipment, substrates and decorations parroted around social media. Some of these are:

• Since UV units don’t filter, they can’t give crystal-clear water.
• Aquarium UV units require one watt of power for every gallon of aquarium water to kill ich and other tough to kill pathogens.
• Aquarium UV units require decent water residence times in the units to be effective.
• Heaters are absolutely essential to a tropical aquarium.
• Sand or gravel substrates must be stirred to prevent poisonous gas from being produced under anaerobic conditions.
• Substrates will go anaerobic and allow the reduction of nitrates to nitrogen gas to occur.
• Gravel substrates should be frequently cleaned of all the horrid brown gunk that accumulates.
• Limestone rocks (rocks which bubble in vinegar), shells and coral decorations are dangerous as they raise pH too much.
• There are many rocks, crystals and gems found in nature which are toxic to fish so caution must be exercised when adding these materials to an aquarium.
• Never boil rocks as they can explode.
• There are types of driftwood which are toxic to fish.
• One must boil driftwood to get rid of pathogens and pests in the wood.

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ALL these myths are false

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Further Links on Equipment

In addition to filters (covered elsewhere) there are a host of other pieces of equipment used in the aquarium. There are also a host of substrates and decorations used in the aquarium. These are covered in these links:

14.1. UV Sterilizers

14.1.1. UV in More Depth. 

14.1.2. Selecting a UV Unit

14.2. Substrates

14.2.1. Sand

14.2.2. Gravel

14.1.3. Buffering Substrates

14.1.4. “Anaerobic” Substrates

14.3. Rocks

14.4. Lights 

14.5. Piping

14.6. Pumps

14.7. Overflow Devices

14.8. Heaters

14.9. Wavemakers

14.10. Wood

14.12. Silicone Rubbers

14.13. The Cost of Electricity in an Aquarium

14.14. Cleaning Old Aquariums

14.15. Aquarium Aesthetics

And there is one topic which comes up with aquariums frequently,  namely the idea that fish can easily be electrocuted. This is a myth per this link:

14.11 Fish Electrocution

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