Aquarium 40 liters: how to arrange and what kind of fish can you keep?

The 40 liter aquarium is a milestone in becoming an aquarist. This is the same volume in which you can already try to establish a stable balance for a more or less long time.

An aquarium with a volume of 40 liters can be of various shapes: low, high and narrow, classic, it can be round or even hexagonal.

For a decorative aquarium, a large front wall is important, providing an overview of the entire reservoir. For an aquarium with a volume of 40 liters, the dimensions can be as follows: length 55 cm, then, respectively, the height and width will be 27 cm.

A low aquarium is usually less decorative, but may be more convenient if it needs to be adjusted to fit existing furniture. Low aquariums are often used as spawning reservoirs.

For a 40 l aquarium, the following sizes are preferable: 24, 24, 72 cm.

Sometimes they resort to a special form of the aquarium, the height of which is much higher than the classical one. For a 40-liter reservoir, the proportions can be as follows: with a width of 20 cm, the height is 70 cm, and the length is about 30 cm. Such reservoirs are called wall reservoirs, they are conveniently placed in specially equipped wall niches, often such aquariums serve as a kind of transparent decorative partitions.

These three types of aquariums can usually be purchased ready-made. Nowadays, both hexagonal and prismatic aquariums can be seen, even with a curved front wall. They can look very impressive. And the proportions can be determined by the needs of decorating the interior of a room or office.

For the successful launch and subsequent maintenance of an artificial reservoir with a sustainable ecological system, it is necessary to prepare the appropriate equipment. The standard set of required accessories looks like this:

• compressor;
• heater;
• lamp;
• filter.

The equipment is specially arranged alphabetically, since it is not at all easy to identify the most important components.

However, in the process of starting up a new aquarium, the first step is to mount aeration system. This is not difficult to do. You will need a compressor with a capacity corresponding to the volume of the aquarium. Through a special flexible hose, which can be included in the compressor kit or purchased at the same store, air is supplied to the atomizer, which will also not be difficult to purchase.

The spray is placed at the bottom of the aquarium, the soil is laid out at the same time, and the stones are positioned so as to partially mask the tube that brings air to the spray. The optimal location for the spray is in the center of the aquarium, although this is not essential. Air supply is necessary to saturate water with gases, primarily oxygen and carbon dioxide, which ensure the development of microorganisms in water and soil. In addition, the flow of bubbles creates a movement of water in the aquarium, contributing to an even distribution of all hydrochemical parameters.

Currently there is no need to invent complex electrochemical heaters, as they did half a century ago. In any store with goods for the aquarium, you can purchase a modern, reliable and safe heater, choosing it depending on the required volume.

Heating is not always necessary, you can pick up inhabitants that can completely manage at room temperature, such an aquarium is called cold water. But then the path of tropical exoticism to this reservoir will be closed.

Further, when planting plants it is necessary that the lighting system has been installed... Often, pet stores already sell ready-made lamps built into the decorative cover of an aquarium of standard sizes. The power of the lamps must also be selected in accordance with the size of the reservoir. It is not only the volume of water that is important, but also the depth. Lack of light can cause plant depression. Excessively bright lighting can provoke the growth of green algae, which will gradually reduce the transparency of the glass in the aquarium.

You can get a good result, experimenting with LED strips. The combination of cold and warm white shades mimics daylight, and the additional inclusion of a blue-red ribbon in the backlight system will help saturate the spectrum with the necessary red and purple rays for plants.

Before large inhabitants should appear in the aquarium: fish, snails or crustaceans, the life support system of an artificial reservoir must be supplemented with a filtration system. The filter is usually connected through a special tee to the compressor. The air current, carrying water with it, directs it to the filter elements. They can be different: from a simple foam-rubber filter immersed in the aquarium to a complex external filter, into which water is supplied by an air lift. Wherein the air from the compressor must not be completely directed to the filter. With the help of control valves, it must be divided so that the sprayer continues to function simultaneously with the filter.

The correct selection of equipment will allow not only to start biochemical processes in an artificial reservoir, but also to maintain them at an optimal level with timely care for many years, even in a 40-liter reservoir.

Modern design of aquariums implies maximum imitation of nature.Gone are plastic and ceramic locks, sculptures, colored soil and artificial plants, although they also occur, for example, in aquariums with some goldfish.

All this can be achieved only by carefully considering the interior of the reservoir even before it is filled with water. It is not necessary to completely mask the equipment, because the existence of plants and fish in the aquarium is ensured by the care and skills of the aquarist, and it is still useless to hide it.

One of the design rules remains the zoning of the volume with the help of plants and stones. As a rule, free space is left near the front glass, where the most active and attractive fish will swim. Starting from the middle, the bottom is planted with relatively low, separately growing plants. Long-leaved plants such as Vallisneria will look good along the side walls and around the rear corners.

Abundantly branching bushy plants (elodea, kabomba, hygrophila) are usually located along the back wall. Large plants that require a special soil composition can be placed in small pots, covered with stones, or without masking, closer to the side walls.

Stones can be useful as a material for creating a terrace. This method allows you to distribute the soil without excessive volume replacement, leaving a thin layer where there are no plants and creating a sufficient layer of loose material to form the root system.

If the conditions of a river with a fast current are simulated in the aquarium, which can be achieved by installing a special pump, the plants, in general, may be superfluous, in this case the interior of the aquarium is equipped with stones. In this case, the attention of the observer is completely concentrated on active and mobile fish playing in the jets of an artificial current.

It is impossible not to mention one more type of artificial reservoir - aquarium garden... Plants become the main ones in it, they can be selected according to a geographical (from one region) or ecological (similar habitat) principle. Fish in such a reservoir take a subordinate role and are selected for reasons of benefit for the plants growing in the garden.

Not all fish can be kept in a 40 liter aquarium. Of course, almost any aquarium fish can be settled there, but growing up, some of them, sooner or later, either begin to experience stress and die, or they will try to oust less efficient neighbors, which is why they, too, will most likely die. And also it should be borne in mind that among aquarium fish there are predators and fish with a heightened territorial instinct, showing aggression towards everyone who invades their territory... In a 40-liter pond, these contradictions can lead to serious disappointments.

Peaceful guppies and neons are definitely suitable for such an aquarium. A flock of up to 16 individuals may be optimal. Larger swordtails and mollies will only feel comfortable in the amount of three pieces. A flock of more than 8 mobile Sumatran barbs or zebrafish may be crowded. And a flock of gourami of 3 fish will already be sufficient. For such a volume, two Ancistrus catfish and no more than 4 speckled catfish will be enough.

It will be impossible for goldfish, most cichlids, large catfish to provide comfortable conditions in 40 liters, and the fish planted there at a young age, growing up, will die.

You can learn how to take care of plants in a 40-liter aquarium so that they do not hurt and make you happy, you can learn from the video below.